Under the project, every user will be given a biometric smart card. The amount of money lent out to the customers will be twice the amount of savings and will get doubled each year. To facilitate the whole process, the banks will hire business correspondents who will interact with the customers. A marketing and recovery officer will be also posted at the rural credit-processing centre, said the chief general manager Bengal Circle, Jayanta K Sinha.

This micro finance initiative has already been initiated in select areas of Andhra Pradesh, Mizoram and Karnataka.

Sinha said there is a limit to the number of branches that the bank can have and therefore, in order to bring about financial inclusion it will have to look for alternative business models. The bank will involve government agencies and NGOs in the project, he added.

The authorities said that in the Bengal circle, comprising West Bengal, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Sikkim, the deposits of the bank are expected to increase about 25 per cent amounting to Rs 37,000 crore and the advances by 16 per cent amounting to Rs 24,000 crore by the end of the financial year.

“We are targeting a growth of 35 per cent in deposits and 25 per cent in advances by the next financial year,” said Sinha. The bank is planning to set up 100 more branches to the existing 804 and another 138 ATMs to the existing 460 in the Bengal circle by the next financial year.

“The market share in deposits of the bank in the Bengal circle has increased to 20.21 per cent in September 2007 from 19.44 per cent in March 07, whereas the deposits have increased from 20.24 per cent in March 07 to 21.32 per cent in September last year,” bank officials claimed. The Bengal circle ranks third in deposits and sixth in advances across the country in SBI’s 14 circles. “We have already brought South Andaman, and East Sikkim district under 100 percent financial inclusion and are in the process of bringing South Sikkim and Nicobar district under the same by June 30 this year,” said Sinha.