SBI to hire 11,000 this fiscal

State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, plans to hire 11,000 people in the current financial year as it expands operations.

The state-owned bank is planning to open 1,000 branches a year. According to SBI Chairman OP Bhatt, the bank has witnessed a “lot of growth” in every business segment. The contribution of 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 chairman, Bhatt said.

SBI’s credit offtake had picked up from July-end and it was expecting to achieve its targeted year-on-year growth rate of 25 per cent in the current year, Bhatt said on the sidelines of the Global Organisational Development Summit 2009 being held at the Indian School of Business here.

He, however, said the existing drought conditions could have some impact on credit offtake. However, it was too early to give an estimate in this regard, he added.

Bhatt said there was no similarity between what was happening in India and what led to the sub-prime crisis in the US, even though all major banks were aggressively pushing the home loan segment. The products and institutions in India and the US were different, he said.

In the US, home loans are given on the basis of the value of the asset, while in India, they are given based on the person’s income and ability to repay. “Except for reducing the interest rate, we have not relaxed any condition (for giving home loans),” he said.

Bhatt said there was traction in the home loan segment following reduction in interest rates. “SBI is now the largest home loan provider. We have surpassed ICICI and HDFC,” he said.

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