by Suman Gupta
Mumbai, August 11, 2023: The country’s largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI) organized a one-day workshop at Gurugram on August 9, 2023 for their 25 National Business Correspondents (BCs). SBI manages more than 79 thousand Customer Service Points (CSPs) across India.
The event focused on boosting the BCs’ operational efficiency. SBI is leveraging technology to boost offerings and empowering BCs with unique solutions. The Bank is poised to radically improve the entire Financial Inclusion (FI) ecosystem through enhanced product bouquet by extending doorstep banking by way of handheld devices and introducing IRIS scan utility. Bank is also further strengthening the availability of micro ATMs and passbook printers at CSP outlets.
On the occasion of the inauguration of the event, Shri Dinesh Khara, Chairman, SBI emphasized on “creating 1 lakh CSP touch points by 31st March 2024”. He proposed a vision map that will ensure achieving the technological changes necessary to offer unique solutions to optimally leverage the BC channel. The initiatives are in line with SBI’s agenda of ensuring banking services to every Indian and being technologically in sync with the dynamic ecosystem.
The event was also addressed by Shri A.G. Das, Executive Director, PFRDA and Shri G.B. Panda, Principal Coordinator, Mission Office, FI, DFS. Shri Das discussed at length the nuances of the ATAL Pension Yojana (APY) and Shri Panda covered various govt. schemes pertaining to financial inclusion. Both dignitaries praised the role of Public Sector Banks especially SBI, in promoting Social Security Schemes of Govt. of India. Further, he also shared expectations of Govt. from Banks and from BCs in particular.
About State Bank of India: State Bank of India is the largest commercial bank in terms of assets, deposits, branches, customers, and employees. It is also the largest mortgage lender in the country which has so far fulfilled the home buying dreams of over 30 lakh Indian families. The home loan portfolio of the bank has crossed Rs. 6.53 lakh crore. As of June 2023, the bank has a deposit base of over Rs. 45.31 lakh crore with CASA ratio of 42.88% and advances of more than Rs. 33 lakh crore. SBI commands a market share of 33.4% and 19.5% in home loans and auto loans respectively. SBI has the largest network of 22,405 branches and 65,627 ATMs / ADWMs in India with 78,370 BC outlets. The number of customers using internet banking and mobile banking stand at 117 million and 64 million respectively. With SBI’s digital strategy right on track – the bank witnessed 63% of new savings accounts opened through the integrated digital and lifestyle platform YONO in FY23. SBI observed 23,400 new digital savings bank accounts being opened per day via YONO in the quarter ended June 2023. YONO, which has more than 6.36 crore registered users, witnessed more than 1 crore average daily logins in Q1 FY24. In terms of digital lending, the bank disbursed pre-approved personal loans worth Rs. 5,428 crore through YONO in the same period. SBI also has the highest number of followers on Facebook and Twitter amongst all banks worldwide.
