Business Desk
South Indian Bank (SIB) today announced the launch of their latest convenience banking product,“GROUP SALARY SAVINGS ACCOUNT” (GSSA) which is a premium savings bank product designed to meet the needs of salaried employees and their employers.

The salary disbursement of corporates, firms and such others who maintain accounts with any of the 511 CBS branches would be managed by the Bank, hassle-free and free of any bank charges. The employer would be benefited in that the salary could be disbursed to any employees/any single employee who are/is working even in far-off places where SIB has no presence.

Dr.V.A.Joseph ,Chairman & CEO of the Bank and Mr. M. P. Gopalakrishnan, President, CMS Trust jointly launched the product. In his inaugural address Dr.Joseph said, ''This convenience banking product, which is designed for the convenience of both employers and employees, leverages the bank's strong technology platform, which connects all the 511 branches and 26 extension counters of the Bank under Core Banking Solutions network offering anytime banking to its customers. GSSA can be opened with zero balance”.

The Chairman and CEO of the Bank also stated, “South Indian Bank, being a customer – oriented Bank is striving hard to render personalized customer service using the latest technological capabilities. The technological capability of the Bank was recognised when the Bank could bag the banking technology excellence award from IDRBT which is the technical arm of RBI. The service quality of the Bank has also been recognized when the Bank was selected in the ‘Outlook Money – C Fore’ survey as the best private sector Bank in India in the service quality segment.”

Dr. Joseph also referred to the facility recently started for online booking of offerings, free of bank charges , through South Indian Bank payment gateway-the first bank to go online booking -by the customers of the bank who are devotees of Guruvayur Sreekrishna Temple which is described as the Dwaraka of South India. This facility is being utilized by the NRIs also to effect offerings, hassle –free with greater transparency and security at the click of a button, either for themselves or their aged parents resident in India.

“South Indian Bank had completed on 26.03.07 the project ‘SIBertech’ by introducing a centralised Core Banking Solution in technology partnership with Infosys Technologies when many banks had not even started implementation of CBS . SIB, had started this project in 2001 to render personalized customer service. The new product now launched would confirm this belief”, the Chairman concluded his inaugural address.

With the following carefully thought-out value additions of this innovative convenience banking product , banking for employers and their employees, is made extremely easy and comfortable: -
>Free International ATM-cum-Debit Card for which annual maintenance charges are not collected
> Online booking of offerings for Lord Sri Guruvayurappan, free of bank charges
> Withdrawal of cash from the ATMs of other Banks free of bank charges (As charges would be borne by SIB)
> Free utility payment and e-commerce services
> No stipulation on minimum balance
> The depositor enjoying many freebies can earn the usual SB interest
> The depositor can operate his SB account –during his travel/temporary transfer /transfer-hassle-free
> The account can be closed /transferred to another branch with out any charge
> Free of cost cheque leaves (subject to limits in each category)
> Free fund transfer facility through RTGS/NEFT/Fast Money /DD

Customers of this feature-rich Savings Bank account are also provided with facilities to open Depository account and also enjoy mobile banking facility.
Mr.George Davis Thottan, General Manager and Mr.P.J.Jacob, Deputy General Manager & Regional Head also spoke on the occasion.