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State Bank of India (SBI) Bangalore Circle plans to grow its home loan portfolio by about 22 per cent to Rs 2,200 crore this fiscal.
“Looking at the potential, we have taken a slew of initiatives in the housing sector, which continues to attract lot of interest in Bangalore. The city is next to Mumbai and Delhi’s NCR region in terms of volume,” said Ashwini Mehra, Chief General Manager of SBI Bangalore Circle.
To achieve the Rs 2,200-crore target, the bank has strengthened its processing centre and is planning to add a few more in Bangalore.
“After Kormangala, Banaswadi, and Basavanagudi, we are thinking of opening it either in Peenya or at Hebbal, Yelehanka side,” he said.
In the terms of presence and business in Karnataka, SBI has been far ahead of other nationalised banks. Mehra said, “Particularly in the home loan sector, we’ve taken a clear lead over almost everybody. We have been growing very well.”
Tier II cities
In addition to Bangalore, the bank is strong in tier II cities as well. “In Karnataka, we are seeing some traction in Mangalore and in Mysore. We were expecting a similar trend in Belgaum, but it is has not happened,” Mehra said.
“We are trying to see if we can work around Belgaum, Hubli and Gulbarga. Here we have not really seen much of traction. Ninety per cent of our home loan portfolio basically comes from Bangalore, because even the people who are staying outside Bangalore are always looking for setting up a home in the city,” he added.
SME/Agriculture
SBI’s exposure to SME segment has seen a setback. The setback is primarily with a few industries and also due to the dull overall investment climate, because of the side effects of whatever is happening in the Bellary-Hospet belt.
Mehra said, “There is a similar effect on the services as well on the trading activity. But therefore the major growth has come essentially from what we call the personal segment. That has grown quite robustly and we had actually setbacks in SME and in agriculture. Especially in agriculture because of drought during the last three years in the State.”
anil.u@thehindu.co.in
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