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The bank has invested significantly in technology to provide seamless customer service as well as to strengthen the resilience of its digital channels.
“We are strengthening our workforce, both on the technology side as well as on the general banking side. We have recently announced around 1,500 technology people recruitment both at the entry level and slightly at the higher level,” SBI Chairman C S Setty told PTI in an interview.
“Our technology recruitment is also on specialized jobs like data scientists, data architects, network operators etc. We are recruiting them for a variety of jobs in the technology side…So, in all, our current year requirement will be around 8,000 to 10,000 people. Head count will be added to both specialized and general sides,” he said.
The total staff strength of the bank stood at 2,32,296 as of March 2024. Of this, 1,10,116 officers were on the rolls of the bank at the end of last fiscal.
Asked about capacity building, Setty said, it is continuous exercise and the bank undertakes reskilling and upskilling of the existing employees to meet the emerging needs of customers. “Customer expectations are changing, technology is changing, digitalization is widely adopted. So, we are constantly reskilling our employees at all levels,” he said. Besides, he said, the bank provides specialised upskilling in certain niche areas to meet the growing need of customers and provide superior banking experience.
As far as network expansion is concerned, Setty said, SBI is planning to open 600 branches across the country in the current financial year.
SBI has a network of 22,542 branches across the country as of March 2024.
“We have strong branch expansion plans…this would be mainly focused on emerging areas. A lot of residential colonies are not covered by us. Around 600 branches is something we are planning in the current year,” he said.
Apart from a vast branch network, SBI reaches its customers through 65,000 ATMs and 85,000 business correspondents.
“We serve about 50 crore customers and we take pride in saying that we are the banker to every Indian, and, more importantly, to every Indian family,” he said.
He also said it would be his endeavour to transform SBI into the best bank, the most valued bank not only from a shareholder’s point of view but also from every stakeholder’s who deals with SBI.
“It could be my customers, it could be our shareholders, it could be the larger ecosystem — the society, the institutional framework — all the stakeholders should be saying that this is the best bank to deal with,” he added.