SBI launches ‘Financial Inclusion & Micro Market’ vertical
Separate vertical for special focus on lending activities in FI, Agri & allied businesses. Bank to offer micro-credit through nearly 8000 rural & semi-urban branches pan India. The special FI&MM Vertical has been set-up mainly for addressing investment credit needs of agriculture and small borrowers The new Vertical will be headed by a DMD rank official
New Delhi, In a major restructuring exercise, SBI, the largest lender of the country has created a separate FI&MM vertical within the Bank with an exclusive focus on Financial Inclusion & Micro markets especially in rural & semi-urban areas to vastly improve the customer experience for the citizens in the hinterland. Under this newly launched Vertical, the Bank will offer loans predominantly for agriculture & allied activities, and micro/small enterprises.
About 8000 branches in rural and semi-urban areas have been identified for providing specialized services to the micro-segment including micro-credit for small businesses and farmers. The thrust is also to improve service quality and availability of banking services through the Bank’s vast network of over 63000 Customer Service Points in rural, semi-urban, urban & metro areas. The new Vertical will provide a boost to the micro-finance sector.
Launching the Vertical, Rajnish Kumar, Chairman, SBI said “Today is an important day in our resolve to ensure that SBI stands with the citizens of the country, across all segments. The key elements of creating the FI&MM 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 the financial requirements of people residing in the hinterland of the country, as part of its financial inclusion journey. The new FI&MM Vertical will provide an opportunity to serve the small business, Agri & allied segment so that they can run their businesses smoothly, especially in the current times of uncertainty. The creation of the FI&MM Vertical was conceived, created and implemented fully in house.”
At the national level, the FI&MM vertical will be headed by Shri. Sanjeev Nautiyal, DMD
To ensure special focus and smooth functioning at the Circle level, the FI&MM Vertical is headed by GM FIMM under CGM of the Circle and is operated from LHO. The GM FIMM Network will be supported by 3 DGMs, 8 FIMM RMs and 22 DSHs with a view to strengthen the credit delivery system and improve the turnaround time for quick sanctions and disbursement of small loans. The primary emphasis will be on consolidating the district level presence which will provide constant sales & recovery support to branches in the FI&MM Network. The DSHs will also play an important role In strengthening the reach of Customer Service Points (CSP) and ensure improvement in quality & availability of services rendered to customers.
In New Delhi Circle, 612 branches out of 1630 branches covering the states of Uttarakhand, Western Uttar Pradesh and Delhi NCR, have been identified for FI&MM vertical under the leadership of CGM Delhi Circle, Sh. Vijuy Ronjan.
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, SBI has been at the forefront in providing relief measures to existing SME borrowers, such as 10% of fund-based working capital limits by way of CCECL (Common COVID 19 Emergency Credit Line), easing of working capital finance along with a moratorium on term loans and working capital.