Hyderabad: Banking giant State Bank of India (SBI) is all set to launch an innovative programme to ensure that borrowers pay their instalments on time. It has decided to send chocolates to those who are likely to miss their monthly instalments (EMI). The gesture is to remind them to pay their instalments on time.
SBI said that it has noticed that the borrowers, who are planning to skip the instalments, are not answering the reminder calls from the bank. So, it said that it would like to go to such people's houses without prior information and give them chocolates and remind them to pay the instalments. It is said that this decision has been taken with the intention of improving the collections in the background of increasing interest rates on retail loans.
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SBI has already partnered with two fintechs and is piloting this new approach, SBI said. These companies use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to send reminders to their borrowers when the instalment is approaching. It said that a fintech will identify those who are likely to skip the EMIs and inform them of that information.
It also explained that representatives of the organisation would go to borrowers' homes with chocolates to remind them. This programme has been implemented 15 days ago. SBI sources said it is in talks with some other fintechs as well. If it is successful, the programme will be officially launched. However, it has been revealed that it will be implemented as a pilot programme for another four to five months.
