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SBI To Add More Retail Products Online

India’s largest lender will use data analytics to study spending habits.

Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman of the State Bank of India  (Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg) 
Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman of the State Bank of India (Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg) 

Country’s largest lender State Bank of India Ltd. (SBI) said it would put more retail products in the digital space and use analytics to study spending habits.

“In the digital space, SBI will now put more retail products,” said Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya at an event by industry body FICCI. “This is because adoption in the digital space will be more quick as compared to conventional transactional banking,”
she added.

Bhattacharya emphasised that the bank, using the digital space, would be married to analytics to study the spending habits of the consumers. "But this will be bit intrusive", she cautioned.

The bank is also looking at value-additions using platforms to bring together corporate buyers and sellers and find out who is producing what, she said. Commenting on the credit growth in Indian economy, she said that ideally it should be nine percent given the gross domestic product and low inflation figures.

But credit growth is “low” at seven percent, she lamented. “Even including corporates which borrow in the forms of bonds and commercial papers, the credit growth will be between 7.5 percent to eight percent,” she said.

The SBI chairman also said that the bank’s number of recruits will lower, but added that SBI has been taking in probationary officers from “time to time”.

The public sector lender inaugurated its first wealth management service in Mumbai on Tuesday. The bank was looking at aspiring individuals with a minimum net worth of Rs 30 lakh for imparting financial advise, Bhattacharya said.