The SBI's Swanky Avatar

This is the SBI's answer to the threat foreign banks have held after the doors of the Indian economy were kicked open four years ago. Here, some 60-odd companies with a minimum turnover of Rs 250 crore per annum, net profit of Rs 50 crore, consistent profitability record and credit rating, and which held accounts in the SBI's other branches in the city, get the kind of treatment they would in, say, the Bank of America a few floors below. "It's an honour to the company when it is chosen to be serviced by the CAG," says Dinesh Kumar Dhagat, chief officiating officer. "We provide a delayered credit processing structure, dedicated services platform and relationship banking." Adds Subodh Thakur, head, leasing group: "Just because we have set this up does not mean all we did in the past was wrong. Improvement is the biggest room in anybody's house."

No cash transactions take place here—a specialised branch does that. Individual relationship managers (there are eight of them of assistant general manager cadre), each assisted by a credit analyst, sit with prized customers like TISCO, Reliance, Hindustan Lever, L&T, ACC and Bajaj Auto, discuss their needs, and try to satisfy them as quickly as possible. Together with the Leasing Division and Project Finance Division, the CAG provides customers a comprehensive range of services, all on a one-to-one basis: credit, trade finance, forex, structural finance, cash management and capital management. Currently concentrating on retaining customers, the CAG will start prospecting for new clients once branches open in Delhi, Calcutta and Madras. Says Dhagat: "We hope to service some 150 clients in all." In its first eight months of operation ending March 31, CAG envisages a net profit of Rs 65 crore.

But what about surly, un-uniformed staff still directing visitors from one cubicle to another? And the stench of the executive toilets may overpower the perfume inside. "Special compensatory allowance" is still the hottest topic at the canteen. And you have to use abominable lifts to get to it.

But at least a beginning has been made. Work gets done faster: a project proposal which took three to four months to be cleared earlier now takes 10-15 days, says Dhagat. Adds Thakur who saw tomorrow's bank yesterday during his posting in Chicago: "If this doesn't improve the SBI's image, what will?" What, indeed?