Taking the lead among State-owned banks, State Bank of India, the country’s largest commercial bank, formally entered the wealth management space with the launch of ‘SBI Exclusif’ in the capital on Friday.
To begin with, this new offering will be targeted at the upwardly mobile and not the ultra high networth individuals, Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson, SBI, told a press conference here.
“It would be right to say that our ‘SBI Exclusif’ offering will be targeted at the mass affluent. Over time, we may look at offering this service to ultra high networth individuals as well, but not now,” she said.
“We will be targeting both existing SBI customers as well as new customers for this service offering.
“There will be no bias towards existing SBI customers,” Bhattacharya added.
Any individual who has availed loans of over ₹1 crore from a bank or holds deposits of ₹30 lakh or earns a salary of ₹2 lakh and more a month can become an ‘SBI Exclusif’ customer.
‘Omni-channel’ model This offering — launched by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday — will follow the “omni-channel” model, with both in-person and first-of-its kind ‘e-wealth’ channel (remotely via a call or video conversation) or through future ready digital (Internet banking/mobile) channels.
SBI’s one-year aim is to get 5,500 customers for its ‘SBI Exclusif’ offering and aims to achieve assets under management of ₹7,500 crore, Manju Agarwal, Deputy Managing Director, SBI, said.
She also said, going forward, ‘SBI Exclusif’ would be made available to corporates, trusts, temple funds, army funds and other organisations with surplus funds.
As part of the wealth management service offering, SBI will offer investment advice on debt, equities, G-Secs and also structured products, Manju added. For structured products, SBI has already tied up with private players such as Reliance Capital and Citibank.
To begin with, ‘SBI Exclusif’ will “not be a priced service,” Bhattacharya said. After gaining experience over time, this offering may be converted into a “fee model”. “All our fees, as and when we decide to introduce, will be upfront and transparent. We are a public sector bank and there will be no hidden charges,” she added.
Pan India roll out SBI had in January this year launched this offering on a pilot basis in Bengaluru. Now, after its formal launch today, this wealth management service will be rolled out pan-India across 37 centres by end-March this fiscal, Bhattacharya said.
In India, public sector banks have traditionally not been in the area of wealth management as a dedicated service.
“There is a need for such specialised wealth management services in India given the growing affluence of people in the country,” she said.