The State Bank of India (SBI) will pursue an aggressive strategy by offering more number of digital products and strengthening the Business Correspondents Model to take on the competition from new banking and other entities, its chief said here on Saturday.
Participating at an interaction organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce, SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya said the country's largest bank has to step up its aggressiveness as competition will "hot up", with the country metamorphosing from being unbanked to properly banked.
"With the country moving from being unbanked to properly banked, competition will hot up. And so it is better to go on the offence," she said.
A number of payment banks, small finance banks and foreign banks together will intensify the competition in the sector, she said.
"We will adopt an aggressive strategy. We will come up with more digital products and strengthen the Business Correspondents' Model," she said.
Bhattacharya said stringent regulatory conditions around the world were affecting banks which are unable to help weaker entities, who remain out of the formal banking system.
She said to meet the Basel III - international regulatory framework for banks - norms, the banks require around Rs.4.6 lakh crore.