MUMBAI: State Bank of India, the nation’s largest lender with a business of over Rs 103 trillion, has reported its best-ever standalone quarterly profit of Rs 21,028 crore for the December quarter, registering a growth of 24.5% on-year, and partly aided by a reduction in expenses as well as a Rs 2,200-crore special dividend boost from its IPO-bound mutual fund subsidiary, apart from the boost from a lower bad loan ratio that has fallen to a two decadal low.
The bottomline, which makes the bank the most profitable company in the country for the seventh consecutive quarters (Reliance, which used to be the most profitable firm for long, comes a distant second with a consolidated net of Rs 18,645 crore while the standalone is only Rs 16,507 crore) was also helped by better recoveries and upgrades both help the bank claw back the provisions made earlier into the profit of the reporting quarter.
Addressing the media at the bank’s headquarters here Saturday, chairman CS Setty said, “at Rs 21,028 crore this is the highest-ever quarterly profit booked by the bank, and the quarter also saw the bank’s total business crossing Rs 100 trillion, which Rs 57 trillion are liabilities and Rs 46 trillion are assets taking the total to Rs 103 trillion.”
The net profit was a low Rs 16,891 crore in the corresponding period last year.
On a consolidated basis, SBI posted a 14.08% rise in its profit at Rs 21,876.04 crore for the quarter up from Rs 19,175.35 crore in the corresponding quarter previous financial year. And the consolidated income rose 10.60% to Rs 1,85,648.33 crore from Rs 1,67,853.57 crore.
With the trade deals in place with the US and the EU and three other nations, Setty has given a higher advances guidance at 13-15% for the next quarter up from 11-12% given earlier. This optimism is also driven by an strong uptick in corporate credit which ticked up 13.37% in the reporting quarter and the overall credit growth printing in at 15.14% while overall deposits coming in at 9.02%.
He also guided for an over 3% domestic net interest margin which printed in at 3.12% down 3 bps from a year ago period but up 3 bps sequentially, while the whole bank NIM stood at 2.99% up 3 bps.
Attributing the stellar numbers to an all-round show the chairman said, the bank made more than expected recoveries and upgrades of over Rs 2,000 crore along with a one-time special dividend of Rs 2,200 crore SBI Mutual Funds and over Rs3,400 crore in treasury gains during the quarter.
The key profitability gauge the net interest income (NII), which is the difference between interest earned and interest expended, increased 9% to Rs 45,190 crore up from Rs 41,445 crore and the total income rose 9.7% to Rs 1,40,914.65 crore from Rs 1,28,467.39 crore in the same quarter last year.
Setty said the bank has had its best asset quality in two decades, with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) declining by 12.7% to Rs 73,636.8 crore or 1.57% of total assets, down by 50 bps from 2.07% a year ago or from Rs 84,360 crore in the December 2025 quarter, and net NPAs declining 15.74% to Rs 18,012 crore or 0.39%, down 14 bps from 0.53% or Rs 21,378 crore a year ago.
Provisions for the quarter stood at Rs 3,216 crore, from Rs 2,305 crore a year ago but sharply down from sequentially when the bank set said Rs 4,132 crore.
On the other hand credit cost rose by 5 bps to 0.29% on year but improved by 10 bps sequentially and the slippage ratio remained contained at 0.40.
Overall capital adequacy stood at 14.04% with the core buffer at 10.99%.
Deposits and advances crossed the Rs 57 trillion and Rs 46 trillion, respectively while whole bank advances grew at 15.14% with domestic advances rising by 15.44%.
Gross advanced saw a healthy 15.14% rise to Rs 46,83,508 crore and domestic corporate advances rose by 13.37% to Rs 13,33,564 crore, while domestic retail personal saw a 14.95% growth to Rs 16,63,759 crore.
The low-cost Casa ratio declined by 7 bps to 39.13.