State Bank of India (SBI), country's largest bank, is planning to make its position among top ten banks in the world in the next three to five years, pointed out SBI chairman O P Bhatt during his maiden visit to Vadodara on Monday. Bhatt spoke to select chief executive officers (CEOs) of Gujarat Inc as part of CII-CEO Network series.
Bhatt told media persons, "SBI has set a high global ambition and we plan to open ten new foreign branches this financial year". The new branches will be opened in Hong Kong, Singapore and United Kingdom among other places.
He stated, "Even if one puts together market capital of 89 scheduled banks of India, it is not equivalent to that of one leading bank of China," and added that presently no Indian bank is positioned among top 50 banks of world. Bhatt while supporting for consolidation said Indian banks should grow as Indian industries are becoming global with investments outside India.
Meanwhile the Union minister of finance Pranab Mukherjee has given approval on banking industry's consolidation in a recent meeting with bankers, on the other hand the Associate Banks' Officers Association (ABOA) has opposed to the idea of merger and announced a protest strike on July 3, 2009, fearing job losses.
Bhatt, while quoting his observation on the merger of State Bank of Saurashtra with SBI, has given assurance that there will be no retrenchments. He added, "There was not even a ripple, the merger was smooth and we can do the same with other associate banks as well".
In spite of the recessionary phase, the bank has done 30,000 recruitments last year and this year too there will be 10,000 fresh recruitments.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
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