Kamal Ghorui
Public sector banks posted a record cumulative profit of Rs 52,603 crore in the third quarter of the current financial year, marking an 18 per cent year-on-year rise, led by strong performance from the country’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI).All 12 public sector banks (PSBs) had posted a combined profit of Rs 44,473 crore in the December quarter of FY25, translating into an absolute increase of Rs 8,130 crore in the latest quarter, according to numbers published on stock exchanges, reported PTI.Market leader SBI alone contributed about 40 per cent of the total PSB earnings, reporting the highest quarterly net profit of Rs 21,028 crore in Q3 FY26, up 24 per cent from the year-ago period.Among other lenders, Chennai-based Indian Overseas Bank recorded the highest percentage growth in net profit at 56 per cent to Rs 1,365 crore, followed by Central Bank of India, which posted a 32 per cent rise to Rs 1,263 crore.During the quarter, all PSBs except Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, Indian Bank and Bank of India reported profit growth in single digits.Banks reporting more than 20 per cent growth in profit apart from SBI included Bank of Maharashtra, which posted a 27 per cent increase, and Canara Bank, which recorded a 26 per cent rise. Other banks posting double-digit profit growth included Punjab & Sind Bank (19 per cent), UCO Bank (16 per cent) and Punjab National Bank (13 per cent).On a quarterly basis, PSBs had posted a 9 per cent annual increase in profit to Rs 49,456 crore in Q2 FY26 compared to Rs 45,547 crore in the September quarter of FY25. In the first quarter, PSBs reported an 11 per cent annual increase in profit to Rs 44,218 crore compared to Rs 39,974 crore in the June quarter of FY25.For the nine months ended December 2025, aggregate PSB profit crossed Rs 1.45 lakh crore for the first time, reaching Rs 1,46,277 crore compared to Rs 1,29,994 crore in the April-December period of FY25, reflecting nearly 13 per cent growth.Speaking to PTI, Financial Services Secretary M Nagaraju expressed confidence that combined PSB profit would cross Rs 2 lakh crore in the current financial year.Stressing that the Indian banking sector remains strong, he said credit growth of PSBs is at 12 per cent 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.
