SBI forms team to look into fintech opportunities

Country's largest lender State Bank of India today said it has formed a team which will look into opportunities in financial technology space.
"We have set up a team under a chief general manager who has been made responsible for evaluating opportunities in fintech space. Wherever he feels that there is something SBI will like to partner with, he will take the call," SBI managing director (national banking group) Rajnish Kumar told reporters on the sidelines of a Fin Tech Conference here.
"It is a question of whether you develop everything in house or if there is something where somebody has already applied their mind and have invested time and money, and whether you can benefit of that relationship," he said.

He said the team is close to finalising some partnership in the fintech space.
Kumar said SBI will look at scalability as volume for any kind of transactions for the bank is very high.
Talking about the merger of five associate banks into SBI, Kumar said it will bring in alignment of products, services, pricing and administration.

"Post merger, we expect that customers satisfaction and experience to be much more enhanced," he said.
Earlier this month, the Cabinet gave go-ahead to the merger plan of SBI and its five associates - State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Travancore (SBT), State Bank of Patiala (SBP) and State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH).

SBI later said all the five associates will merge with it from April 1.
Kumar said retail book of SBI currently is at Rs 6.75 lakh crore and after the merger the portfolio of the combined entity would increase to around Rs 10 lakh crore.