New chief wants SBI to be retail banking leader

Chaudhuri wants to pare NPAs,do a balancing act on teaser home loans

State Bank of Indias new chairman Pratip Chaudhuri on Friday set his agenda for the largest commercial bank in the country,promising to consolidate the trailblazing gains made during the five-year tenure of former chairman OP Bhatt. Chaudhuri vowed to bring down bad loans and do a balancing act on the teaser home loan issue.

We will consolidate the gains made during the tenure of Mr Bhatt. Now that we have been catapulted to the leadership position,we would like to consolidate the operations. Deposit taking would remain as important. Technology would be high priority and international operations will continue expansion. We would also bring down non-performing assets (NPAs) to appropriate levels, Chaudhuri said after chairing the first board meeting of the bank.

SBIs aim will be to position itself as a retail banking leader. “We need to take corrective measures to boost topline growth,” he said. Bhatt had taken SBI to greater heights through his aggressive moves on the retail front,especially home loans.

“The growth so far in deposits and advances is close to industry averages. We want to better that,” he said. On his predecessor Bhatt’s work,Chaudhuri,57,said,”there is need to take forward expansion initiatives generated by Bhatt. He was a very capable leader and SBI was fortunate to have been led by him.”

On the bank’s controversial teaser loans,he said the bank will “engage” with the central bank to lower the higher-than-comfortable provisioning requirement. “The current provisioning requirement of 2 per cent (on teaser loans) is a bit difficult for the bank when compared with the earlier 0.40 per cent,” Chaudhuri said,and added it will “engage with the central bank” to solve the issue,as it does not want to take a belligerent stance against the regulator.

“The current product offers enormous value to the customers,it has helped millions to own homes as a final settlement we would like to have something which delivers value to the customers and also takes care of the regulatory concerns,” he said. On acquisitions,he said,”Infosys policy will be our mantra. We won’t go for takeover for the sake of it. We will do it if the acquisition adds value to the bank.”

Prior to taking over as SBIs chairman,Chaudhuri was its Dy MD (International Banking Group). During his tenure of 37 years in SBI,Chaudhuri has held a number of important positions,including those of chief GM (Foreign Offices),chief GM of Chennai Circle and GM (Mid-Corporate Group).