Country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) today said it would require Rs 7,900 crore to keep its Tier I capital at 8 per cent as per RBI guidelines,a senior official of the bank said. "The bank needs Rs 7,900 crore for Tier I capital at 8 per cent. Now,the Tier I capital stands at 7.6 per cent," SBI Managing Director and CFO of SBI Diwakar Gupta said. He said that infusion of funds by the government would help the bank in raising Tier I (equity) capital. Moody's recently downgraded SBI's standalone rating due to poor Tier I capital ratio and deteriorating asset quality. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of CII Banking Colloquium here,Gupta said that unless the government infuses capital by this fiscal,Tier I capital ratio would hover around 7.6 per cent to 7.8 per cent. However,he said that the government had given a clear message that it would infuse funds into the bank. To a query,he said that there was no formal intimation from the government in this regard. About credit offtake,he said that there was a slowdown and the bank would not change its guidance from 16 per cent. Gupta said that net interest margin (NIM) would be better than guidance. To a query,he said that there was no sector specific concerns.
