Corporate credit demand rising: SBI

New Delhi: State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara has said there is a growing demand for credit from the corporate sector and loans worth Rs5 lakh crore are in the pipeline.Unlike the past few years, when the corporates had sufficient cash surplus on their balance sheet, they have started looking for credit to fund working capital requirements and capacity expansion, he told in an interview.

“Now, we have come to a stage where they (corporates) have started approaching banks for augmenting their capacity or for working capital purposes. Of course, this I can say with confidence because when we look at our unavailed term loan percentage, it has come down from 25 per cent to 18 per cent and when we see the working capital utilisation, even that has improved,” he said.

So, all these are confirming that private sector opportunities are going to be there and SBI will be in a position to create value for the sector, he said.

At the same time, he said, “when we look at our pipeline for the new proposals that is also quite healthy, somewhere around Rs5 trillion or so”. With regard to Retail Agriculture and MSME (RAM) lending, Khara said, SBI can grow the book at 16 per cent during this year as well despite the high interest rate. SBI reported a 16 per cent growth rate in RAM to about Rs21 lakh crore during FY24.

Emphasising that the bank has a very elaborate process of assessing the risk and underwriting RAM, he said that the current book looks pretty good.