State Bank of India (SBI), country's largest public sector lender is likely to expand its retail division in the UK by entering mortgage market for the first time. The bank is beginning with mortgages for landlords, best known as buy-to-let mortgages, with amounts ranging from £50,000 to £1.5 million, and loan to value of ratios of up to 60%.
Next year, the bank will roll out residential mortgages by which time it plans to add intermediaries such as IFAs and mortgage brokers to its distribution network. The bank launched the expansion of its consumer banking business in the UK last year. In the early days the bank had focused on Britain's Indian community, but this time round its target appears more mass market.
Recently, SBI has introduced a state of the art technology platform for financing its supply chain partners by using SBI's internet banking platform. With this platform a corporate can upload the details of invoices raised by their suppliers and the details of invoices covering the supplies made to the dealers on SBI's internet banking platform, effecting real time transfer and automated settlement of funds.
