State Bank of India (SBI), the largest public sector bank, will launch ‘SBI FinMart’, a financial super market offering various financial products under one roof, from Orissa tomorrow.
The service will be initially available in all urban centre branches, numbering about 150, in cities like Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur, Sambalpur, Rourkela. This will also cover all the 30 district headquarter branches of the bank in the state. Orissa will be the first state in the country where such a scheme, aiming at enabling the customers of SBI to take advantage of various financial products of the bank, will be launched.
“We are going to introduce the concept of ‘SBI FinMart’ in Orissa to enable the customers to know where to go in case they need some financial products. The new concept will make the customer aware how diversified State Bank of India is and how best they can use SBI”, Shiva Kumar, chief general manager (CGM), SBI, Orissa circle told Business Standard.
He said, twelve categories of products will be available in the ‘SBI FinMart’, which include life insurance, mutual fund, general insurance, credit card, gift card, eZ-pay card, internet banking, mobile banking, demat banking, home loan, car loan and savings bank account. Every branch will be a mall for all the financial products, Kumar added.
Sources said, SBI gift card will be a pre-paid plastic card and will be issued for a minimum of Rs 500 and in multiples of Rs 100 thereafter subject to a maximum of Rs 20,000. It can be used at points of sale (POS) for making purchases.
Similarly, SBI eZ-pay card is meant for companies for making payments for payouts. It will be issued at one time cost of Rs 100 and can be re-loaded with a fee of Rs 10 only.
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However, this pre-paid ATM -cum-Debit card can be used both for cash withdrawal and for making purchases at POSs. The maximum reload has been fixed at Rs 50,000.
All the ‘SBI FinMart’ branches will have a FinMart facilitator and his name will be put on the notice board of the bank branch. The designated person will be the guiding person and the common contact person for the customers. He will have to ensure that the required form and the literature are available with him. Importantly, the new initiative is expected to boost the income from the non-traditional business of the bank in the state, which increased by about 100 percent compared to the previous year.
The bank earned Rs 6 crore from this business in the first six months of the current fiscal compared to Rs 3 crore in the same period last year.
The bank recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Orissa government for implementing the electronic benefit transfer (EBT) scheme for beneficiaries under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). It will link all the Gram Panchayats in the state through ‘Banking outposts’.