SBI Plans to Raise Rs 7,500 Crore Through 10-Year Tier II Bonds

State Bank of India (SBI), India's largest bank, is set to enter the bond market with a significant offering. The bank plans to raise Rs 7,500 crore by issuing 10-year Tier II bonds on Friday, marking its first such bond issue.

Bond Issue Details

Parameter	Details
Issue Type	10-year Tier II bonds
Base Size	Rs 5,000 crore
Green Shoe Option	Rs 2,500 crore
Total Potential Size	Rs 7,500 crore
Expected Coupon Rate	Above 7%

Key Points

This bond issue represents SBI's first venture into Tier II bonds.
The bank has structured the issue with a base size of Rs 5,000 crore and a green shoe option of Rs 2,500 crore.
The decision to retain the green shoe option will be based on market response.
The bonds are expected to be priced at a coupon rate exceeding 7%.

This move by SBI comes at a time when banks are looking to strengthen their capital base. Tier II bonds are typically used to improve a bank's capital adequacy ratio and support its lending activities.

The pricing of these bonds above 7% suggests that investors may find them attractive, especially in the current interest rate environment. However, the final pricing and market response will be crucial in determining the success of this bond issue.

SBI's decision to tap the bond market for such a substantial amount indicates its strategy to diversify its funding sources and potentially take advantage of favorable market conditions. The outcome of this bond issue may set a precedent for future capital-raising activities by other banks in the Indian financial sector.

1 Day	5 Days	1 Month	6 Months	1 Year	5 Years
+0.25%	+0.97%	+3.73%	+11.50%	+9.63%	+335.86%

State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest lender, faced its second Unified Payments Interface (UPI) service disruption in just 10 days, highlighting ongoing technical challenges in the rapidly growing digital payments sector.

Latest Outage Details

On Thursday morning, SBI experienced intermittent technical issues with its UPI payment services. The bank took to social media at 7:45 a.m. to inform customers about potential temporary declines in UPI services. SBI assured that the issue was expected to be resolved by 8:00 a.m. on the same day.

Recent History of Disruptions

This recent outage follows a similar incident that occurred just 10 days prior. Here's a comparison of the two events:

Date	Time	Duration	Users Affected	Main Issue
October 16	7:45 a.m. - 8:00 a.m. (expected)	~15 minutes	Not specified	Temporary declines in UPI services
October 7	5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.	90 minutes	Over 1,200	51% experienced fund transfer issues

Impact and Alternatives

During both outages, SBI advised customers to use UPI Lite services as an alternative for uninterrupted transactions. DownDetector, a platform that tracks service disruptions, recorded spikes in user complaints during both incidents, indicating widespread impact.

SBI's Position in the UPI Market

While SBI holds a smaller market share in UPI transactions compared to popular platforms like Google Pay and PhonePe, these disruptions are significant due to SBI's status as India's largest bank. The incidents highlight the challenges faced by traditional banks in maintaining reliable digital payment services in a rapidly evolving fintech landscape.

UPI Transaction Growth

Despite these technical hiccups, the UPI platform continues to see remarkable growth. In September, UPI transactions reached impressive numbers:

Metric	Value
Total Transactions	1,963.34 crore
Total Value	Rs 24.89 lakh crore

These figures underscore the critical importance of maintaining robust and reliable UPI services, especially for major financial institutions like SBI.

As digital payments continue to dominate the Indian financial landscape, banks and fintech companies alike must prioritize infrastructure stability and quick resolution of technical issues to ensure seamless transactions for millions of users relying on these services daily.