SBI's new debit cards to have EMV chip & pin security

Country's largest lender SBI will issue EMV chip and pin based debit cards to its new customers to ensure enhanced secure transactions.
EMV chip and pin feature protects against skimming and card transaction frauds.
"All SBI customers opening accounts with the bank hence forth will receive this EMV chip and pin-based debit cards. Existing customers can also request for upgrading their card by visiting their home branch against payment of nominal fee", the bank said in a statement.
With this, SBI said, it has become the first large bank to issue 100 per cent EMV cards compliant with RBI's directive on Security and Risk Mitigation Measures for Card Present and Electronic Payment Transactions.

The latest offering will allow consumers to transact securely at Point of Sale terminals and would contribute towards making the Indian payment ecosystem more secure, SBI said.
"Further, EMV cards will make card based transactions more secure which, in turn, will give a boost to electronification of payments in India," Manju Agarwal, Deputy Managing Director, Corporate Strategy and New Businesses said in the statement.

Ruling out that net interest margins of Indian banks are
high, Bhattacharya said this is not a fact and the spread in India is quite reasonable.
"Spreads are not higher in India. It is similar or lower than other countries," she added.

With regard to financial inclusion, she said, the banking sector has embarked on the second phase of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana as 98 per cent households have bank accounts.
Besides opening 70,000 accounts every day, the bank is now looking at providing other facilities like loans and overdraft facility.
Terming Aadhaar as huge achievement for the country, she said, it is the world's largest database.
"Aadhaar is not available in any other country of the world and it is something that can change financial inclusion totally because it is something that will enable us to ensure that subsidy goes to one person, goes directly into his hands, there is no middle person, there are no leakages in the system and therefore the efficiency of the usage of that subsidy is fully ensured," she said.

Bhattacharya further said that the bank is in the process of setting up electronic platform for bill discounting.
It has roped in National Stock Exchange and SIDBI for this.
The Reserve Bank in 2014 issued norms to set up of an exchange-based trading platform, Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS), to facilitate financing of bills raised by micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to corporate and other buyers, including government departments and PSUs by way of discounting.
On Yuan devaluation by China, she said: "The competitive strength of our exported items comes down... Chinese goods become cheaper so it is difficult for our exporters.