SBBJ to advance Rs 300 crore to Rajasthan farms

He said the bank would focus on retail banking, fee-based income and relatively safe high-yielding advances to the trade, personal and rural sectors.

Srikantan said Rajasthan accounted for the bank's 63 per cent advances, 76 per cent deposits and 82 per cent branches. "We plan to consolidate our position in the state," he said.

The bank plans to advance Rs 300 crore more to the agriculture sector this year in the state.

The bank has launched several personal loan schemes and the housing, education, vehicle loans will be the priority.

The "coaching plus" scheme, launched recently, has been well received. Under the scheme, a maximum amount of Rs 75,000 is given to a student for coaching at a competitive rate and easy terms and conditions.

Customer service continued to be a priority and efforts were on to improve the quality of services and customer satisfaction, he said.

To improve services, the bank plans to upgrade its branches. "It has become necessary to improve ambience and make the bank more customer-friendly," Srikantan said.

The bank has computerised 545 branches and the remaining 260 branches will be computerised by March, 2004. He said the 545 computerised branches accounted for over 90 per cent of the business.

The bank has installed 55 automated teller machines (ATMs). Of this, 45 are connected with the State Bank of India ATM network.

The bank will set up 200 more ATMs by March 2004. The bank would connect them to the common network of the SBI group, the managing director said.

To provide Internet banking services, inter-branch transaction facilities like e-remittances, e-collection, cheque truncation and cash management services the bank has installed VSATs at different locations.

The bank would soon introduce tele-banking, anywhere-banking facilities at some of the branches, he added.