State Bank of India recovers 75-76% of its personal loan product (Xpress Credit Loan) dues through an automated transfer mechanism from customer savings accounts to loan accounts, Chairman CS Setty confirmed during the bank's August earnings call. According to reports from NDTV Profit, Setty explained that "in a bank like SBI and Xpress Credit, let me tell you, 75% to 76% of the recoveries happen by way of moving funds from savings bank account to loan account. That is not collection." The bank moves the required amount from the salary account into the loan account when an instalment falls due, without any conversation between the bank and the borrower.
The Xpress Credit borrowers are predominantly salaried individuals with salary accounts at SBI, with 99% of them drawing income from government jobs, defence postings or private employers. As reported by NDTV Profit, SBI's annual report puts the Xpress Credit book at ₹3.76 lakh crore as of March 2026. The product served 28 lakh customers this year, with a combined loan amount of ₹2.58 lakh crore. This automated recovery mechanism works effectively because these borrowers maintain their salary accounts at SBI, enabling the bank to automatically transfer funds when dues become due.
Chairman Setty acknowledged the limitations of this auto-transfer approach during the same call, noting that self-employed borrowers and professionals rarely hold a single salary account that the bank can draw from. According to NDTV Profit, SBI has largely stayed out of lending to these customer segments through Xpress Credit due to this collection challenge. Setty described the real difference between banks and non-bank lenders as lying in their collection mechanisms, admitting that SBI has not built one strong enough to serve these customers, despite having the pricing power to compete for their business. He named parts of the MSME segment as facing the same gap.
To address the collection gap, SBI is hiring around 6,000 feet-on-street staff through its subsidiary, SBOSS, as part of a one-year effort done from the ground up. As reported by NDTV Profit, Setty emphasized that the new recovery staff need to carry SBI's own standards before the bank lends more widely to these customers. He stated that the bank is not ready to expand into these segments yet, requiring the new staff to establish proper collection mechanisms before broader lending can commence.
