SBI ranks low in employee productivity: RBI

State Bank of India (SBI) may be the largest bank of the country in terms of capital reserve, but in terms of employee productivity, it ranks abysmally low, especially when compared with the private banks, says RBI.

This is despite SBI's wages as percentage of total expenses being higher than the industry average. The SBI's wages, as percentage of total expenses, stands at 17.5 per cent against the industry average of 14 per cent for the year 2007-08, a RBI report says.

According to the RBI data on profile of banks, business per employee (total business of the bank divided by the number of employees) of SBI stands at Rs 456 lakh for the year 2007- 08, below the average business per employee for all the banks at Rs 634 lakh for the year.

The private banks have fared well in this category, with the business per employee of ICICI Bank and Axis Bank way above at Rs 1,008 lakh and Rs 1,117 lakh. HDFC Bank's figure was lower than the average for all banks, but above SBI at Rs 506 lakh.

Even the nationalised banks such as Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, United Bank of India and Bank of India are ahead of SBI.

Average business per employee for all nationalised banks at Rs 618 lakh was also above SBI, the report revealed.

The foreign banks are the leaders in this segment with Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank and Barclays Bank business per employee at Rs 1,763 lakh, Rs 1,012 lakh, Rs 826 lakh and Rs 942 lakh, respectively.

According to the RBI data, SBI's profit per employee (total profit of the bank divided by the number of employees) is at Rs 3.73 lakh for the year 2007-08, which is below the average of all the banks of Rs 4.67 lakh.

Private banks such as Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank are way ahead with Rs 8.39 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 4.97 lakh, respectively, in this category.

Among the nationalised banks, Union Bank of India and Bank of India have fared well with Rs 5.39 and Rs 4.95 lakh of profit per employee.

In the foreign bank category, each employee of Bank of America, Barclays, Citibank and HSBC contributed Rs 102 lakh, Rs 50 lakh, Rs 37 lakh and Rs 16.7 lakh, respectively, to the bank's profit in the financial year 2007-08.