SBI Financial Inclusion & Micro Market vertical launched; rural, allied activities to benefit

In a major restructuring exercise, the State Bank of India (SBI) has created a separate 'Financial Inclusion & Micro Market' (FI&MM) vertical within the Bank with an exclusive focus on Financial Inclusion & Micro markets. SBI's FI&MM vertical will focus in rural and semi urban areas to vastly improve customer experience for the citizens in the hinterland. Under this newly launched Vertical, SBI will offer loans predominantly for agriculture and allied activities, and micro/small enterprises.

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 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.”

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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.

To ensure special focus and smooth functioning at the local level, the FI&MM Vertical will comprise of a four tiered structure under the Chief General Manager, General Manager, RMs at Regional Business Offices (RBO) & District Sales Hub 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.

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 moratorium on term loans and working capital.