State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara said on November 5 the bank is still having trouble connecting with farmers due to coronavirus-related restrictions.
Speaking to CNBC TV18, Khara said agriculture is a business where people need to get in touch with the farmer. "So this quarter, on the ground, there were still challenges of connecting with farmers due to COVID-19 restrictions," he said.
Khara said out of the Rs 9,000 crore slippage, SBI managed to pull back about Rs 1,000-1,100 crore. "So as and when the situation relaxed a bit, our people could get in touch with farmers and could do the regular renewals, which helped ensure the quality of loan book," he said.
His comments came in the wake of SBI's Q2 earnings. SBI on November 4 registered a significant 51.9 percent year-on-year growth in standalone profit for the September quarter, driven by lower provisions and tax cost, and higher net interest income.
Khara also said the bank is "quite comfortable" in terms of capital and would not consider listing YONO in this financial year.
"We won't list YONO in this financial year. When it comes to capital, we are quite comfortably placed and we recently raised our tier-I and tier-II bonds at very competitive pricing. So not at this point in time, maybe at an opportune time we will come to market for raising capital," Khara said.
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