SBI gets less response for special schemes

State Bank of India has received a lower than expected response so far for its two special schemes introduced for retaining Resurgent India Bonds (RIBs) proceeds as non-resident Indians favoured to park their funds in foreign currency non-resident (banks) (FCNR-B) accounts. “The customers are depending more upon the FCNR (B) deposit scheme over the two special schemes launched to retain RIB proceeds aggregating $5.5 billion with the bank”, a senior SBI official said. This phenomenon occurred possibly due to years of relationship of customers with particular branches as also the concept of an offshore banking unit was still very new in the country, he added. However, he declined to divulge the amount retained by NRIs with the bank. SBI Chairman A. K. Purwar had last month said Pravasi Samriddhi and Pravasi Vaibhav were introduced to retain 30-40 per cent (about $2 billion) of proceeds of RIBs, which matured on October 1.