Reinforcing its customer-first strategy, State Bank of India (SBI) has announced that it will continue distributing financial products developed by its own subsidiaries, including mutual funds and insurance offerings. The bank said this approach gives it greater control over product quality and ensures that products remain suitable for customer needs.
SBI Chairman Challa Sreenivasulu Setty said the bank remains firmly focused on its core banking business and has no plans to shift away from its strengths in deposits, advances and customer acquisition.
“SBI always has been focusing on the core. Otherwise, you don’t serve 53 crore customers. We acquire 60,000 to 70,000 new customers every day, and we carry the largest market share in deposits and advances. Diversion from core has never been our area,” he said.
Setty added that SBI continues to serve customers across all segments, from small account holders to high-net-worth individuals, while maintaining its focus on banking services.
“We are completely focused on the core activity of banking and serving millions of customers across geographies. The core is intact,” Setty said.
He also acknowledged the growing demand for investment products and said the bank is working to meet these requirements while ensuring that customers receive products that are appropriate for their financial needs.
“We have realised that there are investment needs of customers, and more importantly, the appropriateness has to be taken care of,” he said.
Highlighting the growth potential, Setty noted that mutual fund penetration remains below 4% of SBI’s total customer base.
“Mutual fund itself is less than 4 per cent of our total customer base. We know the penetration levels across products are still low,” he said.
He added that SBI will continue offering products manufactured by its own subsidiaries because the bank can maintain stronger oversight over product quality and customer-focused design.
“Without losing focus on the core, we would like to make these products available. We will stick to products manufactured by our own subsidiaries because we have much more control in terms of the quality of the products and also what we design for our customers,” Setty said.
With a network of more than 25,000 branches and 60,000 to 70,000 new customers joining every day, SBI sees significant opportunities to expand investment products, especially in smaller cities and towns where participation in the formal investment ecosystem remains low.
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