Statement by State Bank of India

Mumbai April 22, 2023: “State Bank of India has always aligned its business goals with national priorities, and focused attention is given to a range of financial inclusion activities. However, an unfortunate incident has recently come to light where one of our senior citizen customers faced difficulty in withdrawing her old age pension from the nearby CSP (Bank Mitra) in Jharigaon block of Nabrangpur district of Odisha on account of her fading fingerprints not being recognized by the biometric reader at the CSP (Bank Mitra). As per our laid down protocols, the nearest link branch, SBI Jharigaon, immediately paid the pension amount by debiting the amount manually from the pensioner’s account. She has also been reassured by the branch manager of the delivery of pension at her doorstep going forward. As a goodwill gesture, SBI has donated a wheelchair to the pensioner to facilitate her movement.

While necessary protocols are already in place to address such situations, we have taken further cognizance of the matter and have initiated reiteration of the guidelines to all our BCs/CSPs (Bank Mitra) to contact their link branches in case of any issues faced by them in serving our customers. Bank has also been examining options of installing Iris scanners at our BC/CSP (Bank Mitra) channels to address the challenges faced by our Senior Pensioners/ Customers.”