State Bank of India (SBI), which is opening 1,000 branches a year and is continuing to expand its operations, plans to hire 11,000 people in the current fiscal.

According to SBI Chairman O P Bhatt, the country's largest lender had witnessed a "lot of growth" in every business segment. The contribution of the overseas operations to the bank's balance sheet had increased to over 12 per cent from about 8 per cent when he took charge as the chairman.

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Bhatt ruled out any similarity between what was happening in India and what has led to the subprime crisis in the US, even though all major banks were aggressively pushing the home loan segment at present. The products and the institutions in India and the US were different.  Home loans were given in the US based on the asset value while they were given in India based on the person's income and his ability to repay. "Except for reducing the interest rate, we have not relaxed any conditions (for giving home loans)," he pointed out.

Bhatt said that there was a traction in the home loan segment following reduction in the interest rates. "SBI is now the largest home loan provider. We have surpassed ICICI and HDFC," he said adding real estate prices had also declined by 15 to 20 per cent in metros.

He said SBI was awaiting further communication from the Reserve Bank of India and the Union government regarding the merger of State Bank of Indore with it. A decision on the merger of other associate banks would be taken only after this.

Stating that current and savings accounts (CASA) contributed 38 per cent to the SBI revenues, he said that bank's CASA registered a growth rate of 23 per cent as against the industry average of 19 per cent.

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