NEW DELHI: The State Bank of India (SBI) on Friday said that it has created a new vertical that will improve coordination on government-sponsored schemes and help it grow its agri-loan book by 10 per cent during this financial year. Called the Financial Inclusion and Micro Market (FI&MM) vertical, the division launched in June 2020 will offer loans predominantly for agriculture and allied activities, and micro and small enterprises.
“The decentralisation is expected to bring cost-efficiencies. The idea is that the size of the business should go up without increasing any extra resources. Nearly 40 per cent of the network of the bank was contributing to only 16-18 per cent of the business as typically, the ticket size of these loans is up to Rs 10 lakh. For agriculture, we have kept a growth target of Rs 20,000 crore this year,” said SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar.
In a bid to promote financial inclusion to the micro-segment and focus on all the government-sponsored schemes including direct benefits transfer like PM-KISAN, in coordination with various departments and ministries, the lender has also relocated the FI&MM division from its Mumbai corporate office to the national capital.
“This will help us to focus and improve our synergy with government agencies and functionaries. Regular interaction with ministries like agriculture, rural development, water resources and urban development,” he said.