Winning Bizness Sports Desk

Mumbai. If you are a customer of State Bank of India (SBI)- the country's largest government bank- and you have taken a loan from the bank, make sure you don't miss a single EMI. The bank has launched a new campaign to ensure timely payment of loan installments. This campaign of State Bank of India is unique and special in Gandhigiti style. If the bank feels that a customer will not pay the EMI on time, the bank sends chocolates to his home. The bank said that the customer who avoids paying the EMI does not answer the bank's reminder calls. From this it is understood that the concerned customers are reluctant to pay EMI. In such a case the bank will now send chocolates directly to his home to remind him to make the payment.

Boom in retail loans in the banking sector

Interestingly, the SBI has launched this campaign at a time when there is a boom in retail loans in the banking sector. There has been a huge increase in retail loans. But with this increase, there has also been an increase in cases of missed monthly payments. Meanwhile, all the banks are starting different initiatives for EMI and repayment. In this, this chocolate scheme of SBI is also an attempt to ensure recovery. In the case of SBI, retail loans increased to Rs 12,04,279 crore in the June 2023 quarter. A year ago i.e. in June 2022 quarter it was Rs 10,34,111 crore. Therefore, the bank's retail loans have increased by 16.46 percent in one year. As of June 2023, SBI's total debt stood at Rs 33,03,731 crore. Thus retail loans now account for the largest share of the bank's loan book.

Bank campaign in pilot phase

The Managing Director of the SBI Ashwini Kumar Tiwari said, "The bank's campaign is still in the pilot phase. SBI started the scheme 10 to 15 days ago. The initial response is good and the campaign is improving the collection. If the pilot phase gets good results, it will go a long way."