The Hindu Business Line : SBI to up low cost deposit base

Mumbai, Oct. 9 State Bank of India has set a target for increasing its Current Account and Savings Account (CASA) deposit base by 300 basis points this year. The bank is also focusing on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) segment to increase the base of low-cost deposits, Mr Narayan Raja, Chief General Manager, Mumbai Circle, said.

“The target before us is to increase our CASA base by 300 basis points and to increase the personal loan segment, which includes housing, auto loans and education by 50-60 per cent this fiscal,” he said.

The bank has launched the CASA campaign to open new current and savings accounts and also to mop up deposits in existing accounts from July 1 to October 31, in metro and urban areas. The bank is also planning to open a large number of salary accounts to increase the CASA base.

In Maharashtra, the bank has opened more than 36,000 CASA accounts under the campaign, Mr Raja said.

In order to expand its SME portfolio, the bank is pushing its technology-based products such as SME Power Pack and SME Power Gain.

“After we started the campaign to publicise these products, there was a huge increase in the number of such accounts which give our SME clients facilities like multi-city cheque books and anywhere banking,” Mr Raja said.

The Mumbai Circle, which includes Maharashtra and Goa, has an SME portfolio of about Rs 25,600 crore and housing loan portfolio of about Rs 1,900 crore.

There was an increase in the number of ‘SME Power Gain’ and ‘SME Power Pack’ accounts from 37 in the first quarter to 272 in the period up to mid-September, he added.

The fee-based income, which includes income from government business and cross-selling, has increased from Rs 218 crore as on June 30, to Rs 1,287 crore as on August 31. The target is a growth of 30 per cent in fee income, Mr Raja said.

The bank is also planning a campaign to migrate customers, both existing and new, to alternative channels like net banking and ATM.

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