Foreign banks headcount down over 6% in 2010

The total headcount of foreign banks in India went down by over 6% in 2010, with as many as 19 out of the 32 overseas lenders operating in the country reporting a dip in their employee strength during the year.

According to the 'Statistical Tables Relating to Banks of India' released by the Reserve Bank, the total number of employees of foreign banks operating in India fell from 29,582 in 2009 to 27,742 in 2010, a fall of 6.22%.

Among the foreign banks with a major presence in India -- as adjudged on the basis of their employee strength -- only Standard Chartered Bank bucked the trend.

Only six foreign banks -- Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Standard Chartered Bank, Citibank, Deutsche Bank and Barclays Bank -- have headcounts of over a thousand employees in the country.

Among them, only Standard Chartered witnessed an increase in its headcount last year. It had 7,903 employees in India in 2010, as against 7,825 in 2009.

HSBC's employee strength fell to 6,685 in last year from 7,446 in 2009. Similarly, Citibank saw a decline in its headcount to 4,613 employees in 2010 from 4,795 in the previous year.

The headcount of RBS employees in the country went down to 2,716 in 2010 from 3,241 in 2009.

The decline was more pronounced in the case of Barclays. Its employee strength in India in 2010 was 1,083, down from 1,534 in the previous year.

Germany-headquartered Deutsche Bank also registered a dip in its headcount from 1,599 in 2009 to 1,498 last year.

A similar decline was also reported by other foreign lenders operating in India, like Societe Generale, Mizuho Corporate Bank, Credit Agricole and Bank of America.

Meanwhile, six other lenders -- State Bank of Mauritius, Oman International Bank, Mashreqbank, Krung Thai Bank, Bank of Ceylon and Bank Internasional Indonesia -- reported no change in their employee strength in India during 2010 vis-a-vis the previous year.

Besides Standard Chartered, the other overseas lenders that increased their India headcount in 2010 are UBS AG (to 34 employees in 2010 from 18 in 2009), Mizuho Corporate Bank (to 126 from 113), Development Bank of Singapore (to 417 from 359), Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (to 101 from 95), Bank of Nova Scotia (to 106 from 105) and American Express Banking Corporation (to 870 from 857).