The country?s largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), has set higher deposit targets for its business branches in urban centres, and is looking to tap high networth individuals (HNIs). The bank has also asked its managers in Tier III towns to aggressively sell its mortgage-backed products like car and home loans besides market-linked mutual fund schemes.
According to an SBI executive, the bank has told its regional officers to ensure R10 crore in deposits and enrolment of at least 120 HNIs as new customers annually per branch. Moreover, the targets set for the bank branches would be reviewed on monthly basis.
The country?s HNI population grew at 20.8% to 1,53,000 in 2010 from 126,700 in 2009, according to the World Wealth Report by Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and Capgemini in June. India?s HNI population grew for the second straight year, and the country replaced Spain to bag 12th position in the global list in 2010, the report said.
The bank has directed its branches to aggressively sell its insurance products under SBI Life with addition of new customers. SBI is the country?s largest lender with 13,000 branches, and the group had 21.6% in total deposits in the banking sector at March-end 2011.
?Earlier, targets for different products were not segregated. There used to be a consolidated target of R 4-5 crore annually for the branches,? the executive said. The SBI is implementing its aggressive business plan at a time when international rating agency Moody?s has downgraded its standalone rating on concerns of ?modest capital and weakening asset quality?.
SBI?s Tier I capital, which comprises equity, discloses reserves and perptual debt, is now at 7.6% of risk weighted assets, much below the 8% set by the government.
SBI chairman Pratip Chaudhuri on Wednesday highlighted the urgency of capital infusion into the bank, and outlined its plans to conserve capital of about R1,000-1,200 crore.
The bank has been trying to sell a rights issue of R20,000 crore. Chaudhuri said the government would infuse between R 3,000 and R10,000 crore capital into the bank by March 2012.