State Bank of India (SBI) is planning to open 400 branches across the country in the current financial year as part of its network expansion plan. The lender opened 137 branches last fiscal, including 59 new rural branches. Despite the majority of digital and transaction activities occurring outside the branch, SBI’s Chairman, Dinesh Kumar Khara, emphasized the continuing need for branches due to emerging areas and certain services like advisory and wealth services that can only be offered from the branch. SBI currently has a network of 22,542 branches across the country as of March 2024.
Regarding the monetization of its subsidiaries, Khara mentioned that SBI would await further scaling up of their operations before listing them to increase valuation and ensure better returns for the parent company. He specified that SBI General and possibly SBI Payment Services would be eligible for such monetization through the capital market in the future. However, there are no immediate plans for this in the current financial year.
During the year ended March 2024, SBI infused additional capital of Rs 489.67 crore in SBI General Insurance Company Ltd., resulting in a decrease in the bank’s stake from 69.95 per cent to 69.11 per cent. SBI General Insurance reported a 30.4 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 240 crore for the financial year ended March 2024. Meanwhile, SBI Payment Services Pvt Ltd, which is predominantly owned by SBI, reported a decline in net profit to Rs 144.36 crore for the year ended March 2024. SBI Payments is one of the largest acquirers in the country, with more than 33.10 lakh merchant payment acceptance touchpoints, including 13.67 lakh POS machines deployed across geographies as of March 2024.
