The bank maintained low operating expenses ( which at Rs. 6,441 crore were 7.5% higher), but the provisioning were high, but bank chairman, Mr. Pratip Chaudhuri stated "Our earnings have stabilised and this has become a new normal for SBI. This is in spite of the fact that provisioning has been a little higher than normally what we do. But we did not have to skimp on the provisioning."

Mr. Chaudhuri maintained that the high NPAs would remain a challange for the bank. During the period, the bank's gross NPA and Net NPA both rose substantially for the April-June period. "In terms of NPA by sector, we have been able to contain the increase in NPAs in the large corporate book. But what has proved to be our nemesis is the increase in NPAs in the mid-corporates, particularly in the SME segment," he added.

One of the key indicators of bank's financial health - net interest margin (NIM) at 3.57 was marginally low than 3.62 in the same period last year. The bank kept a NIM target of 3.75 for the current fiscal.

The bank has set its focus on retail lending towards home loans and car loans to cover for the high risk in the corporate debt sector.