January 10, 2013 / 20:04 IST
Saikat Das
moneycontrol.com
Reeling under a series of asset quality pain exacerbated by economic downturn the
State Bank of India (SBI) has incorporated structural changes in its mid corporate credit segment. Those range from creating new vertical, reducing work loads, to adding a few more senior officials at the helm of affairs.
"We have resorted to some measures that are aimed at improving the asset quality," Shyamal Acharya, deputy managing director (mid corporate), SBI told
moneycontrol.com.
"We have converted the structure of credit processing cell (CPC) to accounts management team (AMT). CPC was a factory type of system wherein credit proposals used to be processed. Here, ownership was slightly less. CPC was not involved in the post sanction issues. Now, we have designed accounts management team (AMT)," he said.
In the new AMT setup both the post and pre sanction formalities will be done under one roof. For example, relationship manger, credit analyst, and service officer all will be involved both in pre-sanction and post-sanction works. Accordingly, every official will have a holistic idea of the ongoing process.
SBI has ten dedicated mid corporate regional offices (MCROs) across India. Each of those is generally headed by one general manager. Four out of ten are too big in size. The lender has now deputed two GMs against each MCRO in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. Responsibilities are equally divided between the two in each MCRO.
"There was only one chief general manager in my (DMD’s) office looking after all MCROs. Now, we have made it two CGMs taking charge of five MCROs each. We have also created a new post called GM - restructuring. He will specially focus on recast of stress asset," Acharya said adding that slimming of portfolios will lead to higher concentration on accounts.
The bank has reduced the number of accounts for each AMT group. A single group is now handling 15-20 accounts as against 30 earlier that CPC used to deal with. Besides, it is taking its officials for rigorous training process to training colleges in NCR and Hyderabad.
It is learn that SBI's gross non-performing asset ratio (for mid corporates) stood at 7% as on November 30 compared with 3.5% recorded on March, 31; 2012.
"We would like to reach 5% by March 31, 2013. It is not an easy task. Many of the accounts, which went to the CDR cell may come to standard status after successfully designing the restructuring scheme. We are not expecting any nasty surprise further," the DMD said.
According to him, the bank has learnt two lessons from the current downturn. One, underwriting standard should be very good. Two, post sanction actions should be very strong in terms of follow-up and monitoring of the advances.
"When there is stress in the industry, the requirement of paying attention is much more. Reduction of burden will give them more time to concentrate on a particular job," he concluded.
saikat.das@network18online.com 
