SBI identifies 7 lakh accounts for providing overdraft facility

Kolkata, Aug 3  The country's largest lender State Bank of India has identified 7 lakh accounts, which were opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), for providing overdraft facility, a top bank official said on Wednesday.

"We have identified 700,000 account holders who can take overdraft facility. Under financial inclusion, we have just crossed 10 crore accounts," said State Bank of India's Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya.

Seven lakh loans (taking overdraft) will be provided for personal purposes also, not necessarily for entrepreneurship, she said at the 13th Banking Conclave organised by FICCI.

"These are small loans. Amount of loans depends up on account holder's turnover. This is basically for the people who have sufficient turnover in their accounts in order to get an overdraft," she said.

People who are belonging to low-income group and have opened accounts under PMJDY are eligible for such loans.

She said even after the successful ending of PMJDY, the bank used to open 60,000 accounts a day in the financial inclusion space.

With the help of evolving technology, the bank is looking at franchise model in which a person can provide all the banking services seamlessly and it helps to expand bank's reach, she said.

Bhattacharya said small loans are being delivered by business correspondents. With the upgradation of business correspondents model, the bank is coming up with small value insurance, investment and deposits products, she said.

The SBI chief also said technology was becoming a great enabler in reaching out to the people in rural areas. However, cyber crime becomes an issue of concern among the bankers.

Speaking about the challenges which Indian banking industry is currently dealing with, she said liquidity and asset quality are two major risks. 

"Banks are now required to maintain LCR (liquidity coverage ratio) over and above CRR and SLR. Liquidity risk is the biggest risk which the banking sector was facing today," she added.

Last month, Reserve Bank of India, however, relaxed Basel III-mandated liquidity coverage ratios for banks.