In its second coming into the wealth management space, State Bank of India intends to rope in an international consultant. The business would be done through a separate company, which may be either a wholly-owned subsidiary or a joint venture, Mr Rajeev N. Mehra, General Manager – Financial Planning and Wealth Management, SBI, told Business Line on Wednesday.
The customer relationship manager-driven model did not quite work in this business when SBI dabbled into it for the first time. This time around, the bank is more careful. On the one hand, assistance of an international consultant is being sought. On the other, the bank has pressed into service trained hands — a dedicated group of 200 employees who have been formed into 50 teams spanning across 41 centres in the country.
Mr Mehra does not believe that SBI's late entry into this business is any handicap. While the incumbents typically service the very-high-net-worth individuals, SBI will target the “middle level” — the “mass affluent” who might have bank deposits of between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh.
SBI offers off-the-shelf products, such as one that would aim to reach a targeted sum in a specified number of years, useful for, say, a son's higher education or building a ‘retirement kitty'.