Crime Today News
State Bank of India (SBI) plans to engage the services of personnel from its wholly-owned subsidiary, State Bank Operations Support Services (SBOSS), to shepherd its customers towards alternate banking channels.
The role of the “Grahak Mitra” (customers’ friend) from SBOSS will be to encourage customers to utilise the services available through self-service channels and also provide them first level assistance at SBI’s branches.
The Grahak Mitras will be deployed at about 4,500 branches or 20 per cent of the Bank’s 22,740 branches across the country, according to a senior Bank executive.
This move is aimed at taking the pressure off SBI’s branches, which are usually a beehive of activity. It is one of the authorised banks in whose branches central government employees maintain salary accounts and ex-employees receive pension. Besides, many customers receive direct benefit transfer from the Government in their accounts with the Bank.
The self-service channels of India’s largest bank include physical options such as ATMs and ADWMs (Automated Deposit Cum Withdrawal Machines), self-service kiosks, SWAYAM barcode-based passbook printing kiosks, and cheque deposit kiosk; and digital platforms such as internet banking, mobile banking (YONO) and WhatsApp banking.
ATM replacement/upgrade
To ensure that its alternate channels run round the clock, the Bank is looking to replace/upgrade almost 62 per cent (or 40,000) of its ATMs/ADWMs (Automated Deposit Cum Withdrawal Machines) in FY26 and roll out 5,500 new barcode-based passbook printing kiosks.
As at December-end 2024, the Bank had 65,000 ATMs/ ADWMs. As at March-end 2024, the Bank had 20,135 SWAYAM barcode-based passbook printing kiosks at 17,663 branches and approximately 11 Lakh transactions were being processed daily. On an average, the SWAYAMs were able to migrate 3.4 crore passbook printing transactions every month from the branch counters, per SBI’s annual report.
The Bank’s alternate channel transactions rose to 98.1 per cent as at December-end 2024 against 88.1 per cent as at March-end 2019.
Published on April 14, 2025
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