State Bank of India has announced three major strategic initiatives to mark the 61st State Bank Day. In the first, it has forged a strategic alliance with Flipkart to offer the consumers of the bank a facility of pre-approved EMIs on purchases. Under this partnership, the bank will provide overdraft facility to pre-qualified set of customers for transacting on Flipkart for a minimum purchase of Rs 5000. The EMI facility will be available in 3 tenures – 6, 9 and 12 months. The bank will not charge any fees to process the facility. Announcing the facility, Rajnish Kumar, MD (National Banking Group) of the bank, said with the introduction of this product EMI facilities on Flipkart are now not limited to just credit cardholders. The objective is to provide finance to credit worthy individuals through an end-to-end online facility without having to go through the process of applying for a personal loan for simple purchases. Flipkart’s senior vice president and head, Consumer Experience and Growth Surojit Chatterjee through this collaboration, Flipkart wants to expand easy financing options to the debit and net-banking user base as well.
The second initiative is the launch of SBI Mingle, a social media banking platform for Facebook and Twitter users. Using SBI Mingle, the bank’s customers can do a host of banking services on their Facebook or Twitter at their own convenience. Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman of the bank, launched the facility. She said since the millennial customers no longer interact with their bank from a traditional channel perspective, the bank is planning to introduce more services like request for chequebook, stop cheque, register for mobile banking, internet banking, SMS alerts and block ATM/debit cards on this platform soon. The customers have to register for this service through a simple one-time registration process using either their account number or their ATM/debit card details. They can then undertake the various banking facilities available on the platform.
The third initiative is SBI Digital Villages, a project aimed at transforming selected villages into digital centers. The bank is launching this initiative in 21 villages. It plans to bring 100 villages under this initiative across the country by the end of FY 2017. The bank is undertaking several activities to achieve 100% financial inclusion with focus on migration to AnyTime channels through State Bank Buddy, PoS, ATMs, micro ATMs, mobile banking and internet banking.
