• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• Business Line
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

Coimbatore , April 19

STATE Bank of India has started to give top priority to technology products. "We are not against personalised approach. But we want our customers to use some of the facilities like Internet banking, ATM, e-rail booking etc offered by us. Customers should get a feel of technology-based products," Mr Abhijit Datta, Chief General Manager (Chennai Circle), told Business Line.

The bank, he said would shortly be introducing ePayments and salary accounts on the Net. "These products would help the pensioners," he added.

To popularise these products, SBI has been conducting special programmes on a regular basis, he said and pointed out that the customer care cell in each of the bigger branches help the customers use these products with ease. "We also send out mailers, play CD etc. It is a handholding exercise," Mr Datta said.

After decades, the bank is now looking at refurbishing the interiors of select branches. About 100 branches in Chennai circle are being refurbished

"The thrust is on retail lending and customer-orientation. Our men have to go out and do marketing. We have to specialise in sales," he said.

When asked how SBI proposed to do this and if the employees were willing to move out and market, he said: "The staff have understood the situation. We cannot be complacent any more. But there is a lot of difference between the marketing efforts by the private sector banks and the nationalised ones. We do not engage agents or a third party to market our products. Our men are in direct touch with the customers. We are more transparent in our charges," he explained.

To a query on sizing down the strength with technology in place, he said "actually, it is not just core banking. Our efforts are now on business process management."

On inter-connectivity, to facilitate anywhere banking, he said, "40 branches are now interconnected (all India). We propose to extend it to 250 branches by June 2004 and 500 by December 2004. Our target is to cover 2,800 branches in all by March 2006. In Chennai circle, 9 branches have been inter-connected. Another 30 would be inter-connected by December 2004."

More Stories on : Public Sector Banks | E-Commerce & E-Business

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Rural banking — Opportunity for diversification and growth

Copyright © 2004, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line