Sbi To Focus On Personal Banking

Personal banking will constitute 20 per cent of State Bank of India's (SBI) asset loan portfolio at the end of the current five-year plan, starting 2001-02. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the launch of SBI Life Insurance, the bank chairman Janaki Ballabh, said: "Our focus is on personal banking. In the current year, this portfolio ought to contribute 15 per cent of total loans, and grow to 20 per cent by the end of the five year plan". For the year just gone by, personal banking accounted for 12 to 13 per cent of the asset portfolio.

"Nearly 1,300 of our branches have personal banking division, where the focus is on deposit and advances in terms of housing loans and consumer banking," said SBI chief.

SBI activities are centered around four key elements -- commercial and institutional banking, mid-corporate banking, priority sector lending and personal banking. The bank aims to focus on personal banking and together with priority sector lending, the two will account for more than 60 per cent of the banking business, Ballabh pointed out.

Speaking on the performance of the bank for the year ended March 31, 2001, Ballabh said that there had been a 30 per cent growth in the retail segment made up of housing finance and consumer banking. "This year we estimate a growth of 40 per cent from this segment," he added.

SBI expects its retail portfolio to grow to Rs 6,000 crore in the current fiscal. In the preceding year (2000-01), retail banking contributed Rs 3,200 crore, of which Rs 1,600 crore was the net increase in the bank's housing finance loan portfolio.