SBI rolls out more schemes to boost deposits

State Bank of India, the country's largest commercial bank, is taking some more steps to retain its existing customers, attract new ones and beef up its deposit base.

Recently, it had tweaked the ‘minimum balance’ policy and announced a waiver of that requirement. Now, the bank has introduced multi-city cheques with a limit of Rs 5 lakh for (personal banking) customers.

MULTI-CITY CHEQUES

A multi-city cheque is a facility wherein the customer can issue cheques that are drawn at the base branch in one city and payable at a branch of the bank at any other city. These cheques will be treated as local cheques at the remote branch. There will be no collection charges and the amount will be credited on the same day, as in the case of local cheques.

No collection charges are applicable even if the cheque is dropped at a bank other than the base bank.

The first 50 cheque leaves will be given free to every customer and the charge for subsequent issues has been reduced from Rs 3 to Rs 2 per cheque leaf.

INSURANCE POLICY

The bank has introduced a personal accident insurance product at a very nominal rate for savings customers to create demand for the savings product. It also plans to roll out a medical insurance policy for customers over the next two months. Personal banking divisions have been created at 433 branches to focus especially on personal domestic deposits.

The bank has also installed customer amenities such as air-conditioners at large branches.

PERFORMANCE INCENTIVES

The bank has just announced performance incentives in two slabs for achieving deposit targets of 20 per cent and 25 per cent above March 31, 2012, levels.

But only middle management and senior management cadres have been included in the scheme.Officers, clerks and other staff are not eligible.

vinson.kurian@thehindu.co.in