'Har Ghar Lakhpati': SBI's new mantra for deposit accretion

At a time when banks are finding it challenging to mobilise resources, State Bank of India (SBI)—the country's largest lender—has devised a three-pronged strategy to boost deposit accretion.

- MANOJIT SAHA & ABHIJIT LELE

First is an aspirational product that promises to make depositors lakhpatis by helping them grow their deposits to ₹1 lakh through recurring deposit (RD) schemes.

"RDs are the original systematic investment plans (SIPs)," says SBI Chairman C S Setty. "Earlier, people would ask when their deposits would double. One product we are working on is Har Ghar Lakhpati—a goal of saving ₹1 lakh by encouraging RDs. It is important to create that narrative. We want to create goal-oriented deposits," Setty told Business Standard during an interaction.

The second product SBI is developing offers depositors the option to allocate a portion of the interest earned on fixed deposits (FDs) to mutual funds and another portion to create a pension corpus.

"Our idea is: if someone opens an FD product with us, how do we combine FD, RD, SIP, and the National Pension System (NPS)?" Setty said.