SBI to go Green

State Bank of India has introduced a new facility to the banking system to reduce the wastage of paper and to save the precious time of the customers. An official from the bank said that apart from the regular counters the bank will introduce an additional counter in the banks where the customers could swipe their ATM card and enter the PIN to receive cash from the person operating the counter.

"In this way, there will be no requirement for paperwork and the process of money withdrawal will be fast," said I D Mozumdar SBI General Manager for network.

Under the Financial Inclusion Plan The State Bank of India has been given the responsibility to provide basic banking facilities to 408 villages of Jharkhand state with population over 2,000. The bank expects to equip 200 villages of the state with banking facilities by March this year.

Mr Mozmdar further said , "We do not require brick and mortar branches these days to extend banking facilities because technology has made the work easier and SBI is fortunate to have all the modern banking technology".

The bank plans to provide banking facility to the villages through mobile-based banking and bio-metric smart card. The bank has appointed Business Correspondents to implement these schemes .

SBI and ICICI ink deal with leading telecom companies

The two leading lenders in the country State Bank of India and ICICI Bank have tied up with Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar to offer mobile based banking to the customers. The mobile market in India is the second largest and the fastest growing in the world.

To make full use of the available opportunity the two leading banks took the step. The joint venture will be very beneficial for the population residing in the unbanked remote areas of the country. The step would further enhance the electronic payments market in the country.

SBI is the leading bank in the country and Bharti Airtel is the leading telecom service provider in the country with over 150 million customers. SBI and Bharti Airtel will jointly invest 1 billion rupees initially for mobile based banking.

The largest private sector bank in the country ICICI has tied up with the third leading telecom service provider in the country with above 121 million customers. The CEO and Managing Director of the bank Chanda Kochhar said "We are very excited about the partnership with Vodafone which will help ICICI Bank in deepening its base within the country. Mobile penetration is growing exponentially in the country of which the rural market forms a major contributor".

Presently about 60 percent of the population in the country has mobile connection and the sector is adding a staggering 18 million customer per month. The joint venture of the banks with the telecom companies will enhance their accessibility to the rural area in the country.

In all the deal could be very beneficial for the rural population in the country.

SBI and ICICI ink deal with leading telecom companies

The two leading lenders in the country State Bank of India and ICICI Bank have tied up with Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar to offer mobile based banking to the customers. The mobile market in India is the second largest and the fastest growing in the world.

To make full use of the available opportunity the two leading banks took the step. The joint venture will be very beneficial for the population residing in the unbanked remote areas of the country. The step would further enhance the electronic payments market in the country.

SBI is the leading bank in the country and Bharti Airtel is the leading telecom service provider in the country with over 150 million customers. SBI and Bharti Airtel will jointly invest 1 billion rupees initially for mobile based banking.

The largest private sector bank in the country ICICI has tied up with the third leading telecom service provider in the country with above 121 million customers. The CEO and Managing Director of the bank Chanda Kochhar said "We are very excited about the partnership with Vodafone which will help ICICI Bank in deepening its base within the country. Mobile penetration is growing exponentially in the country of which the rural market forms a major contributor".

Presently about 60 percent of the population in the country has mobile connection and the sector is adding a staggering 18 million customer per month. The joint venture of the banks with the telecom companies will enhance their accessibility to the rural area in the country.

In all the deal could be very beneficial for the rural population in the country.

SBI to finance projects of only reputed builders

Leading bank of the country State Bank of India has decided that it will also lend money to the reputed builders also. The bank has made the developments as the prices for the construction material is constantly moving up and the banking regulators are raising the provisions on commercial real estate.

According to the bank, it will fund only those reputed builders that have got all clearances from the civil and legal authorities.

Due to the rising interest rates the bank is expecting that the demand for housing loan may dampen.

About 70 per cent people availing home loan are first time home buyer and the remaining 30 per cent do it as investment.

SBI to introduce 600 Financial Inclusion Centres

The banks in India are working at full pace to successfully implement the Financial Inclusion Plan. In a similar effort the largest bank of the country , State Bank of India has announced to set up 600 Financial Inclusion Centers through out the country.

The motive behind the move is to provide back end support to the Business Correspondents working in the villages and also to exercise administrative control over them. The bank has set up the FIC to provide banking facilities to the 12,421 unbanked villages out of 72,315 villages having a population of more than 2,000 by March 2012.

The FIC will provide back end support to the Business Correspondents on the opening of no frills accounts and will also keep a constant watch on the performance of the BC. Such a practice will surely enhance the efficiency of the Business Correspondents.

Deputy General Manager of SBI Mr M I Dholakia said “Under the financial inclusion plan, our bank is currently providing basic banking services in 1,300 villages. This number will jump to 5,300 by March-end 2011. We will complete the target of providing banking outreach in 12,421 villages by March-end 2012”.

The entities that can work as business correspondents includes include NGOs/ MFIs set up under Societies/ Trust Acts, Post Offices, retired bank employees, ex-servicemen, retired teachers, retired government employees, individual kirana/ medical/ fair price shop owners.

The Financial Inclusion Plan is a very ambitious project lead by the Reserve Bank of India. This project will definitely bring a change in the life of the poor people who reside in the rural India and will definitely make a major contribution in the development of the country.

SBI takes another step in overseas venture

State Bank of India is currently present in 32 countries including US, UK, Canada and Mauritius. The bank is now planning to mark presence in a few more countries this year. The bank has plans to set up operation in South Korea, Sao Paulo and Botswana.

A bank official said "The bank is looking at opening a representative office in Brazilian city Sao Paulo and a full service branch in South Korea".

The bank said that the focus of the new offices will be on India related business and to provide more facilities to the overseas customers of the bank. At present the contribution of overseas collection in the total business of the bank is 16 percent.

The bank is expanding overseas but the bank has maintained a constant pace in domestic expansion also. The bank opened 611 new branches and 4, 206 new ATM between October 2009 to September 2010.