SBI to Launch Centre of Excellence for Project Financing in AI, E-Commerce & Fintech

The State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, is set to establish a dedicated centre of excellence (CoE) to manage project financing solutions for emerging industries such as artificial intelligence (AI), e-commerce, and fintech, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.

According to reports, the new unit is expected to become operational within a year. It will be staffed by specialised professionals and will operate under the guidance of an external consultant. The CoE aims to expand and diversify SBI’s existing project finance and structuring capabilities, which have traditionally focused on large infrastructure projects.

This strategic initiative comes as lending to new-age industries and renewable energy sectors is playing an increasingly significant role in SBI’s project financing portfolio. With India’s growing emphasis on these sectors, they are becoming an integral part of the bank’s lending strategy. SBI’s move is expected to further strengthen its position in supporting innovative and sustainable development across key sectors of the economy.

Meanwhile, in a separate development on Wednesday, SBI faced technical issues with its UPI payment services, causing inconvenience for users. The bank addressed the outage in a post on social media platform X, stating, “We are facing technical issues in UPI, due to which customers may face intermittent issues in availing UPI services…Customers may continue to use UPI lite services for uninterrupted services.”

While SBI takes bold steps toward enhancing its project financing capabilities for future industries, the temporary disruption in digital payment services highlights the ongoing challenges of managing technology at scale.