SBI Launches New Vertical To Focus On Small Borrowers

On Tuesday, State Bank of India (SBI) said that it has created a separate vertical to focus on financial inclusion and micro-markets (FI&MM). The 'Financial Inclusion and Micro Market' vertical will exclusively focus on rural and semi-urban areas to improve customer experience by offering loans predominantly for agriculture and allied activities, and micro/small enterprises.

The largest lender in the country has identified about 8,000 branches in rural and semi-urban areas for providing specialized services to the micro-segment including micro-credit for small businesses and farmers.

It also aims to improve service quality and availability of banking services through the bank's network of over 63,000 Customer Service Points in rural, semi-urban, urban and metro areas, SBI said, with an aim to boost to the micro-finance sector.

"The key elements of creating the vertical are to bring sharper focus to different business lines and improve the quality of interaction with customers at the branch. This is a key initiative by SBI to cater to financial requirements of people residing in the hinterland of the country, as part of its financial inclusion journey. The new vertical will provide an opportunity to serve the small business, agri and allied segment so that they can run their businesses smoothly, especially in the current times of uncertainty," said Rajnish Kumar, SBI's Chairman.

The vertical will be headed by Sanjeev Nautiyal.