THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS

SBI, THE COUNTRY'S LARGEST LENDER, AIMS TO EXPAND ITS ASSET SIZE FROM 20% OF INDIA'S GDP TO 25% IN THE COMING YEARS.

- BY V. KESHAVDEV

ON A HUMID Mumbai afternoon, Challa Sreenivasulu Setty walks into in a room on the 18th floor of the headquarters of the country's largest public sector lender, which now has consistently ranked among the Top 10 on the Fortune 500 India list for the past 16 years. Speaking in a measured tone, the 27th chairman of the State Bank of India sets the context for Fortune India, dispelling any concerns over the underpinnings on which the economy rests. “Over the past five years, we have had Covid, global uncertainty in terms of disruptions, supply-chain issues, and trade shifts happening because of tariff barriers. But all through this, the Indian economy has stayed resilient. We have weathered uncertainties much better than many other countries globally,” explains Setty.

Hailing from what was once undivided Andhra Pradesh and now Telangana, it would not be far-fetched to state that the 60-year-old, who spent his school vacation collecting debts for his father who was a grocer, knows the multiplier effect credit can have on businesses and the economy, in general.

SBI, which came into existence 70 years ago, is today one-fifth of India's GDP. Setty believes big will not just get bigger, but better too. As of the end of FY25, SBI's balance sheet size crossed ₹66 lakh crore. The bank, which has doubled its balance sheet once already since 2018, wants to double it again: this time in six to seven years. It would have sounded ambitious coming from a startup founder, but coming from Setty, it sounds inevitable and based on observable patterns.

“JP Morgan's balance sheet is about 13% of the U.S. economy; ours is already about 20% of India's GDP. As the Indian economy grows toward $7-8 trillion, hopefully SBI's asset size at 25% of GDP will place us if not in the Top 10 but in the Top 20 global banks by assets for sure,” says Setty.