April 10, 2010: The country?s largest lender, State Bank of India is likely to be the number 1 position holder for home loans this fiscal too. This estimation is based on grounds of the bank?s projection of going ahead with home loan disbursals worth Rs 23,000 crore in FY?11. The portfolio growth of the bank has also been raised by nearly Rs. 5000 crore. Growth last year amounted to Rs. 17, 437 crore. The bank has been able to put up this growth despite signals of FY?11 being a tough one considering the rising trend of interest rates.

The bank is planning for new home loan schemes and still continues with its teaser home loan scheme beyond its tenor which ended in March while all other banks have moved out of it. The bank is also on tracks of increasing its retail book which includes personal loans, education loans and car loans with a projected growth of over Rs 35,000 crore for this fiscal. Auto loan segment is the next area of target for SBI after home loans.

The bank has set a target growth of around Rs 3,400 crore and plans tie ups with Maruti, Honda and Chevrolet. ?We will continue to aggressively grow our home loan book as well as promotional schemes next financial year by tweaking interest rates wherever possible, as it is asset-backed lending,? said a senior SBI official. Much of its growth in home loan book has come from the special teaser home loan which it started in February 2009. At the end of the financial year 2007-08, the home loan book was just Rs 44,626 crore, which grew by Rs 9,437 crore during the financial year 2008-09 to Rs 54,063 crore.