On its foundation day on July 1, the State Bank of India (SBI) is going to open 101 branches running core banking solution (CBS). Sources have divulged that the SBI also plans to introduce its mobile banking the very same day, which will make it the very first state-owned bank to provide such a service. It is finance minister P Chidambaram who will open the branches in New Delhi, whereas representatives from the new SBI branches will chip in through a videoconference.

The core banking solution (CBS) is run by 10,100 of the 10,385 SBI branches, which are networked to facilitate a customer access his account from any branch. Even if just half of its 1.3 Crore customers get tapped, then it can make SBI the biggest player in the mobile banking sector. The State Bank of India purchased the M-banking application from Spanco Telesystems and has been involved in internal pilots. The customer of the SBI can also transfer their funds upto Rs 1,500 through M-banking apart from availing balance inquiries and transaction alerts. The operator-independent service can be used to pay utility bills and will work on most of the basic handsets.