SBI to add 4 cr rural accounts by 2010-11

To get more deposits with a low rate of interest, State Bank of India (SBI) is planning to tap the rural market and aims to nearly double the number of such accounts to nine crore in two years.

"We plan to open four crore deposit account by March 2011," SBI Deputy Managing Director and Group Executive (Rural Business) Anup Banerji told PTI.

At present, the bank has about five crore deposit account holders in rural areas and one crore accounts on advances side, he said.

This will help greatly in mobilising low cost deposits, he said, adding, current account and saving accounts (CASA) at the end of March 2009 stood at 39 per cent.

"We aim to increase this (CASA) to 45 per cent during the current fiscal," he added.

Banerji said the bank strongly believes in 'Financial Inclusion'.

The bank has 17,979 customer service points, banking correspondents and banking facilitors in place, he said, adding it plans to cover an additional 50,000 villages in the current year.

Besides, the bank has tied up with India post to collect deposits and disburse advances in the rural area.

Banerji said the bank is using technology to cover villages where banking services are not available and increase financial inclusion through internet kiosk and mobile banking.

Meanwhile, SBI launched a special product called Defence Salary Package (DSP) for Army personnel and aims to open about 12 lakh accounts under the scheme.

"We expect to open about 12 lakh plus accounts under DSP," SBI Chairman O P Bhatt had said.

The product offers a bundle of free services to the officers and jawans. The package includes free drafts, free cheque book, free fund transfers to any of the SBI Group's about 15,000 branches and free ATM cards.

Bhatt had said the bank would also offer home, auto and personal loans to Army personnel at 25 basis points lower than the floor rate. At the same time, bank is contemplating to launch special two-wheeler loan scheme for jawans.

SBI plans to add 13,000 ATMs during the year and intends to locate a large number of ATMs to serve Army formations just as many of its branches are already located in difficult and arduous terrain, he said.