India’s largest lender, the State Bank of India has raised its information technology (IT) budget to improve its digital offerings. The bank will spend nearly Rs.4,000 crore before March 2016 and significantly upgrade its IT back-end. The bank has decided to invest in new equipment for the 250 InTouch Lite branches, which have devices for customers to help themselves while opening a new account, getting a new debit card, transferring or depositing money, planning for savings and applying for new loans.

In the year ended 31 March 2015, the bank spent over Rs.3,000 crore on technology, said chief technology officer of the bank S.K Bhasin. For comparison’s sake, the bank’s IT budget for this financial year is comparable to a quarter’s profit for the lender. The bank’s net profit for the quarter ended 31 March stood at over Rs.3,742 crore, a 23% increase from a year ago.

According to a September report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the IT spends of Indian banks have been rising to touch nearly 4% of their revenue. However, most of this spending has been to buy self-service machines, which is hardly enough for public sector banks to hold their position.

According to Sunil Srivastava, deputy managing director (corporate strategy and new business), about 69% of SBI’s transactions are done via the bank’s alternative channels, which include the automated teller machines (ATMs), Internet and mobile banking. “This number should definitely go up this year.