State Bank of Travancore (SBT) has embarked on a ‘bank wapsi’ programme to bring back customers who have walked away but still retain goodwill for the bank.

The bank will soon announce a package to ‘bring them back to its books,’ said Jeevandas Narayan, managing director, on the sidelines of a function to open its first mid-corporate branch here. A second such facility is proposed to be launched in Kozhikode soon.

“We’re confident of 99 per cent success in the effort,” Narayan told BusinessLine . The new branch will be a boon to small industrial units about to graduate to medium-size businesses.

There are times when these units struggle cope with the ‘sudden increase in bandwidth.’ Bankers need to step in at this juncture to ensure that there is no funds crunch at a crucial part of their growth.

“This is what we intend to do with the new branch and I’m sure we will be able to make a difference in this space in the home State,” he said.

Goodwill for bank

Narayan recalled that one single theme that emerged from his interactions with people, including customers and non-customers, is the goodwill that SBT commands in the State. It has very strong ground-level franchise and brand equity in the State.

Any industrial unit one talked to would have had some relationship with the bank at some point. But over a period of time, when these units went on to become medium-sized industries, perhaps the bank was not able to keep pace with their growth, leading to a parting of ways.

“Our main idea is to establish a strong presence in the medium-scale industrial segment. The bank has six commercial network branches servicing large corporates across the country. One such branch is in Kochi. SBT also has a mid-corporate segment with six branches outside the State,” Narayan said.

Loan to KSRTC

Narayan handed over a sanction letter for debt refinance package aggregating to ₹1,300 crore to the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation.

This would enable a saving of up to ₹260 crore in interest costs for the public sector utility, said S Adikesavan, chief general manager, SBT.

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