₹11,894 crore in provisions in the March quarter, which is a 45% spike sequentially. While most banks have been prudent and made provisions higher than the regulatory mandate, SBI went one step further.
It has refrained from taking the forbearance on labelling loans as non-performing. For all pandemic related relaxations given, SBI has made provisions against these loans."We are well placed to deal with any unusual circumstances," Kumar said in a conference call.Kumar’s hope also springs from the fact that the bank has come clean on its balance sheet, providing for every penny of legacy troubles.
The lender believes that despite the pandemic, fresh slippages would be contained at 2% of advances in FY21. That is lower than FY17, the worst.