November 5, 2025

State Bank of India (SBI) rocked the finance world by reporting a whopping 10% jump in its profit for the second quarter of the fiscal year 2025, reaching ₹20,160 crore. This dazzling result beat expert predictions that expected a small profit drop. The secret sauce? Huge demand for loans in retail, agriculture, and MSME sectors, plus a golden profit from selling part of its stake in Yes Bank. In Q2 of the previous year, SBI earned ₹18,331 crore, so this quarter’s profit shows quick growth. Analysts, who guessed profits might fall to ₹17,523 crore, were left wide-eyed. The bank’s RAM advances — that means loans to Retail, Agriculture, and Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises — climbed 15% year-on-year, crossing an eye-popping ₹25 lakh crore. Loans to small and medium enterprises shot up by 19%, while retail and agriculture loans grew by 14% each. Chairman CS Setty is feeling optimistic and has raised SBI’s loan growth forecast for the year from 11-12% to a spicy 12-14%. He said, “The enablers both from the fiscal side (GST cut) as well as RBI (rate cuts) will give sustained opportunity to grow in the RAM portfolio....We have seen an improvement in consumer demand particularly after the GST cuts especially in sectors like auto loans where we have gained market share...we will also grow our Xpress credit (personal loan) portfolio in double digits.” Adding more sparkle, SBI made a neat profit of ₹4,593 crore from selling a 13.18% stake in Yes Bank to Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). Despite a modest 3% rise in Net Interest Income (₹42,984 crore) due to rate changes that squeezed margins, the bank’s health remained solid. The Net Interest Margin dipped slightly to 2.97% from 3.14% last year. Asset quality is also on the up, with net non-performing assets (NPAs) falling to 0.42% from 0.53%, showing SBI is managing its loans prudently. Though SBI still holds about 10% of Yes Bank, it proudly played a major role in rescuing and restructuring the bank in 2020. This quarter was special for SBI as total assets and deposits crossed ₹100 lakh crore — a giant leap! Setty laid out big dreams: “If we want to become a top 10 among global banks in assets, we still have a long way to go. We have consistently maintained our total business at 20% of GDP and we aim to increase it to 25% of GDP.” Corporate loans rose 7% year-on-year, with the bank seeing a strong pipeline worth over ₹7 lakh crore ready for approval and disbursement. Ashwini Tewari, head of corporate banking, shared the bright outlook for credit demand. Setty also welcomed collaboration with other banks for merger and acquisition financing. “We know the corporates, we have always been doing outbound deals. We do not mind collaborating with others,” he said, adding that they will plan after RBI provides guidelines. SBI is clearly gearing up to become a bigger, bolder banking giant!

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Tags: State bank of india, Sbi Q2 Profit, Loan growth, Yes Bank Stake, Retail Advances, Corporate loans,