SBI’s AI-driven loan leads generate ₹22,000 crore of business in June quarter

At a time when State Bank of India (SBI) is seeing relatively tepid growth in its corporate loan book, AI-driven analytical leads helped the country’s largest lender generate around ₹22,000 crore of business during the June quarter, largely across the retail segment. The AI-led sourcing accounted for roughly a quarter of SBI’s sequential domestic loan growth during the quarter.

SBI said its AI models are being used across loan products to identify potential borrowers, with the resulting analytical leads passed on to branches and frontline teams for conversion into business. The leads span home loans, express credit, gold loans and MSME loans.

According to SBI Chairman C. S. Setty, the bank has been using AI models across its loan portfolio for some time. The analytical leads generated through data analytics across product segments are passed on to operating teams and branches for conversion into business.

“All kinds of loan leads are generated and given to the feet on street and branches to convert these leads into business, and that aggregated to ₹22,000 crore,” Setty said during the earnings call following SBI’s Q1 results.

The lender clarified that AI-driven analytical leads are not a new initiative, with the bank having deployed such models for some time to improve customer targeting and loan origination.

SBI’s overall domestic advances increased by around ₹90,000 crore sequentially, while the corporate loan book remained broadly flat amid the transition to the marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) and competition. Corporate loans account for about a third of SBI’s domestic advances, while the retail personal segment accounts for 41.4%, with a book of ₹17.73 lakh crore.

The bank’s corporate loan book stood at around ₹14.2 lakh crore at the end of June, although management said it has a strong corporate credit pipeline of more than ₹9 lakh crore.

The lender, which now has total business of more than ₹110 lakh crore, expects credit growth of 14-15% and deposit growth of 10-11% in FY27. Management said its credit growth guidance is linked to nominal GDP growth of the country, with SBI historically growing credit at around 3 percentage points faster than nominal GDP.

SBI reported its highest-ever quarterly net profit of ₹21,121 crore for the June quarter, up 10.2% year-on-year, supported by healthy operating performance and disciplined cost management. Operating profit rose 9.8% to ₹33,529 crore, while domestic net interest margin remained resilient at 3%.

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