- SBI recovers 75-76% of Xpress Credit dues by transferring funds from savings accounts
- 99% of Xpress Credit borrowers are salaried with salary accounts at SBI
- Xpress Credit loan book stood at Rs 3.76 lakh crore as of March 2026
State Bank of India recovers three-quarters of its personal loan product (Xpress Credit Loan) dues by moving the money from a customer's savings account into the loan account, Chairman CS Setty confirmed the figure on the bank's August earnings call.
"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," Setty told analysts. "That is not collection."
Xpress Credit borrowers have their salary account at SBI. Setty said 99% of them are salaried, drawing income from government jobs, defence postings or private employers. When an instalment falls due, the bank moves the required amount from the salary account into the loan account. The transaction happens without any conversation between the bank and the borrower.
SBI's annual report puts the Xpress Credit book at Rs 3.76 lakh crore as of March 2026. Twenty-eight lakh customers borrowed under the product this year, taking a combined Rs 2.58 lakh crore.
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Setty described the limits of this approach in the same call. Self-employed borrowers and professionals rarely hold a single salary account the bank can draw from. SBI has largely stayed out of lending to them through Xpress Credit.
Setty said the real difference between banks and non-bank lenders lies in the collection mechanism, and admitted 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 close that gap, SBI is hiring around 6,000 feet-on-street staff through its subsidiary, SBOSS. Setty called it a one-year effort, done from the ground up.
He said the bank is not ready to expand into these segments yet. The new recovery staff need to carry SBI's own standards, he said, before the bank lends more widely to these customers.
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