State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, has prepared a three-year schedule for raising the share of its international business in the balance sheet to 25 per cent from 18 per cent at present.
Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya told Business Standard: “International operations should actually give us a risk diversification.
"Meaning, it should not be doing only Indian business, sitting at a foreign centre.
"Of course, it is our strength and we would continue to do part of that but we are now trying to localise as much as possible.”
It is participating in syndications for local business and signing master risk participation agreements.
When one country in the International Business Group portfolio is not doing well, the rest should be able to take up that slack, she said.
“The focus is on getting more local good-quality assets.
"We are looking at working closely with local big banks, with whom we have relationships, to get that business.”
One step is hiring more local talent.
SBI’s number of foreign offices increased from 186 in March 2013 to 190 in March 2014, in 36 countries.
The offices include 52 branches, eight representative offices, 110 offices of the seven foreign banking subsidiaries and 20 other offices.
During 2013-14, it forayed into two new countries -- in Botswana (Africa) by establishing a subsidiary and in South Korea by opening a representative office.
Another SBI executive said along with growing the share in the total asset base, the bank is aiming at improving IBGs’ contribution to profits.
The effort will be to raise the share of global business in net profit to about 20 per cent at the end of this financial year from the current 17 per cent, the official said.
The net profit of SBI fell 22.8 per cent to Rs 10,891 crore (Rs 108.91 billion) in 2013-14 from Rs 14,105 crore (Rs 141.05 billion) in 2012-13.
The higher provisions for stressed assets (non-performing assets and standard restructured assets) put pressure on profitability.
Image: SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya
