Adapting to Change
Rapid digitisation and scaling up of non-banking businesses, from cards to insurance and MFs to YONO, have helped SBI transform itself
Dinesh Kumar Khara, Chairman, State Bank of India
A week ago, Dinesh Kumar Khara, 59, the new Chairman of India s largest bank, State Bank of India (SBI), had said the elephant is ready to dance . Khara s optimism shows up in the bank s stock market performance where its share price doubled since he took charge in October 2020.
The reasons are a greater control over asset quality deterioration, robust base of low-cost deposits, retail banking acceleration in mortgages and institutional set-up for housing loans gone bad and financing long-term infrastructure projects. Also, the bank s subsidiaries are already firing on all cylinders. Be it SBI Cards or SBI Life, the higher market valuations indicate the future scaling-up of these businesses.