State Bank of India FY26: ₹83,299 Cr Profit, NPA Falls Below 1.57%

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1 — At a Glance

The largest bank in India, now clocking ₹83,299 crore in annual profit, faces a math problem: ROE sits at 15.4%, ROCE at 6.13%. Deposits grew 11.03% YoY to ₹60.4 lakh crore; advances jumped 16.87% to ₹49.8 lakh crore. The leverage is deliberate—domestic credit-deposit ratio hit 73.08%, up 337bp.

Gross NPAs fell to 1.49%, a two-decade low per management’s own language. But margins compressed: net interest income stayed flat even as rates fell, the company redirecting yield loss into fee-based income and trading gains.

The stock pays 1.76% dividend yield and trades at 11.1x annualised earnings. Government owns 55.03%. The question isn’t whether the bank is stable—that’s answered—but whether earnings can grow faster than the balance sheet expands.

2 — Introduction

State Bank of India reported FY26 results on May 8, 2026. This is the bank’s 10th consecutive year of reporting double-digit nominal profit growth, though at 7.4% top-line and 14.4% bottom-line expansion this cycle, the bar is lower than it once was. The government remains majority shareholder, holding 55.03% of equity.

The bank completed a ₹25,000 crore QIP in July 2025, raising equity at ₹817 per share—the price has moved sideways since. In August, it acquired an additional 4.925% stake in SBI General Insurance, raising stake to 73.87%. By September, it divested 13.18% of Yes Bank (a former associate), realizing ₹4,593 crore profit pre-tax.

On the liability side, deposit growth of 11.03% YoY to ₹60.4 lakh crore was driven by retail term deposits (+14.77%) and savings accounts (+10.6%). CASA stayed flat at 39.46%, a technical improvement of 33bp quarter-on-quarter but a strategic vulnerability in a world where wholesale rates have stopped falling.

3 — Business Model: WTF Do They Even Do?

SBI is a “universal bank.” Retail banking now accounts for 36% of profit (Q3 FY26 vs 35% in FY23). Corporate banking is 21% (flat). Treasury operations fell from 22% to 18%—because interest rate volatility stopped gifting them free money. Insurance business jumped from 18% to 21%, helped by SBI Life’s 28.1% market share in individual new business premiums.

The loan book as of Q3 FY26 was ₹46.8 lakh crore: retail 42%, corporate 33%, SME 15%, agriculture 10%. The domestic advance mix is granular, and the bank’s stated strategy is to shift away from “volume-led expansion to value-accretive growth.” Translation: the old days of 20%+ credit growth are gone. Guidance for FY27 is 13–15%.

International operations account for 15% of advances and 4% of deposits, a strategic non-event. But digital channels—UPI, mobile, internet banking—now carry 94% of transactions. YONO (the mobile app) crossed 10 crore registered users in FY26. The economics of a branch shrink when three-quarters of your customer base never walks in.

4 — Financials Overview

Figures are consolidated, in ₹ crore. Result type: Quarterly (latest Q4 FY26) and Yearly (FY26 ended March 31, 2026).

Quarterly results in Q4 showed a profit dip of 5.79% quarter-on-quarter (₹21.3 cr in Q3 FY25 vs ₹20.5 cr in Q4 FY26 standalone). Management attributed this to treasury mark-to-market losses of ₹4,520 crore in Q4 versus ₹143 crore in Q3—a consequence of a 15bp+ rally in 10Y bond yields during March 2026.

For the year, net profit rose 7.4% to ₹80,032 crore (consolidated, ₹83,299 crore).