State Bank India's Unsecured Lending To See Moderation After RBI's Tightening: Chairman

SBI Chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara on Wednesday said there will be "moderation" in the bank's unsecured lending portfolio following the Reserve Bank of India's tightening of norms. He said the impact of higher risk weights will have a 0.02-0.03 per cent impact on its net interest margins in the December quarter, but a better picture will emerge in the next quarter.

"Whatever we were doing, we will continue to do, but there will be a moderation," Khara told reporters on the sidelines of a FIBAC event here, when asked about the RBI's tightening of norms. After asking lenders to be cautious, the RBI increased risk weights on unsecured lending for banks as well as non-banks earlier this month.

The RBI has asked lenders to allocate more funds against each risky loan that will result in higher buffers in case of any stress. The move also means personal loans and credit card borrowings will become dearer. Khara said interest rates on such loans will also go up as the cost of funds goes up, pointing out that there will be a capital cost that will have to be borne by the bank because of the new norms.

About any possible change in risk perceptions, Khara said there will not be any change from a diligence perspective and that its norms were already "robust". He said the bank's gross non-performing assets from unsecured loans portfolio stands at 0.70 per cent. Earlier this month, Khara said the bank is not concerned with its unsecured loan portfolio and attributed the strong performance of the portfolio to its strategy of lending to salary account customers or those working for well-rated corporates.

(PTI)