State Bank of India (SBI) has created a separate Financial Inclusion & Micro Market (FI&MM) vertical to offer loans predominantly for agriculture & allied activities, and micro/small enterprises.
India’s largest bank, in a statement, said about 8,000 branches in rural and semi-urban areas have been identified for providing specialised services to the micro segment, including micro credit for small businesses and farmers.
The thrust is also to improve service quality and availability of banking services through the bank’s vast network of over 63,000 Customer Service Points in rural, semi-urban, urban and metro areas, it added.
The new vertical, which will be headed by Sanjeev Nautiyal, Deputy Managing Director, will provide a boost to the micro-finance sector.
Rajnish Kumar, Chairman, SBI, said, “The key elements of creating the FI&MM vertical are to bring sharper focus to different business lines and improve the quality of interaction with customers at the branch.
“This is a key initiative by SBI to cater to financial requirements of people residing in the hinterlands, as part of its financial inclusion journey. The new FI&MM vertical will provide an opportunity to serve the small business, agri and allied segments so that they can run their businesses smoothly, especially in the current times of uncertainty.”
To ensure special focus and smooth functioning at the local level, SBI said the FI&MM vertical will have a four-tier structure under the Chief General Manager, General Manager, and Regional Manager at Regional Business Offices (RBO) and District Sales Hubs (DSH) to strengthen the credit delivery system and improve the turnaround time for quick sanctions and disbursement of small loans.
“The primary emphasis will be on consolidating the district-level presence which will provide constant sales and recovery support to branches in the FI&MM network. The DSHs will also play an important role in strengthening the reach of Customer Service Points and ensure improvement in quality and availability of services rendered to customers,” the statement said.