The Hindu Business Line : SBI launches new home loan product

THE SBI has introduced a new home loan, christened SBI Freedom, which will be of great use to the high net worth individuals, the NRIs and software professionals, according to Mr P. Jagadish Babu, the General Manager, Hyderabad.

At a function here on Monday to mark the launch of the scheme, he said there would be 100 per cent finance of the project, no mortgage of the property, provided the individual could show liquid securities such as LIC policies or NSCs.

The repayment could be out of the proceeds of securities instead of the regular EMI and only the monthly interest should be paid, he said.

He said the SBI was very active this year in the State in advancing home loans. Against a target of Rs 1,200 crore for the current financial year, home loans to the extent of Rs 907 crore had been disbursed till December and the target would be achieved easily, he said.

The overall disbursement of loans in the State was quite satisfactory and against a target of Rs 2,300 crore, already Rs 3,537 crore had been disbursed. "Now we want to consolidate our position. We want to bring down the gross NPA from a level of 3.5 per cent to below 3 by the end of March," he said.

He said the performance on the agricultural credit front was also good. Till December, Rs 1,000 had been lent to the sector by the bank in the State. The bank had lent Rs 400 crore to 1,34,000 self-help groups in the State, he added.

Besides, more than a thousand crore had been lent to the SMEs in the State.

He said Rs 2,000 crore had been mobilised in the form of deposits in the State till December and six lakh new savings accounts opened.

The bank had set itself the target of setting up 85 new ATMs in the year and till December 35 had been set up. "The rest will be installed by the end of March," he added.