Demonetisation has pushed up e-transactions: SBI CMD

“Wallet downloads have been very high over the last 15 days. It has never been so high,” she said, adding that the demand for Point of Sale (POS) machines has also gone up across a cross-section. The bank is in the process of issuing 3,600 POS machines at user toll fees collection plazas in India for passing through the plazas with ease. 

In Mumbai, a doctors’ group sought 650 POS machines for their fraternity to enable cashless transactions at clinics, Bhattacharya said. While normal functioning of the banks had been affected, especially in disbursement of loans, the Chairperson is hopeful the impact of demonetisation will be over by the end of this financial year. 

ATMs: Noting that about 60 per cent of SBI’s ATMs had been recalibrated to dispense the new Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 currencies, she said the entire exercise of covering the remaining ATMs would be completed in five days. 

Spending: Stating that disbursal of new Rs 500 currencies has started reaching people of Chennai from Thursday, Bhattacharya expressed confidence that normalcy in cash flow will return with more of these currencies reaching the market. Admitting that there was a time lag for the new Rs 500 notes reaching the market, she also observed that the people were holding back currencies in lesser denominations by not spending it. 

Deposit: SBI received Rs 1.2 lakh crore deposits till Wednesday. However, the bank expects only 10 to 15 per cent of the money to remain as deposits in the bank, the Chairperson said, adding that it was because this was the money that remained in the cupboards, which have come out now. The rest is money that was part of the day-to-day economy, she said and felt that the rest may not go out in cash. 

At this juncture, she strongly felt that demonetisation was not an exercise to recapitalize banks. “Revenue of the government will go up and how the government uses it is to be observed,” she added. To a question on reducing the rate of interest for lending, following drop in the rate of interest for bulk deposits, she said both cannot be announced on the same date as they work on the Marginal Cost based Lending Rates timetable, according to which the lending rate will be decided on the 1st of every month. 

Repayment: Bhattacharya noted that they had witnessed repayment of loans to accounts that had remained dormant for quite some time. She also felt that the number of Non-Performing Asset accounts could go up in the third and fourth quarters of this financial year. The repayment ratio plays an important role in determining the rate of interest for a particular sector, she said, adding the highest repayment was in the housing loan sector. 

On engaging a third party to collect education loans, she said banks cannot have deposits idle and the deposits should be repaid with interest. This will not be possible without collecting loans, she added.