THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
State Bank of India Managing Director (Retail and Digital Banking) Parveen Kumar Gupta today handed over a cheque of Rs.8 Crore to E P Jayarajan, Minister in-charge of Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).
This includes Rs.5 crore raised by the employees of State Bank of India (SBI) collectively and a further contribution of Rs.3 crores by the Bank, to make the total contribution amount to Rs. 10 crore in the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF), including the initial contribution of Rs 2 crore to CMDRF.
On handing over the cheque to E. P. Jayarajan, Minister in-charge of CMDRF, P. K. Gupta, MD – Retail & Digital Banking, SBI said, “We are grateful to our employees for their overwhelming response and appreciate their contribution for coming forward in large numbers to help the citizens of Kerala in restoring their lives. The bank stands by the people of the state in this critical situation.”
The Bank has 1245 branches and 3243 ATMs in the state. Over 15000 employees of the Bank across the state voluntarily undertook on-the-ground relief measures by providing basic supplies like food & grain, medicines, drinking water, clothes, to the distressed citizens of the state. The Bank managed to normalize services for its customers by making all Branches and most of the ATMs operational immediately. To meet immediate cash requirements of the flood affected people, over 2800 Cash@POS machines were also deployed by the Bank.
SBI also announced special term loan for repair and renovation of homes destroyed by the flood to help the home loan borrowers of the bank to restore their lives. With zero processing fees, the loan will be offered to the applicants at 1year MCLR rate of 8.45% per annum.
The bank has also announced waiver of various charges and fee on banking transactions in Kerala state for a period of time on the following:
1.No processing fee for any loan relating to flood relief measure.
2.No charges for issuing duplicate passbook, ATM card, Cheque books
3. No late payment fee on EMI
4. Waiver of all charges on remittance to CMDRF (including NEFT / RTGS remittance from other banks)
5. No charges on non-maintenance of minimum balance from proceeds of relief fund provided by Govt. and agencies to be put on hold. If any such charge is recovered, the same would be refunded.
Apart from the above, bank has also taken below relief measures to support the flood affected people:
1. Xpress Credit to the existing account holders with relaxed norms (for one month’s consumption)
2. Individuals who have displaced and lost personal documents can open small accounts with only photograph and signature / thumb impression.
3. The Bank has opened a dedicated “Help Line” desk at its Local Head Office to assist clarify queries by flood affected customers.
4. The Bank has already taken necessary steps for implementation of SLBC directives for providing various reliefs by restructuring/rescheduling existing loans of flood affected customers under Agri, SME segments and also Housing Loans etc.
