The State Bank of India (SBI) would open 60 more branches by March 2015 taking its total branch network in Karnataka to 750.
Speaking informally with presspersons after inaugurating an e-corner of the Bank at Mangaluru’s main branch here on Tuesday, SBI Chief General Manager, Bengaluru Circle, Rajni Misra, said the bank has very good presence in the state with 690 branches.
She said the bank’s plan is to open more braches in remote parts of the state and reach out to smallest of farmers too, besides its focus on other sectors.
About 30 e-corners of the bank are available in major centres in the state, where customers have the facilities of ATMs, cash deposit machines, cheque deposit machines, self-service kiosks for passbook printing, among other facilities.
Ms. Misra said the bank has tied up with Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) wherein it has financed over one thousand dairy farmers in the state. Farmers also have the benefit of getting immediate payment for milk supplied to Milk Unions under this tie up. Under usual circumstances, Milk Unions make payment to supplier farmers at the end of the month.
Credit rating
In a separate meeting with small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs), Ms. Misra urged the entrepreneurs to get satisfactory credit rating from external agencies to avail better financial services from the bank. Customers present, however, raised serious objections to the manner in which the agencies do the credit rating and said the Bank is the best agency to rate its customers.
Customers said in most of the cases, representatives of agencies do not make visits to their plants and prepare the report telephonically. While each individual unit has its own unique performance issues, comparing similar units on the same yardstick is not scientific, customers felt. SBI officials present justified the measure saying they were only following the guidelines by the Reserve Bank of India.
Ms. Misra admitted that many a time, the Bank’s rating of a customer and rating by the agency have gapping differences. A few other customers said Bank’s currency exchange rates for imports would always be on a higher side when other banks charge at least 20 to 30 paisa less per dollar. The officer assured the customers to get the issue addressed.
