Sustainability of social security schemes is the key: SBI chief

State-owned lender State Bank of India (SBI) on Friday said the government needs to think about means to sustain its social security schemes like Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) in the long run.

"The government wants that it (PMJDY) should be a sustainable kind of initiative... That we should not do it and then allow it to die because it is not commercially viable.

"So obviously, the government will have to think of ways and means to ensure that these accounts, once they come in, become commercially viable accounts," the bank's chief Arundhati Bhattacharya told the media here.

She said SBI was looking forward to compensation like a hike in commission for transferring subsidy.

"We are already working on it with the government. I don't think the government intends not to give anything. But we are working on what it should be," she added.

PSBs undertake the necessary public interest activities which are not always fully compensated.

"The government should endeavour to keep the competitive playing field level by fully compensating banks for activities it wants to undertake in the public interest," RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan wrote in the overview section of RBI's annual report.

Until June 30 this year, approximately 165.7 million PMJDY accounts have been opened.