SBI targets 25% deposit growth

The country\'s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) today said it is targetting a growth of 25 per cent in deposits and 22 per cent in advances in the current fiscal. A Krishna Kumar, Managing Director and Group Executive (National Banking), SBI, said mid corporate and retail sectors, which did not fare well in the last fiscal, are expected to contribute to the growth in advances. \"The preliminary figures (of SBI) indicated that as on March 12, we have roughly grown about 18 per cent in deposits and 15-16 per cent in credit. In the current year 2012-13, we are targetting a growth of 25 per cent in deposits and 20 to 22 per cent growth in credit,\" Krishna Kumar told reporters. \"We have more than 14,000 branches right now and we expect to open may be another 1,000 branches in the current year. A mixture of opening new branches and schemes for depositors.. and advances oriented schemes and the fact that the economy would look to be on the upswing help achieve this target,\" he added. He was speaking to reporters after the inauguration of the second SMECCC -- a centralised credit processing centre for SME accounts -- in the city. Replying to a query, he said the SME sector in the country is under stress due to economic factors but is expected to perform better in the current fiscal. \"There was lot of sluggish growth in the mid corporate sector and also in the retail banking side. A little more focus on the mid corporate and retail segment will see this (22 per cent growth in advances) through,\" he said. On interest rates, he said reduction in the interest rates will not affect the bank\'s Net Interest Margin (NIM) as there will be adjustments on deposits side as well....