More than 24,000 branches and 42 crore customers make the State Bank of
India (SBI) the goliath of all banks by sheer size and physical presence
but its new chairman Rajnish Kumar is worried about the competition
from nimble fintech companies.
“Today, the risk is the disruption that is caused by the technology ,“
Rajnish Kumar, chairman, State Bank of India (SBI) told ET in an
interview. “We have to be very alert to this challenge. Protecting the
turf and meeting the challenges from all the new fintech companies is
the priority .“
India’s banking landscape has undergone tremendous change in the past
3-4 years with the likes of Paytm, and ItzCash disrupting banking
services. Banks are increasingly worried about the businesses that these
startups could eat into. Wallets and other payment mechanisms have
become the preferred mode of payments as people walking into branches
have dwindled. “We cannot live in this comfort that we have such a huge
dominant market share or customer base,” said Kumar, who would serve at
the helm till 2020. “When you are incumbent, the biggest challenge will
be protecting the turf and continue to remain dominant player.”
Although it is two-century-old, Kumar’s predecessor Arundhati
Bhattacharya laid emphasis on technology by launching products like
Buddy, a wallet, and regaining number one position in mobile banking,
hired experts from outside, including Shiv Bhasin from Barclays. SBI now
has 30% market share in payments space despite facing competition from
new players. “We should not be smug about it. Even if it is a small
player challenging you, you should not underestimate it, because it can
become big player,” said Kumar. “We have to ring fence our market
fully.SBI has brand value and we should not do anything that erodes that
trust.“SBI is set to launch a new mobile app Omni Channel where a
customer can carry out all banking transactions except depositing and
withdrawing cash.
Source: ET
