SBI rejigs wholesale banking division

Betting big on the country's fast developing corporate sector, banking giant, State Bank of India (SBI) has re-organised its wholesale banking division under a single platform.

SBI has formed a core team of senior officials to drive its wholesale banking business and has been providing them expert guidance to cash in on the market opportunities, a highly-placed SBI official said.

"The bank has prepared an internal platform to cash in on the business opportunities in the wholesale banking market. With this, SBI now offers its corporate clients an array of services on a single platform," the official said.

The wholesale banking team is headed by a deputy managing director and has around 35 senior officials at the senior management level, the official said.

Earlier, SBI's wholesale banking business was resodel in place, we would now offer a set of specialised services such as advisory, collection, capital market related services, treasury products, factoring, custodial services and investment advisory to our clients, the official said.

The country's largest lender decided to restructure its business model to keep pace with competitors from private and foreign sectors, particularly when the sector is being- opened up for foreign competition, the official said.

SBI has seen its wholesale banking portfolio growing by nearly 35 per cent annually and currently has a market-share of above 50 per cent in the business, the official said.

Wholesale banking business currently contributes 55 per cent to State Bank's total revenue. SBI also has plans to bring its associate banks to the same operational platform over a period, the official said.

At present, the banking major has more than 5,000 clients in wholesale banking that includes companies from small, mid-corporate and large corporate segments.

With a view to quicken the migration to an advanced business platform, SBI has appointed global consultancy firm, McKinsey, which has conducted various forums for SBI staff over the past one year, the official said.

Despite the crisis in financial markets, SBI has not slowed down lending to its corporate clients and would continue to provide adequate finance for viable projects in the future also, the official said.