State Bank of India (SBI) today said that it will launch a 'Dealers Accounts Drive' from July 1, lasting over the next six months, wherein inventory funding for dealers would be offered at a reduced interest rate.
"The interest advantage to dealers would be to the extent of 0.50 per cent," SBI's CGM-SME, B S Bhasin, told PTI here.
This would be in addition to the recent 0.50 per cent reduction in the bank's prime lending rate, Bhasin said.
In addition to a lower interest rate, dealers who avail finance from the bank during the campaign period, would also get full waiver of mortgage charges.
"Normally, dealers who avail credit facilities from the bank offer some collateral security in the form of lending property. When such collateral security is offered as a part of the services, banks charge a fee for creation of such security. SBI has waived these mortgages for dealer accounts during the campaign period," Bhasin said.
SBI would also offer a wide range of deposit and transaction products to dealers such as roaming current account. "With over 11,800 branches, SBI offers access to dealers' current accounts from anywhere across the country," he said.
Further, convenience of transaction is offered in the form of RTGS, NEFT, multi-city cheques and Internet banking facilities to dealers at very attractive charges.
The bank is also offering 24x7 cash management product styled as B-to-B payment solutions, which can be used by dealers to effect transfer of funds to their industry major, the bank said.
SBI had, about three months ago, started a vendor finance unit and "we have received a very good response", Bhasin said. The unit does both vendor as well as dealer financing.
"We are already very strong in vendor financing and in order to beef ourselves up in dealer financing, we have started this scheme," he said.
Since the start of this unit three months ago, the bank has already bagged 10 major accounts in vendor financing, he said.
