Ministry Nod For Sbi & #39;S It Arm Soon

The long wait for the proposed infotech arm of the State Bank of India seems to have come to an end. The bank is expecting the finance ministry's clearance shortly, said chairman Janki Ballabh.

However, the bank has shelved the idea of floating a subsidiary with a joint venture participation. Instead, the country's largest public sector bank has decided to go it alone and float a 100 per cent infotech subsidiary. "The subsidiary will undertake projects on channel partner basis," Ballabh said.

The go-ahead comes at a time when the banking industry has completed a major chunk of the job with regards to computerisation. While majority of the banks are yet to network its branches, the potential lies in the area of networking and installing switches to facilitate ATM network across the country, says company officials.

"Our own experience in networking will help us in bagging projects for other banks. The infotech arm will also take up projects like Net banking, core banking and teller projects for other public sector banks," Ballabh said.

One of the probable partners for its projects could be NCR. This company was awarded SBI's ATM projects. While, the other partners could be the parties that the bank has ventured with for its own automation, computerisation and networking.