SBI launches Global NRI Center to enhance customer experience

Afifa Jabeen
Rajnish Kumar, chairman of SBI, announced the launch of the Global NRI Center in Kochi, in the presence of S. Venkataraman, CGM — Kerala Circle — SBI, Ranjan Mishra, CGM — PBBU, SBI, and Sujith Kumar Varma, CGM — international banking, SBI.

The State Bank of India has launched its Global NRI (GNC) Center in Kochi, Kerala — the state that receives the highest number of remittances in India. The Global NRI Center will be a one-stop customer service center for all NRI (non-resident Indian) banking related services. To further enhance the service experience for NRIs, the bank also launched other related services such as wealth management, SBI Intelligent Assist, free post box service, SBI Mingle for NRIs, and a remittance facility for US-based customers.
The bank has a strong NRI customer base of over 3.3 million as on Jan. 31.
SBI, through this center, aims to centralize operations which are currently spread across 16 circles, 92 NRI branches in 66 different locations and several NRI intensive branches. The GNC will be a single point of contact for SBI branches, customers, relationship managers, representative offices and foreign offices. The bank’s NRI customers can now avail SBI’s banking services from any part of the world, through a wide range of online facilities such as account opening, in-principle sanctions of loans and instant remittances, professional and specialized dedicated teams, and a 24x7 contact center to offer customer support and issue resolution.
SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar said: “We have witnessed consistent growth of our NRI banking portfolio. Our endeavour is to offer all our products and services on a digital platform so that our NRI customers can experience the ease of banking with us from wherever they are in the world and that’s why we have centralized all our services under the Global NRI center.”
He added: “Technological advancements are creating opportunities to modernize and de-risk the way vital remittances are transferred across borders. Formal remittances are also seen as a key stepping stone to improving financial inclusion by encouraging more people to have bank accounts.”
SBI embarked on its international journey with the opening of its first international branch in Colombo in 1864. Today, it boasts of 207 offices in 37 countries (as of Dec. 31, 2017).