Sbi Plans 100 Personal Banking Branches

In a major initiative towards personal banking, the State Bank of India (SBI) would shortly launch 100 branches across the country to specifically cater to consumer finance and housing finance.

The leading public sector bank, which has decided to launch a foray into consumer finance through its proposed credit card subsidiary, would launch these specialised personal banking branches which would take deposits and provide advances under different sets of interest rates.

The bank is working out the modalities and there was no fixed cap on the specific investment by the bank and on the loans sanctioned to be made under this category, SBI deputy managing director B M Bhide told PTI here yesterday.

Essentially, the new branches would be spun-off from some existing large branches to cater to personal banking, and would be headed by branch manager (personal banking).

Even some new exclusive branches would be opened, he said.

We are yet to apply to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for branch licenses and we still have to workout if even the branches spun-off from existing large branches will require licensing, he said.

Bhide said though the market forces would determine where the banks would start these specialised branches, they would be a feature of metro and urban centres.