SBI eyes $10 bn from NRIs, foreign investors as RBI swap window nears end

As RBI's concessional swap window draws to a close this month end, State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman C S Setty has expressed confidence that the bank would garner about $10 billion from non-resident Indians and foreign investors.

"In aggregate, we must be reaching the $10 billion mark, predominantly coming from the deposit side. But there is visibility of ECBs. ECB, of course, will have a longer period available to us, but by August 31, we should have mobilised around $9-10 billion on a consolidated basis," he told PTI in an interview.

Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank of India advanced the closure of the Foreign Currency Non-Resident Bank (FCNR-B) deposits swap window by a month to August 31 as against the earlier cut-off date of September 30.

However, the special US Dollar-Rupee forex swap window to give cheap currency hedging support to public sector undertakings (PSUs) raising External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) is available till December 31, 2026.

Talking about SBI's Vision 2030 strategy, Setty said the bank aspires to double its total business to around ₹200 trillion, when the country's biggest lender celebrates its platinum jubilee.

SBI was set up on July 1, 1955 through an Act of Parliament, which, among other things, provided for the transfer of the undertaking of the Imperial Bank of India.

The bank crossed the landmark of ₹100 trillion total business, which is an aggregate of total loans and advances, in the second quarter of the last financial year. This further increased to ₹110.01 trillion at the end of June 2026.

Whether the bank had set a specific target for its platinum jubilee year, Setty said there was no formal milestone, but the bank's growth trajectory could take its total business to ₹170-180 trillion and potentially as high as ₹200 trillion by 2030.

"We don't have any milestone, but if you take the current growth rate, I think we should be around ₹170-180 trillion, or maybe reaching ₹200 trillion. That would be another important milestone," he said.

Setty said the scale of SBI's operations is closely linked to the performance of the Indian economy.

"For a bank of our size, scale is imminent, and it is fully intertwined with what is happening in the Indian economy," he said.

He noted that if the Indian economy continues to grow at 7-8 per cent, SBI's balance sheet has the potential to expand around 11-12 per cent annually.

"If the Indian economy grows at 7-8 per cent and our balance sheet has a potential to grow at 11-12 per cent, it means -- again coming to my favourite theme -- that every six years SBI's balance sheet gets doubled. So I think it's potentially possible by 2030, we may have ₹200 trillion overall business," he said.