"This year will be a watershed year for public sector banking and SBI in particular. We have always been the largest bank in India. Now we are graduating to a higher plane. From this year onwards, SBI is going to give personal banking a new face," says State Bank chief general manager AK Batra.

SBI is banking on a few core strengths which, it feels, none of its competitors can match. They are its large branch network, pricing and ability to access high technology. Together, this means the SBI can offer innovative products.

The counter-offensive will be launched alongfive fronts, involving the opening of 100 specialised personnel banking branches and offering a slew of consumer financing schemes, housing finance, credit cards and insurance products.

The bank will open 100 specialised personnel banking (SPB) branches all over the country by September 1998. These specialised branches will match the hi-tech foreign and private bank branches in terms of the products, service, technology and ambience. The bank is trying to build a new brand around the SPB branches as distinct from other SBI branches by having identical decor and layout for of them.

The idea is to see off competition from foreign and private banks by stealing their USP of personalised banking. Within a single year SBI expects to have more high-tech branches than many of its competitors put together. The advantage for SBI would be its large resource base and existing presence across the country, while its competitors are mainly restricted to metros. SBI will have nearly half of its SPB branches in themetros, but will also spread across other large towns as well. Mumbai alone will have 18 SPB branches, which is by far the largest hi-tech branch network in any city by any foreign or private sector bank.

The second thrust area will be in offering consumer finance to a wide section of people. Unlike finance companies that enter into agreements with retail merchandisers for financing consumer loans, SBI will offer loans directly to the consumer. The scheme, which will be launched later this month, will initially target government and public sector employees and will involve a maximum amount of Rs 1.50 lakh.

The third focus area is housing finance -- an activity that will be independent of SBI's own housing finance subsidiary, SBI Home Finance. Housing finance was launched by the bank last year when faced with slow commercial credit offtake. This will be intensified this year with housing finance from Rs 3 lakh upwards. The repayment period is planned to be longer than what is offered by housing financecompanies.

Credit Cards, the fourth thrust area, will be launched soon. The bank is waiting for clearance from the government for its joint venture proposal with GE Capital of the US, which is expected any time now. The fifth thrust area is SBI's proposed entry into the insurance sector. With its network of over 8,000 branches, one of the largest in the world, SBI feels that it has a great advantage in channelising a major chunk of the country's insurance business.

While the credit card venture may take off by the end of the year and insurance will depend on the fate of the legislation required to get it going, work is at an advanced stage in all other thrust areas. The bank launched its first hybrid banking product, `Multi Option Deposit Scheme' (MODS), on July 2, taking off from similar schemes offered by the foreign and new private sector banks. The MODS is a fixed deposit which can be drawn down by a cheque.