[sbinews] `Due diligence on banks must before depositing' -Chairman Sri. A.K. Purwar's interview to Businessline
- From: "Rajendra S. Pai" <rs.pai@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <sbinews@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004 09:41:49 +0530
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`Due diligence on banks must before depositing'
Rukmani Vishwanath
N.K. Kurup
(Businessline)
Mumbai , Aug. 15
OVER the next few months, the banking sector may well have to fasten its
seat belts to ride out the rough weather in the wake of rising inflation,
hardening of interest rates globally and several other trying issues.
Industry experts contend that among the major challenges confronting the
banks are maintaining profitability, deploying credit and retaining
depositor confidence.
Mr A.K. Purwar, Chairman, State Bank of India, responded to some of these in
a free-wheeling interview with Business Line. The following are the
excerpts:
What can banks do to retain the confidence of depositors in the wake of run
on some banks?
Safekeeping of money is one of the primary functions of banks. Having said
that, depositors must learn to be more discerning about where they park
their funds. It is necessary for the depositors to do some due diligence.
It is advisable to study the bank's balance sheet, check its asset quality
and risk management systems, and ensure that it complies with prudential
norms. One must not place deposits with any bank just on the lure of
so-called attractive interest rates.
Depositors, who do so without evaluating other factors, run the risk of
losing their principal. Banks are getting themselves rated.
Recently SBI lowered deposit rates by 25 basis points in two buckets in
short-term deposits, a sudden move when inflation had topped 7.51 per cent.
What prompted the bank to lower interest rate?
In these two particular buckets, the interest rates were not aligned with
the market rates and therefore, the bank decided to align them.
It is also true that we have been observing a lot of deposit inflows,
particularly short-term, in these categories. This has been happening
consistently for some time now. So we took the step to realign the rates.
After all, we have to manage our balance sheet.
What are your views on the surging inflation? How long will it be before you
raise interest rates on deposits, or lending rates?
This is a very unusual situation. The rate is very high.
A lot of factors have combined to result in high inflation. I am sure the
Government will take suitable measures to curtail price rise.
A high rate of inflation is worrisome. However, if it is going to continue,
then we can be sure that RBI and the Government will take some steps; and
based on their responses we will take a view.
Will rising inflation in turn impact corporate credit off-take? Is not that
going to be a challenge for banks?
For the last three years, SBI has remained greatly focused on retail side.
In the process, our dependence on corporate lending is not very substantial.
Having said that, the resources in SBI currently are very large and
therefore, we also have to have credit deployment.
On a year-to-year basis SBI has grown by 20 per cent in June. Personal
advances, retail, agriculture, SMEs and infrastructure have basically driven
this growth. I do not foresee much impact of inflation on retail, SMEs or
agriculture.
But there could be some impact on corporate lendings. As far as housing loan
rates are concerned, we are comfortable now. We will review them and will
watch the market very closely from now on.
A number of private banks have applied to the RBI for special permission to
lift the ceiling on capital markets exposure. What about SBI?
We have enough cushion at the moment. Whenever that extra cushion gets
utilised, we may consider the option. But our focus is not on capital
markets. Our focus is on retail.
We are coming out with some products for SMEs and even for infrastructure
lending.
What are SBI's plans for agriculture this year?
We have established an agro-business unit within the bank, which is going to
focus on the entire value chain of agriculture that will establish backward
linkages, i.e., networking of farmers with suppliers of inputs such as
seeds, fertilisers, agrochemicals and forward linkages - covering people
such as processors who buy products. We are now fine-tuning the systems and
for this purpose we are in the process of appointing 500 agriculture
officers. In the first four months, SBI disbursed over Rs 1,000 crore to the
agri sector.
What are the bank's plans for international expansion?
We are still scouting for acquisitions in Asia. In West Asia, we are also
looking to open branches in Qatar, Dubai and Abu-Dhabi. Wherever we get
licenses we will set up operations. Currently, we have branches in Bahrain
and Oman. We are interested not only in the NRI market, but also in the
local economies that are doing very well.
Are you still looking for joint venture partners for SBI Caps and SBI
Factors?
Yes. SBI has set up a lot of good businesses. But our experience has been
that in all our non-core businesses wherever we had a tie-up with a global
partner, we did very well.
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