State Bank of Saurashtra in spread mode

The Bhavnagar-based State Bank of Saurashtra (SBS) plans to bring all its 419 branches under the core banking solutions (CBS) platform by September 2005.

SBS is also making preparations to shift the regional offices to Delhi and Mumbai before the year end, paving the way for expansion of the bank branches outside the state.

Speaking to Business Standard on Monday, S K Singh, managing director, SBS, said, "At the moment, only 50 branches are under the CBS platform, which will be increased to 175 by March 31. After September 30, all the customers of SBS will become customers of the bank instead of customers of branches," Singh said.

Singh said that by September, SBS will have spent a sum of Rs 70 crore on technology upgradation which will include investments for the CBS platform, computerisation and for expanding the ATM network.

Singh stated that the northern region office and the regional office covering Maharashtra and south India, which are at present located at Ahmedabad, will be shifted to Delhi and Mumbai, respectively, before the end of the current financial year.

"Having the regional offices in north India and Mumbai will ensure that the bank will be able to control branches that we intend to open outside the state," Singh said.

Almost all the branches of SBS are at present located in Gujarat.

Singh said that SBS record is one of the best for priority sector lending, agriculture sector lending and SSI lending.

"We have a priority sector lending of 45-47 per cent, 19 per cent for agriculture lending and 15 per cent SSI lending, which is among the best in the industry," Singh said.