In his recent statement Mr. P.Nanda Kumaran, who has recently taken over as the Managing Director of the bank said that State Bank of Travancore has completed the target of financial inclusion order by the Reserve Bank of India to all the banks. The RBI has mandated banks throughout the country to appoint a business correspondent in villages across the country which has population of 2000 or more in the first phase of financial inclusion by the end of March 2012.
Mr. Nanda said that State Bank of Travancore has opened a branch in one of the 29 villages and has set up Business Correspondent or Business Facilitator services in the rest of the 28 villages. The Business Facilitator would help the customers in those villages to avail the banking services including opening an account which is very essential now – a – days as most of the benefits under beneficiary schemes are transferred directly to their account.
The bank became a subsidiary of State Bank of India in the year 1960, under the SBI Subsidiary Banks Act, 1959, enacted by the Parliament of India. The bank recently announced a 25 basis point-hike each in base rate and benchmark prime lending rate to 9.75 per cent and 14.50 per cent. The hike in its interest rate is likely to make its loans such as home loan, personal loan, auto loan etc costlier.