A S Bhattacharya, CMD, Bank of Maharashtra

How the technology has enabled Bank of Maharashtra to move ahead with the core banking?
Mahabank has brought all its branches under Core Banking System in March 2010 in a record time. With a net work of 1546 branches and 500 of its own ATMs across the country, the Bank is reaching its more than 13 million customers. Though it does not have its own outlets abroad, Bank has a well established International Banking Branch in Mumbai catering to the needs of exporters.

ATM debit Card is issued immediately on opening of the account under the INSTA ATM VISA Debit Card Scheme and the customer can transact through ATM within 36 hours of account opening.
Remittances through RTGS/NEFT have been enabled for ALL branches of the Bank. Net banking customers can directly make remittances through RTGS/NEFT now.

E-payment of taxes facility is already available through Internet banking.

Tell us about your recently launched e-Banking Lounge.
‘E-Banking Lounges’ are for tech savvy customers.
‘e-banking lounge’¬ was launched in three branches at Connaught Place in Delhi, Gadkari Chowk in Mumbai and Deccan Gymkhana in Pune where the customers can walk in and do banking transactions through IT enabled services, viz., internet banking, ATM, automatic cheque depositing machine, self updating pass book printing etc.

The bank has a host of loan products.  It has always been in forefront in lending to priority sector since its inception. The Bank is very close to the hearts of small traders and business men. It is catering to credit needs of farmers at large in rural Maharashtra. Top Up Loan product is a unique loan scheme to the Home Loan borrowers of the Bank under which the borrower can borrow for his specified personal needs, including medical expenses. Education loans, Housing loans, Vehicle loans, Personal loans, Gold loans, Consumer loans target to fulfil the credit needs of retail customers. The loans for MSMEs, agriculturists are provided with hassle free procedures.

What kind of attention Bank of Maharashtra is giving to MSMEs sector?
Bank continues to give focused attention to cater to the credit needs of MSME sector. To facilitate customers for availing credit facility, Loan Application Forms for Loan Proposals of Micro and Small Enterprises have been simplified.

Limit of collateral free loans has been increased to Rs 10.00 lakhs.

MSME Care Centers are established in 34 Regional Offices to attend to requests/ representations in any form received from MSMEs.

The bank  has  loan schemes for Entrepreneurs, export¬ers, professionals and self employed individu¬als. The loans are extended for purchase of equipment, repairs or renovation of existing equipment, purchase of tools, working capital requirements, and acquisition or repair of business premises. The loans can be availed by doctors, dentists, chartered accountants, cost accountants, lawyers, solicitors, engineers, architects, surveyors, construction contractors or management consultants or by a person trained/qualified/skilled in the chosen vocation/field in which he/she is employed.

The Bank has established Mahabank Self Employment Training Institutes (MSETI) for providing training to rural youth and women to enable them to acquire skills for self-employment. The Institutes are at Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Amravati and Nasik. So far the Institutes imparted training to 6,810 youths and has achieved settlement rate of 67 per cent.

What is the reason you are now focusing more on the SMEs account and mid corporate sector?
It is easy to finance big corporate houses at base rate at 9 - 9.5 per cent but you have also to look our deposit cost that is at 8.5 per cent. So if I lend it at 9-9.5 percent what will be my margin? Instead of those if I concentrate on mid corporate, who are very loyal to us are paying interest of more than 13 per cent and if they want may be Rs 2-5 crore loan we can tap them, they are our gold mine. If I have more than 100,000 customers like that and give them Rs five crore you can imagine our credit growth, instead of giving hundred of crores to bigger organizations. It will also help me in diversifying my risk business because if I give more money to one client it carries more risk. Moreover the customers I am dealing with are my old customers and trusted customers. This led me to the formation of DGMs for SME’s at head office.

Tell us about various types of online services being provided by the bank.
Online Services. With adoption of the state of the art  technology, Bank provides internet banking facility to its customers under the brand name of Mahaconnect. Bank of Maharashtra is one the very few banks who provided facility to view Income Tax credit (form 26AS) to its net banking customers. All the net banking features like balance enquiry, download of account statement, apply for cheque book etc are available. Payment of taxes on line is also possible through the net banking. With the Mahabank utility bill payment services, one can pay his/her electricity, telephone, mobile and insurance online and also subscribe to magazines and contribute to various charities. Other special online banking product given by the Bank is Maha-e-Trade (on line share trading) to its share trading customers.
The bank provides mobile banking and SMS alerts are automatic for all the account transactions.

What initiatives are being taken by Bank of Maharashtra for financial inclusion?
Taking banking to the doorsteps of under banked villages
Bank has drawn up a road map to provide banking services to every village having a population of over 2000, and such banking services may be provided through various forms of ICT based models with the help of hand held machines, Smart Cards and Business Correspondents (BCs), as matter of commitment under Financial Inclusion.
The Bank has been allotted 1215 unbanked villages to be covered under Financial Inclusion for extending banking and financial services and the plan has been realigned to roll out over a period of 2 years ie by March 2012.