SBI eyes Rs 150cr loan proposals via loan mela

State Bank of India (SBI) expects to generate loan proposals worth Rs 150 crore, up from Rs 130 crore received last year, at the 'SBI Loan Maha Utsavam' starting from July 16 to 19.

Addressing a press conference, S K Bhattacharyya, chief general manager of State Bank of India, said: "After the success of last year's 'Housing Loan Mela', we have decided to conduct the loan mela for four days at Peoples' Plaza on Necklace Road."

The loan utsavam will be inaugurated by chief minister Y S Rajashekara Reddy.

"There would be a 0.25 per cent reduction on the housing and car loans taken at this mela. Apart from this, all loans will not have any processing fee," Bhattacharyya said.

He also said that there would be a special stall which would cater to the needs of the agricultural sector.

The target group of loan festival are salaried employees of the government, public and reputed private sector undertaking, professionals and agriculturists.

The loans that the bank proposes to offer are housing, car and two-wheeler loans, education loans and mortgage loans.

According to Bhattacharyya, the main target of the loan utsavam was to build one-to-one relationships between bank officials and loan seekers and eliminate mind blocks and inhibitions of customers and facilitate instant in-principle sanctions.

"We expect the number of people visiting the loan utsavam to increase from around 35,000 last year and thus are organising it at a bigger and more convenient place," he added.

According to Bhattacharyya during the previous financial year the bank had disbursed Rs 1,200 crore in the retail loans with housing loans being the major area of lending.

The bank also proposes to have stalls at Eamcet counselling centres in the state to allow students to have easy access to education loans. Bhattacharyya also said that the bank proposes to launch the Videsh Yatra Card soon.

"The card would act like a credit card but the subscriber needs to pay the amount in foreign currency before travelling abroad," Bhattacharyya said.

"This would reduce the complications of people of travelling abroad as they need not carry foreign currency or travellers cheques any longer," he added.