State Bank of Patiala rolls out seven new branches in Punjab

State Bank of Patiala, a public sector bank with headquarters in Patiala, opened seven brick & mortar branches in its Bathinda and Jalandhar zones to reach out rural pockets of Punjab. The new branches are located in the districts of Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Amritsar.

According to Managing Director Ashok Nayar, the Bank proposes to open 20 branches in the identified villages to be covered under the financial inclusion drive. Under these, 11 branches would be opened in Punjab and nine in other states of India. The branch location under financial inclusion is provided by the lead bank under the guidelines of Reserve Bank of India.

These branches will extend all types of loans and banking facilities. The bank plans to cover 500 villages during the current year under Financial Inclusion, out of these 263 villages are in Punjab. In rest of the villages, the services shall be provided through business correspondents. The arrangements in this regard have been finalised and the roll out is expected during the next month. Over 150 villages will be covered by the Bank by 30th September, 2010.

Under the financial inclusion, any village with a population of over 2000 households has to be covered under banking fold.

Nayar laid stress for productive use of loan facilities and timely repayment of the same so that money is recycled which is a must for the growth of the economy and the nation. On the occasion. He asked to avail facility of free counselling available at the Financial Literacy and Credit Counselling cell opened by the Bank as Lead Bank at Mini Secretariat Bhatinda. The FLCC provides counselling on responsible borrowing, banking terminologies and restructuring of irregular loans.