India's largest lender, State Bank of India has started a two day loan fair in Ranchi, Jharkhand that will commence from October 13th to October 14th. The loan mela has exciting packages for home loans and car loans provided by SBI.

During these two days, the bank is offering 50% rebate on processing charges and 5% off on the loan margin amount for both home loans and car loans.

The first day of the fair attracted a large number of visitors and there were nine car dealers of the state capital that participated in the event. As the Mela started, 55 cars were booked in only a few hours. A total loan amount of Rs 1.57crore was sanctioned for the purpose.

The car dealers got an unbelievable response from the visitors as they displayed different new models at their counters.

However the home loans did not match the response of car loans. Although a total amount of Rs 3.76 crore was sanctioned for the category but it was less than the expectations of the bankers.

GN Lal, Sales Planning Manager of SBI said, "Diwali and dhanteras are just round the corner. I think this is the main reason behind more people going for the cars. Small cars of Maruti, Hyundai and others are selling like hot cakes, but the big cars are not doing so well, because the middle class who are our main customer base cannot afford them."

SBI's move to offer such schemes seems unusual at a time of liquidity crunch when most banks are reducing their loan portfolio.