Business - SBI hiring,foreign banks firing

NEW DELHI: The country's top lender, State Bank of India, today said it is looking to hire more than 4,200 employees for its associate banks -- a
development that comes within days of its plan to recruit 25,000 people.

SBI said in a public announcement today that it plans to recruit 4,280 clerical staff at its various associate banks for operations across the country.

The recruitment drive for its associate banks follows SBI saying earlier last month that it would hire 25,000 people in the current fiscal -- a move that comes at a time when banks across the world are mostly trimming their workforces in the backdrop of a global financial crisis.

The various associate banks for which SBI is looking to recruit the staff include State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Indore, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Travancore.

There are more than 1,000 vacancies each with State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Travancore, between 240 and 440 employees would be recruited for each of State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Indore and State Bank of Mysore.

SBI Chairman O P Bhatt said on November 16 that SBI was hiring 20,000 clerical staff and 5,000 people in supervisory positions in the current fiscal.

In its previous major hiring spree, SBI had announced, about a year ago, plans to increase its as well as the associate banks' headcount by about 10,000 people.

Last month, another state-run lender IDBI Bank said it was looking to hire about 650 people for its retail banking and SME finance businesses.

However, foreign banks have been mostly cutting down their payrolls, with biggest of them, Citigroup, recently saying that it plans to trim down its headcount by over 50,000 employees across the world, which reportedly includes about 1,000 employees in India.

Citi, which has already laid off over 25,000 people so far this year, plans to bring down its headcount to below 3,00,000 in the next few weeks, from more than 3,75,000 at the end of 2007.

American Express also recently said that it would lay off about 7,000 employees globally, which includes about 100 employees in India.