SBI (State Bank of India) to slash 38,000 jobs, step up use of computers
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State Bank of India is planning to convert its central office into a paperless office in two years and is to reduce its staff levels from 2.37 lakh (237,000) to 1.99 lakh (199,000) in six years. It will also plan an aggressive push into technology upgradation and computerisation. Staff rendered surplus in the computerisation drive will be redeployed in its insurance venture on an agency basis to capture business.
This was announced by State Bank of India deputy managing director Y Radhakrishnan at a seminar on net banking, jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Benson in Mumbai yesterday.
Speaking about technology upgradation in the bank, Radhakrishnan said the bank needs to be able to respond quickly to changing customer needs. "We are trying to achieve a situation where our product development takes place online and decisions about new products will be communicated as soon as possible to all branches," he said. He said that SBI currently has 2000 computerised branches which together account for 68-70 per cent of the banks' business and handle 25 million customers.
He also said that the bank was planning to go in for a system of online reconciliation of inter-branch transactions.
"The wired economy is the single biggest destroyer of profit margins as we see it in the traditional economy," he said, and mentioned factors such as its impact on spreads, exposure to risks and demand on workforce to change them from just workers to knowledge workers.
In his keynote address, SBI chief general manager in charge of information technology, SR Mittal said that the RBI's Indian Financial Network (INFINET), which was established a few months ago, would ultimately connect 5,000 bank branches in the country. The INFINET is a facilitator for movement of funds and messages and information between banks and across cities, he said. The network is now being extensively tested and is available at 400 branches of state-run banks. All RBI offices are connected to this network. |
