EXPLAINED: How to apply for SBI home, car, education, retail loan restructuring online - Check step by step guide

The country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has said that it has launched a facility on its website to help retail customers check their eligibility for one-time loan restructuring announced by the RBI. Last month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had announced a one-time restructuring scheme for personal loan and corporate borrowers affected by COVID-19 stress.

Are you eligible?

- The customers can check their eligibility for the restructuring of their loans through this portal sitting at their home/office or from anywhere as per their convenience and comfort.  

- Under this resolution framework framed by RBI, such borrowers are eligible whose loan accounts were classified as standard and not default for equal to or more than 30 days as on March 1, 2020, and their incomes are impacted by COVID-19.

- The approval of borrowers’ loan restructuring application under this scheme - which is going to be governed by RBI guidelines - would be conveyed to them by the SBI branch/CPC

-"We thought instead of people actually visiting our branches, we can provide this tool and they can initially check their eligibility," the bank's managing director (retail & digital banking) C S Setty said.

-An eligible customer, however, will have to later visit the bank's branch for completion of other formalities such as signing of papers and others

Step by step guide

- The portal is available on https://bank.sbi/ or https://sbi.co.in

- SBI’s retail customers upon logging in the portal will be asked to key in their account number.

- After completion of OTP validation and inputting a few necessary information, the customer will come to know their eligibility and receive a reference number.

- This reference number will be valid for 30 days and within which time customers can visit the branch to complete the required formalities.

- The restructuring process will be complete after verification of documents and execution of simple documents at branch/CPC.

On this occasion, CS Setty, Managing Director (Retail & Digital Banking), SBI expressed the hope that with the launch of this portal, the customers will find it operationally convenient to check their eligibility before they go to a branch.

"We would like to address those who had temporary job loss and are likely to come back, maybe after 6, 8, 9, 12 months or up to 24 months. We are completely relying upon his own assessment because when he will get the job, it's not in our hands," Setty said.

According to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) put out by the bank on its website, a retail borrower who avails restructuring will be required to pay additional interest of 0.35 per cent per annum for the remaining tenure of the loan.

RBI's Resolution Framework

-According to the RBI's Resolution Framework for COVID-19-related Stress, only those retail borrower accounts shall be eligible for resolution which were standard, but not in default for more than 30 days as on March 1, 2020.

-Resolution under this framework may be invoked not later than December 31, 2020 and must be implemented within 90 days from the date of invocation.