SBI group requires Rs 1 lakh crore to meet Basel-III norms

Chennai & Mumbai, September 7: The State Bank of India and its associates and subsidiaries will require around Rs 1 lakh crore of capital over the next five years to meet Basel III norms (in addition to retained earnings).  Diwakar Gupta, Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of SBI, told Business Line this was based on a 20 per cent growth rate, and a return on equity of between 18 and 20 per cent. He conceded that the estimate could vary since growth rates during the last year as well as current year are lower.
The RBI estimates that Indian banks would need about Rs 5 lakh crore in the next five years to get ready for Basel-III norms that will be effective from 2018. The norms, developed in the backdrop of the global crisis in 2008, impose higher capital prescriptions on banks to cater to various risks.
Asked about the capital that the bank would receive from the government in the current year, Gupta said, “The number being bandied about in the press is closer to Rs 4,000 crore. We are reasonably comfortable with capital. Rs 4,000 crore will see that we don’t breach anything.”
SBI received Rs 7,900 crore infusion from the government last fiscal. He said, “We don’t need further capital under Basel III all the way up to 2015. Counter-cyclical buffer introduction may require capital beyond 2015. The extra 2.5 per cent will come up in 4 tranches and the fiscal 2015 may require a little capital.”

Capital conservation
Gupta also said that the bank would continue with its capital conservation strategy (routing SME, export credit through guarantee schemes thereby reducing the credit risk on such assets and also lowering the capital requirement on the loans). The measures had contributed to a 62 basis point rise in the tier-1 ratio of capital last fiscal (one basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point). SBI had a capital adequacy ratio of 13.8 as of June with tier-1 ratio at 9.8 per cent.
He added, “We will try a couple of other levers, but by and large we will improve the integrity around our data and around our ratings better. We clawed back 91 basis points totally last time. Hopefully this year, we will do another 25- 30 basis points based on the same parameters.”

Rating agencies
Asked if the improvement in capital ratio would warrant a ratings upgrade by rating agencies, Gupta said, “It is very hard to say. Our stock is taking a beating. In the short term, markets reflect the mood more than the basics and I think that is the case for rating as well. Asset quality is a problem for all banks and therefore the rating agencies are well within their rights to say that there is enough stress to warrant a ratings revision. But another big item that they said affected the ratings was the inability of State Bank to raise capital at will. Now this has not changed since 1955. Why suddenly that should become an important factor while re-considering a rating? I think it is more a factor of perception than fact. We will, of course, ask the rating agencies to review our performance which is quite strong.”
Gupta said that SBI was delivering the second largest corporate profit in the country and was the largest taxpayer. “That is something the rating agency should also look at,” he added.

SBI, BoI allowed to operate in Pak

India and Pakistan have agreed to allow two banks each from both the countries to set up branches across the border, Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, Yaseen Anwar said on Wednesday.
“We have held discussions with the Reserve Bank of India and both sides have agreed to issue a full banking licence to two banks of each country,” Anwar told PTI on the sidelines of a conference organised by Institute of South Asian Studies.
The two Indian banks that will be allowed to operate in Pakistan are State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of India (BoI). On the other hand, quasi-state owned National Bank of Pakistan and privately-owned United Bank Ltd will be running full-banking operations across the border, once licensed by India. “It will take few months to approve Indian banks’ licences on receiving them,” he said. “We are ready to go tomorrow to India” to set up banking operations, Anwar said.
Discussions have been held with RBI Governor D Subbarao to issue banking licences, he said, adding that the process will help normalise trade relations between India and Pakistan. Officials from the Bank of India in Singapore recently visited Karachi for setting up an office in Pakistan, said Syed Hasan Javed, Pakistan High Commissioner to Singapore.

NPAs and bad loans have returned to haunt banks

Mumbai, August 11: India‘s biggest bank, SBI, announced quarterly results earlier this week and the share price tanked. While the bank announced a big jump in net profit, its non-performing assets also rose sharply, confirming that weak growth and slowdown in key sectors such as power and steel were continuing to hit banks.

The fortunes of banks are now more closely entwined with that of big business than before. Loans to top corporate groups account for a significant chunk of all debt. Weak growth, both in India and globally, means the bad loan problem, never far from the agenda, has returned to haunt India‘s banks. And predictably once again, the brunt will be borne by the public sector banks.

SBI‘s non-performing loans, which are a bellwether for the entire sector, were Rs 20,324 crore or 2.22% of total loans (after provisions) for the latest quarter. That might not seem much, but that number was 1.6% a year ago. Many analysts expect worse to come over the next few quarters as corporate India, hit hard by slowing domestic and global growth, feels the pinch.

Sector-specific problems such as the difficulties faced by power plants in gaining access to fuel will also play a significant role since a big chunk of non-performing assets are expected to come from infrastructure. The fortunes of India‘s banks are now more tightly entwined with that of a few big corporate groups which now make up a significant chunk of total loans.

Not all these loans have turned bad, but if slow growth and infrastructure problems remain, then expect a large chunk of these loans to weigh significantly on banks’ books.

ET presents data on the exposure of Indian banks to the biggest corporate groups, based on a report by investment bank Credit Suisse.

They now account for 13% of total loans, up from just 6% five years ago. Indian banks are now reliant for their financial health on a small group of top borrowers….

According to Credit Suisse, “all banks appear to have high exposure to the same select few groups”. Also, most of the investments by these groups are in the same set of sectors – especially power and metals.

These 10 groups account for 70% of private sector power capacity likely to come up by 2016-17.

Coming clean on NPAs

A Reserve Bank of India (RBI)-appointed panel has rightly recommended that all bank loans being subject to ‘restructuring’ be classified as non-performing assets (NPA). Currently, such loans are treated as ‘standard’, even when the terms of their restructuring involve banks taking a hit, whether through reduction in interest rates, elongation of repayment period, part waiver of principal or interest, and so on. Whichever way one sees it, restructuring entails borrowers being granted concessions that the banks would not otherwise even consider. Moreover, not treating these loans for what they are — in practical terms, their performance is nothing but ‘sub-standard’ — makes no sense when the amounts involved are not small either. Between March 2009 and March 2011, the gross NPAs of Indian banks rose from around Rs 68,000 crore to Rs 94,000 crore. But restructured advances, technically regarded as ‘standard’, soared even more from just over Rs 60,000 crore...

Foreign investors lap up SBI dollar bonds

Mumbai, July 26: The country’s largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), has raised $1.25 billion from investors abroad at 4.125 per cent, for five years. This was the second largest single tranche bond sale that garnered overwhelming response, despite recent concerns expressed by international credit rating agencies on the country’s economy.

SBI’s dollar-denominated bonds were subscribed 5.4 times. They got $6.8 billion from around 350 accounts spread over Asian, European and US investors. The lead managers to the issue were Deutsche Bank, Citibank, Barclays, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan and UBS.

In 2010, SBI had raised $1 billion for five years at 4.5 per cent.

“This issuance has certainly provided a window of opportunity to other high-quality Indian issuers to tap the international bond markets,” said Rajiv Nayar, head of capital markets origination at Citi India. He said the SBI notes were priced at the lowest ever coupon...