SBI plans separate entity for rural biz
This was the thrust of the day’s discussions at the three-day conclave of the bank’s senior officials being held in Mumbai.
According to an official from SBI, the plan is to have a vertical split of the bank’s structural organisation into rural and metro-urban.
The rural network would also offer products such as personal and home loans while the metro-urban branches would offer agri products along with other products.
With big corporates such as Reliance, Bharti, ITC and others getting into agri and allied businesses, there is scope for such products even in urban areas, the official pointed out.
It is not clear whether the separate unit for rural would be a subsidiary or another bank equivalent to SBI, the official added. But it would be within the SBI umbrella.
In order to take advantage of the growing agriculture business in India, SBI has been focusing on the agri sector in a big way .
It had set up the agri business unit, headed by a Deputy Managing Director in March 2004. Agricultural advances grew over 30 per cent in 2006-07 and even in the first quarter of 2007-08.
