State Bank of India (SBI) is planning to open 600 new branches across the country during the current financial year, aiming to capitalise on growing business prospects in areas such as large residential townships. The bank, India's largest lender, had opened 137 branches in the previous fiscal year, including 59 in rural areas. As of March 2024, SBI operates 22,542 branches nationwide, along with 65,000 ATMs and 85,000 business correspondents.
What SBI chairman said?
"We have strong branch expansion plans...This would be mainly focused on emerging areas. A lot of residential colonies are not covered by us...Around 600 branches are something we are planning in the current year," SBI Chairman Challa Sreenivasulu Setty told news agency PTI. He further said, "We serve about 50 crore customers and we take pride in saying that we are the banker to every Indian, and, more importantly, to every Indian family."
The chairman also expressed his vision to transform SBI into the best and most valued bank, not only from a shareholder's perspective but for all stakeholders -- customers, shareholders, and the broader institutional and societal ecosystem. To attract depositors, SBI is also considering launching innovative products, including a combo of recurring deposit and Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) to better meet customer needs.
Catering to evolving customer needs: SBI chairman
With the economy progressing, he said, customers are becoming financially more aware and demanding, and have started looking for innovative investment instruments. "Obviously, nobody wants to put everything in a risky asset or a speculative asset...Banking products will always be part of the basket. So, we are trying to bring products which will appeal to them," Setty said.
"We are trying to bring innovation in some of the conventional products like recurring deposit, which is actually a conventional SIP. Maybe, we can combine both fixed deposit/recurring deposit and SIP, a combo product that could be digitally accessible," he said. The chairman also stated that the bank has undertaken a massive outreach programme for the deposit mobilisation.
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