SBI’s Q1 net rises 10% to Rs 21k cr on strong treasury, forex gains

MUMBAI: State Bank of India reported a 9.7% year-on-year rise in consolidated Q1 FY26 profit to Rs 21,201 crore, driven by robust treasury and forex income. Standalone net profit increased to Rs 19,160 crore from Rs 17,035 crore that was recorded a year earlier.Advances grew 11.6% YoY, but core net interest income slipped 0.1% to Rs 41,072 crore as net interest margin contracted 33 bps to 3% due to RBI rate cuts and delayed deposit repricing. Chairman C S Setty said NIMs will follow “a U-shaped trajectory… probably moderate in Q1 and Q2… (and) come back to what we had at the Q4 level of last year”, while aiming for 3% on an annual basis.Non-interest income surged 55% to Rs 17,346 crore, led by a 352% jump in forex income to Rs 1,632 crore and a 144% rise in profit on sale of investments to Rs 6,326 crore. Operating expenses rose 7.9% to Rs 27,874 crore.The bank maintained its FY26 loan growth guidance at 12% and deposit growth at 10%, with Q1 showing corporate advances up 5.7%, domestic retail up 12.6% and the overseas book up 14%. “I believe we are still thinking that, and I am hopeful that we will be coming back to double-digit growth in the corporate markets,” Setty said, citing a strong project finance pipeline and easing uncertainties. Large corporate and mid-corporate balance sheets are “very robust” and “much better positioned today than they were seven or eight years ago”.Asset quality remained stable with “no concern on the slippages” and continued strength in retail personal loans. Home loans “will continue to have a robust growth rate”, gold loans are “doing extremely well because of gold prices” and unsecured personal loans, or Express Credit, are “very safe” and seeing growth return.