SBI ranks low in employee productivity, says RBI

The State Bank of India (SBI) may be the largest bank in the country in terms of capital reserves, but in employee productivity, it ranks abysmally low, especially compared with private banks, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data.

This ranking is despite the fact that SBI employees’ wages as a percentage of the total expenses of the bank are higher than the industry average. As a percentage of the total expenses, SBI wages stand at 17.5 per cent against the industry average of 14 per cent for the year 2007-08, an RBI report said.

According to the RBI data on profile of banks, business per employee of SBI stands at Rs 4.56 crore for the year 2007-08, much below the average business per employee for other banks at Rs 6.34 crore lakh.

Private banks have fared well in this category, with the business per employee of Axis Bank and ICICI Bank high at Rs 11.17 crore and Rs 10.08 crore. HDFC Bank’s figure was lower than the average at Rs 5.06 crore.

Other nationalised banks such as Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, United Bank of India and Bank of India were still ahead of SBI.

Average business per employee for all nationalised banks was also above SBI at Rs 6.18 crore, the report revealed.

Foreign banks were the leaders in the segment with Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank and Barclays Bank business per employee at Rs 17.63 crore, Rs 10.12 crore, Rs 8.26 crore and Rs 9.42 crore respectively.

Even while productivity was low, profit per employee also suffered.

SBI’s profit per employee (total profit of the bank divided by the number of employees) is Rs 3.73 lakh for the year 2007-08, below the average of all 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. Among nationalised banks, Union Bank of India and Bank of India 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.