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SBI creates special vertical for rural, semi-urban branches

CHANDIGARH:Following a successful pilot project in the Chandigarh Circle, State Bank of India (SBI) has created a separate vertical for rural and semi-urban branches to focus on financial inclusion and micro markets.

SBI creates special vertical for rural, semi-urban branches

SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar at the bank’s Local Head Office in Chandigarh on Monday. Tribune Photo: Pradeep Tewari



Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 11

Following a successful pilot project in the Chandigarh Circle, State Bank of India (SBI) has created a separate vertical for rural and semi-urban branches to focus on financial inclusion and micro markets.

To start with, the bank has identified 668 branches in the region comprising Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh where it will focus on agriculture, micro and small lending, financial inclusion and taking the social security schemes to the masses.

The SBI has 17 circles across the country. The Chandigarh Circle has around 1,900 branches.

“In the past, most of the efforts were focused on high-value tickets (investment or loan) and centred around the urban areas. However, there is an immense potential in the rural and semi-urban areas in the region. So, we have carved out 668 branches, primarily in the rural and semi-urban areas, out of total 1,900 branches to have a focused approach,” SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar told The Tribune.

He said, “To focus aggressively in these untapped markets, a hub and spoke model has been created with a dedicated staff to focus better on banking operations.”

For effective implementation, 21 district sales hubs have been created for the purpose across the region with each hub linked to 30 branches. The district sales hub comprising eight officials would look after sales and financial inclusion. In addition to this, the bank has also created Retail Asset Credit Centre (RACC) for processing of loans, particularly in the rural and semi-urban areas. Around 55 RACCs have been created for processing of loans in the region.

According to the bank, the focused approach has already started yielding results. During the last fiscal, the bank sold 19,000 policies of Atal Pension Yojna. However, it has crossed 40,000-mark in the past six months only of the current fiscal.

He said the bank was contemplating to replicate this model across the country to bring more people under financial inclusion and target small and marginal farmers and enterprises.

The bank is also focusing on digital initiative to enhance growth. He said, “We are taking the digital route for both customer interface and back-end processes. The share of digital banking (at 56%) is rising over ATMs (29%). Branches form 10% of the bank’s total transactions.

“Our app “YONO” which literally translates into ‘you only need one’ has crossed over 1.5 crore users in less than two years of its launch. On an average, we are witnessing over 1 lakh transactions per day on the app,” Kumar said.

Referring to working capital limits drawn by large companies, he said, “Only 30% of the sanctioned limits are utilised while in case of MSMEs, it is 70%. He said there has been growth in vehicle and home loans by 5 and 18%, respectively.

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