SBI officers protest against 7-day schedule

Lucknow, August 28: Officers of the State Bank of India held a demonstration in front of the bank's local head office on Tuesday to oppose the reported move of the bank's management for introducing seven-day banking in SBI.
Addressing the meeting, BK Awasthi, general secretary of State Bank of India Officers' Association said that in the present times when services of alternate channels like ATM, internet banking and mobile banking etc are available to customers, introduction of seven-day banking is not feasible. The move will not only adversely affect the staff of the bank but also drain out the valuable energy resource of the country.
He said that central government offices, secretariat and apex banks like RBI, Nabard etc are having 5-day week, where no difficulty is being experienced at their end. Besides employees' organisations in the banking industry are pleading for a 5-day week in the banking industry and the proposal is pending with the Indian Banks' Association, he added.

Clerical cadre prone to higher attrition

Mangalore/Coimbatore, August 26: Banks put out impressive recruitment figures in their annual reports. But have you ever thought about the attrition rate in these banks? Shocking but true, in some cases, almost half of those who joined had left within a year.

The clerical cadre has been witnessing high attrition, especially in banks with a regional focus. Bank unions say the attrition rate is nearly 30 per cent in both the officer and clerical cadres.

D N Prakash, President of Corporation Bank Officers’ Organisation, said that the attrition level in the clerical cadre was as high as 45 per cent in a bank at one point of time.

Ask for the reasons, and you get several of them.

According to Prakash, some banks have branches only in particular geographical locations, unlike big public sector banks such as State Bank that have branches across the country. Some of the South-based banks have less presence in the northern region, but most of the new recruits in these banks are from the North. The banks find it difficult to place the new employees in States of their choice. This is one of the reasons why most of them don’t stick on for more than a year.

P R Karanth, Joint Secretary of AIBEA, says that someone who joins bank ‘A’ in the clerical cadre usually gets a good offer from bank ‘B’ in the officer cadre after two-three years. Even if the banks impose any bond during their appointment, they are ready to pay and leave.

To address this, K S Bhat, Secretary of the Syndicate Bank Staff Association, said that weightage should be given to those who work in bank ‘A’ while filling vacancies in the officer cadre.

He said a person from clerical cadre had passed IBPS with 167 marks in his bank. But the cut-off for officers’ cadre was 168 marks. But he got an officers job in bank ‘B’, where he matched the cut-off marks.

Some relaxation for the existing staff would have helped his bank to retain him. “In this process, we lost a clerical staffer and a person with two years’ experience,” he said.

Bhat said that in some States a lower division clerk in a government office gets a better salary than a bank clerk. Compared to banks, the workload and risks in some government offices are lower.

SBI management mulling working Sundays to improve efficiency

Mumbai: Country's largest lender State Bank of India may have its branches open on Sundays to help improve efficiency, a top bank official has said.
"Possibly we would like to see Sunday working which would increase the time available for doing banking and increase the business," bank chairman Pratip Chaudhuri told analysts on a conference call organised by the brokerage Edelweiss Securities.
The bank had last year taken everybody by surprise by opting to keep all its branches open on October 2 to compensate for a day's business loss due to a technical snag.
The bank management was happy with the foot falls and the staff turnout at the branches at that time in spite of it being a Sunday as well as a national holiday - Gandhi Jayanti.
Notably, many private banks, which control only a minority share in the banking operations, do keep their select branches open on Sundays for customer convenience, even though technologies like internet banking have reduced the need.
Being open on Sundays is said to help the branches attract the new-age working class customers where both the spouses in a household work and struggle to do banking transactions during the week.
SBI, which has almost 14,000 branches across the country, counts on its large chunk of savings account deposits (at over 38 percent) for higher margins.
However, if such a move were to be made, it would be interesting how the bank unions, which had crippled banking operations across country last week protesting reform measures, take to such a proposal.
SBI had carried out widely appreciated 'Parivartan' programme in early part of this decade, which helped it stay relevant in changing times and maintaining lead in the market.
During the call, Chaudhuri said the costs incurred on developing physical infrastructure and network does not hit the bank as much as staff costs.
In order to improve efficiency, it will therefore try to delegate routine responsibilities currently done by officers to the low cost junior employees, he said.

Knowledge helpline for SBI staff launched

The Web-based service, will be useful to the employees to get their doubts clarified about banking and in turn be more helpful to the customer in their service.

 

Hyderabad, Aug. 3.: Reserve Bank Governor D. Subbarao launched a ‘knowledge helpline’ for the staff of State Bank of India. The Web-based service, will be useful to the employees to get their doubts clarified about banking and in turn be more helpful to the customer in their service. The RBI Governor, who also inaugurated the “Swarn Udyan” and the renovated hostel blocks was the chief guest at the golden jubilee celebrations of the State Bank Staff College here on Friday.

 

Speaking on the occasion, he said banks have to regain the trust and confidence of people. Banking sector is going to be involved and engaged in financial inclusion. It is required to understand the psychology and economy of poor people to enhance financial inclusion. There is a need for innovative infrastructure financing in India as we are supply constraint economy.

 

SBI Chairman Pratip Chauduri and other dignitaries from the SBI, the RBI, other banks and educational institutions took part in the event. The State Bank Staff College set up in 1961 has emerged as a premier training institute for the banking industry. The college trains more than 6,000 officers every year, mostly middle- and senior-level executives, in credit management, international banking, leadership development, marketing skills, negotiation skills and communication skills etc.

 

Several public and private sector banks in India as well as banks from developing countries like Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Ghana, Maldives, etc., also send their officers for training. Several Govt. officials of revenue intelligence, enforcement directorate, CBI, income tax, central vigilance commission etc., are also trained in banking related areas at the College.

Knowledge helpline for SBI staff launched

The Web-based service, will be useful to the employees to get their doubts clarified about banking and in turn be more helpful to the customer in their service.

 

Hyderabad, Aug. 3.: Reserve Bank Governor D. Subbarao launched a ‘knowledge helpline’ for the staff of State Bank of India. The Web-based service, will be useful to the employees to get their doubts clarified about banking and in turn be more helpful to the customer in their service. The RBI Governor, who also inaugurated the “Swarn Udyan” and the renovated hostel blocks was the chief guest at the golden jubilee celebrations of the State Bank Staff College here on Friday.

 

Speaking on the occasion, he said banks have to regain the trust and confidence of people. Banking sector is going to be involved and engaged in financial inclusion. It is required to understand the psychology and economy of poor people to enhance financial inclusion. There is a need for innovative infrastructure financing in India as we are supply constraint economy.

 

SBI Chairman Pratip Chauduri and other dignitaries from the SBI, the RBI, other banks and educational institutions took part in the event. The State Bank Staff College set up in 1961 has emerged as a premier training institute for the banking industry. The college trains more than 6,000 officers every year, mostly middle- and senior-level executives, in credit management, international banking, leadership development, marketing skills, negotiation skills and communication skills etc.

 

Several public and private sector banks in India as well as banks from developing countries like Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Ghana, Maldives, etc., also send their officers for training. Several Govt. officials of revenue intelligence, enforcement directorate, CBI, income tax, central vigilance commission etc., are also trained in banking related areas at the College.