Deputy Governor of the RBI HR Khan said that the SBI’s aspiration to empower its customers through technology and awareness took a further leap with the bank deciding to enhance awareness of its tech channels amongst customers.
He was speaking at the inauguration of bank’s new initiative, the State Bank Tech learning Centres (TlCs) for customers. As many as 385 TlCs across the country conducted interactive learning sessions and demos of the bank’s tech-channels for about 15,000 customers. Going forward, these workshops will be held on the third Friday of every month between 4 to 6 pm and will be in addition to the guidance on tech-services being provided to the customers through product-brochures, information on website & interaction with customer helpline or frontline staff at branches.
Speaking on the occasion, Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman SBI stated that although there was significant growth in transactions through alternate channels of banking, it was felt that many customers still visit branches for their routine transactions because they feel electronic channels are complex or risky. In the TlC session of about 60-90 minutes, customers will be explained features of various alternate channels, shown live demos and will also be told about the security aspects of each channel.
Bhattacharya informed that State Bank is committed to offering the latest technology based solutions to its customers on continuous basis. By March, 2015, there is a plan to install 4000 additional cash-re-cyclers which serve the twin purpose of cash deposit and withdrawal.
As many as 2500 Bar Code based pass book printing kiosks ‘Swayam’ are being installed across the country in branches with high passbook printing frequency. Every retail branch has at least one Green Channel Counter. The online SBI portal and mobile apps are constantly upgraded to include more & more value added services. SBI’s robust e-banking & payment gateway platform is facilitating over 4 crore e-Commerce transactions per month making State Bank a major player in this space. launched in March 2014, the Bank’s ‘State Bank Anywhere’ app for smart phones became an instant hit. Its unique feature mPassBook is particularly popular. The Chairman appealed to the customers to make the best use of TlCs to enjoy banking in a safe, convenient and 24x7 environment.