Academic grades may not always reflect financial literacy, says SBI chief

To assume that all the well-educated are equally literate in finance may remain just that – an assumption. Or ask Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson, State Bank of India (SBI).

She has found that at least some of the IIT grads have a tough time distinguishing between basic concepts of debt and equity.

Same goes with their awareness about insurance products. Nor would they know if they need to provide for risk while building their asset portfolio.

Bhattacharya said this while addressing a corporate social responsibility event at associate State Bank of Travancore (SBT) here on Thursday.

SBT donated 30 computers, two projectors and two laptops for setting up two smart classrooms at the Karthika Thirunal Government Vocational and Higher Secondary School for Girls here.

Jeevandas Narayan, Managing Director, and Sajeev Krishnan and EK Harikumar, Chief General Managers, SBT, were present.

Arundhati Bhattacharya called for the need to distribute financial literacy material in schools. The power of compounding should be taught to them.

The saving habit needs to be inculcated in them even while helping them with the conduct of personal finance, she added.

The Chairman lauded the initiative of the 2013 batch of clerical staff at SBT that formed a socially responsible group ‘SBT Thanal 2014’ to celebrate their first anniversary of joining the bank.

Batch members proceeded to raise a fund by donating a sum equal to their first increment for treatment of poor cancer patients at the Regional Cancer Centre here.

“With these youngsters around, the future of the bank is bright,” Bhattacharya said and added she would like to pen a feature on the effort in SBI’s in-house journal.

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