SBI to hire 27,000 staff, add 1,000 branches this year

The State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, plans to hire over 27,000 staff across its various divisions this year. Besides the bank would ramp up its branch network to 13,000 by adding 1,000 new offices, a top official of the bank said today.

SBI, which hired around 25,000 people last year, plans to recruit 20,000 to 22,000 people in clerical posts and around 5,000 at the officer level this year, Anup Banerji, deputy managing director and group executive, said.

"This year we have plans to recruit 20,000-22,000 people in the clerical posts and 5,500 people at the probationary officer level," Banerji said on the sidelines of the Bancon conference in Mumbai.

Besides, Banerji said, SBI also aims to scale up the number of ATMs to 25,000 by the end of the current fiscal (31 March 2010).
 
SBI is creating a rural marketing force with 2,000 specialised probationers as part of its growth strategy, Banerji said.

They will be recruited in the rural sector and will continue in rural marketing at least for the next 10 years, he added.

Besides, SBI has started a programme of lateral entry of middle-level officials, in the manager to assistant general manager levels, he said.