Davos WEF 2026 LIVE | In Conversation With CS Setty, Chairman, State Bank of India | N18L
📅 Jan 22, 2026CNBC-TV189 MIN39 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS
AI adoption & strengthening cybersecurity resilience are high on SBI Chairman CS Setty's priority list right now. On the sidelines of ...
Questions asked in this interview
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0:06Do you feel like the mood this time around, even though the headlines are screaming more negativity around geopolitics, the mood within CEOs is a tad more optimistic than the previous year?
1:00Do you see that trend continuing and what does it mean for banks like yours to see this kind of money coming into your competitors?
Our coverage continues here at Davos 2026 and we're live with a man who has a pulse on the Indian market but also is picking up on conversations here in Davos on what that could potentially mean for India. CS Seti, the chairman of State Bank of India, live with us. Thanks very much for joining us here on CBCTV18. Do you feel like the mood this time around, even though the headlines are screaming more negativity around geopolitics, the mood within CEOs is a tad more optimistic than the previous year?
Mr. Set, you know, banking drew in a lot of FDI last year. 2025 was a big year as far as FDI into the financial sector was concerned. Do you see that trend continuing and what does it mean for banks like yours to see this kind of money coming into your competitors?
The competition always has been there, Sharin. I think we lived through two centuries of competition. But I think it's a good sign in the sense that foreign investors are much more confident about the Indian banking system today and they're willing to bring substantial capital. Some of these banks where the FDI is coming in have the potential to scale up their operations with the capital buffers they can create. I think it's a very good development in my view, and that also shows that the regulatory environment is warming up to these capital flows. It's definitely positive.
We just finished 25,000. I don't think we are in need of capital at this juncture. We also have very strong internal approvals. The capital augmentation which happens through the profits is significant for us. And we are also planning, as you are aware, the divestment in SBI AMC. That will also be capital augmentative for us.
Yeah, we are still holding that number. Of course, we have our quarterly results around the corner, so I won't be able to talk much about the numbers, but if you see the December industry numbers, they have been very positive on the credit growth side. The broad guidance of 12 to 14% is still relevant for us.
For SBI, that has never been a concern. For the industry, yes, there will always be an equilibrium. But it is also important that the shift in the financialization of savings towards non-bank channels means banks cannot build their asset side purely on deposits. They need access to the market, and some of this money moving to other investment channels has to come back to the real economy. I believe there will be a structural shift in terms of balance sheet structures.
Broadly, if you see, I keep quoting my New York branch example. It is 80% market borrowings and 20% deposits. We may not go all the way there, but I think the mix will change.
Setty, C. (2026, January 22). Davos WEF 2026 LIVE | In Conversation With CS Setty, Chairman, State Bank of India | N18L [Interview transcript]. CNBC-TV18. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1054904/
MLA
Challa Setty. "Davos WEF 2026 LIVE | In Conversation With CS Setty, Chairman, State Bank of India | N18L." CNBC-TV18, 22 Jan. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1054904/.
BibTeX
@misc{setty2026_1054904,
author = {Challa Setty},
title = {Davos WEF 2026 LIVE | In Conversation With CS Setty, Chairman, State Bank of India | N18L},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, CNBC-TV18. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {jan},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1054904/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
