By Staff Reporter
MISSISSAUGA: SBI Canada Bank, established in 1982 as a wholly owned subsidiary of State Bank of India, the largest bank in India, has been serving South Asians and Indo Canadians in the hemisphere for more than 30 years After three decades in downtown Toronto, the bank has now relocated its Head Office to 77 City Centre Drive in Mississauga.
“We have been in downtown Toronto for the last 34 years,” stated Siddhartha Sengupta, Chairman, SBI Canada Bank, at the formal inauguration ceremony of Head office and a retail outlet at the same premises on April 26. “It was not an easy decision to move. But having seen Mississauga, I am really heartened. I truly believe that this move will herald a new era and a new business performance age for the bank.”
Present on the occasion were Consul General of India Dinesh Bhatia, Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, former Senator Dr. Asha Seth and several leading professionals and business executives.
“Mississauga is home to 50,000 Indo Canadians and another 150,000, who identify themselves as South Asians,” stated Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, who inaugurated the new Head office. “We have over 86,000 businesses in Mississauga, several Fortune 500 companies as well as over 1400 multinationals. We are both honoured and proud that SBI Canada Bank will now be calling Mississauga their new home.”
The bank announced a number of new and upgraded initiatives to facilitate customers. Clients of the bank will no longer have to wait for the customary 48 hours before their Indian account balance is credited with the remitted amount. Now the bank will enable much faster remittances to customer accounts in India whereby clients will be able to remit money from SBI Canada and receive it in their local Indian SBI account within few minutes.
The Bank also initiated an upgradation of its internet banking services for both retail and corporate clients. The service that earlier provided only viewing rights for corporates, has now expanded to include transactional facilities with enhanced features.
“We continuously strive to provide essential services and facilitate Indo Canadians to allow them to meet their individual requirements.” stated Rajesh Gupta, President and CEO, SBI Canada Bank. Gupta stated their aim was to grow bigger with the Indian community continuing to flourish in Canada. “We’ve also touched a billion on our balance sheet this month,” he added.
In June, the bank is scheduled to launch mobile banking application for retail customers that will enable clients to manage their daily banking needs and control their money while on the move from anywhere 24 hours a day at their convenience.
“We came to Canada because we felt we had a diaspora here to serve,” said Sengupta. “We believe that our niche is technology the parent bank is having and SBI Canada Bank will be rolling out many more contemporary products and services in time to come with the help of parent bank.”
SBI Canada Bank currently has six branches in Canada – Toronto, Mississauga, Scarborough, Brampton, Vancouver and Surrey.
READ ALSO: Indian consul general Preeti Saran opens Brampton visa office, services to cost less
SBI Canada needs to be user friendly to its customers by better customer service interactions and follow ups by managers. No response to phone calls, procrastinating queries, inability to answer what is asked by Bay st. Toronto branch, leaves out loyal customers of two decades in a lurch. Managers rushing to make technology mandatory for seeing balances or answering queries, ignore the needs of existing customers.. Rates of interests on loans are not steady and vary according to the manager in charge . This is unfathomable. Despite the effort to upgrade the bank, lack of accountability and consistency, delayed and no responses, all make it hard to invite new customers and retain old ones.