State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH) on Wednesday opened four all-woman branches in the country, one each at Visakhapatnam, Salem, Bangalore and Pune, according to K. Ramesh Babu, Deputy General Manager in charge of the Visakhapatnam zone.
After the inauguration of the branch here on Wednesday morning, he told reporters that such branches would create a sort of "comfort zone" for women, even though the functioning of such branches would remain more or less the same as that of other branches.
"Of course, men can also transact their business through such branches, for banking is gender-neutral. It is only with the intention of putting woman customers more at ease we are opening such branches. For instance, a first generation woman entrepreneur starting a small or micro enterprise may find it easier to obtain a loan in such a branch. It does not mean rules would be relaxed, or waived, for women but the hassles may be less in a woman-to-woman transaction," he explained.
He said the staff of the all-woman branch here would be five. The branch was inaugurated by G.B.M Ratna Kumari, Managing Director of the Vaibhav group, and the ATM by M. Janaki, Additional Commissioner of the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation.
He said there were 260 woman employees in the 157 branches in Visakhapatnam zone (the districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari and West Godavari). They constitute 23 per cent of the workforce.
Ramesh Babu said the SBH had introduced a special deposit scheme for women, christened SBH Ujwala, providing free personal accident insurance cover of up to Rs 4 lakh and concessions in processing charges and interest rates.
He said the deposits in the zone amounted to Rs 5,000 crore and advances, Rs 3,500 crore. The bank's business as a whole amounted to Rs 2,12,000 crore. He said SBH was observing the current financial year as Year of MSME and the bank had so far financed 9,000 units in the zone with an outlay of Rs 750 crore.
Ch. Syamala Devi, the branch manager, and controller Madhuri Gijare spoke on the occasion.
sarma.rs@thehindu.co.in