Patna, March 26: The chairperson of the State Bank of India (SBI), Arundhati Bhattacharya, today laid emphasis on providing better services to people visiting the branches across the country.

Addressing the employees of the bank after inauguration of a high-speed note verification and processing machine in Patna, Bhattacharya said the services being provided to the customers by SBI required a lot of improvement.

"We often get complaints about our customer service. It has to be brought to the level that matches with the private banks. This is a major challenge before all of us," she told the gathering and asked the employees to bring about changes in their attitude while dealing with customers.

She said the SBI had better technology compared to many private banks, which could be used for achieving the goal during the next financial year. "The next financial year will prove a defining year for all employees of SBI, which has won the award for being the best bank in emerging markets by Global Finance Magazine," she said.

Bhattacharya also talked about the rising number of non-performing assets (NPA) cases, a matter of grave concern for the bank. "The only way to reduce the cases of NPA is to do proper verification work at the time of opening bank accounts. Normally, we don't do as much verification work as private banks do before giving loan," she said.

When asked about the low credit ratio (CD) in Bihar, the chairperson said the state lacked big industries to make huge investments. "This was not the case before the bifurcation of the state (Bihar) and creation of Jharkhand. The CD ratio was much better in united Bihar," she said.

She also called upon other financial agencies like NABARD to play their role in raising the CD ratio in the state. "Only banks can't do much in this regard. Other agencies like NABARD and banks have to work together to raise the state's CD ratio," she emphasised.

Replying to another question, she said the number of ATMs in Bihar had increased in the past couple of years and catered to 90 per cent of the customers. She also revealed that 3.22 crore accounts under Jan Dhan Yojana were opened in the SBI branches across the country.

She said the mechanism to check corruption was also being strengthened. When asked about disciplinary action against tainted employees, Bhattacharya claimed that strict action had been initiated against such employees. "There is a body, which monitors the complaints of corruption on a regular basis," she added.

Ajit Sood, chief general manager of SBI's Patna circle, was also present on the occasion. Earlier, Bhattacharya donated Rs 2.37 crore to a non-government organisation to construct 146 toilets with running water facility to the 73 government primary schools in Arwal district.