New Delhi: Led by the country's biggest lender State Bank of India (SBI), public sector banks logged a record cumulative profit of Rs 52,603 crore in the third quarter of the current fiscal, reflecting an 18 per cent year-on-year growth.
All 12 public sector banks (PSBs) together made a profit of Rs 44,473 crore in the December quarter of FY25. Thus, the increase in profit in absolute terms was Rs 8,130 crore as compared to the same quarter of the previous financial year.
Market leader SBI alone contributed 40 per cent to the total earnings of Rs 52,603 crore, as per the published numbers on stock exchanges.
SBI posted the highest quarterly net profit of Rs 21,028 crore in Q3 FY26, 24 per cent higher than the same period of the previous fiscal.
In percentage terms, Chennai-based Indian Overseas Bank reported the highest net profit growth of 56 percent to Rs 1,365 crore, followed by Central Bank of India with a 32 per cent rise to Rs 1,263 crore.
During the quarter, all 12 public sector banks (PSBs), except Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, Indian Bank, and Bank of India, reported profit growth in single digits.
Banks which reported more than 20 per cent improvement in profit aside from SBI are Bank of Maharashtra with 27 percent increase and Canara Bank with 26 per cent rise in their profits.
Those which recorded double-digit growth in profit are Punjab & Sind Bank at 19 percent, UCO Bank at 16 percent, and Punjab National Bank (PNB) at 13 percent.
On an annual basis, PSBs recorded a slightly lower profit of 9 per cent to Rs 49,456 crore in the second quarter as compared to Rs 45,547 crore in the September quarter of FY25.
Public sector lenders recorded a slightly higher profit of 11 per cent on an annual basis to Rs 44,218 crore in the first quarter as compared to Rs 39,974 crore in the June quarter of FY25.
For the nine months ended December 2025, the aggregate profit of PSBs crossed Rs 1,45,000 crore for the first time. Together, the PSBs have earned Rs 1,46,277 crore as compared to Rs 1,29,994 crore in the April-December period of FY25, registering nearly a 13 per cent growth.
Speaking to PTI in an interview, Financial Services Secretary M Nagaraju has exuded confidence that the combined profit of these banks should cross Rs 2 lakh crore in the current financial year.
Stressing that the Indian banking sector is in good shape, he said credit growth of PSBs is at 12 percent this year, which is tremendously "good", while deposit growth at 10 per cent is also reasonably very good.
"As I said, banks are at the bellwether for the strength of the economy. Therefore, they are resilient. We have very prudent management systems in place under the regulator, the RBI. So we are not much worried about the external factors negatively impacting our banking sector," he said.
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