The State Bank of India (SBI) is going to hire 7,000 people this financial year to support its branch expansion plans and for the regular needs. “We will hire about 2,000 probationary officers and the rest clerks. We are going to add 700 more branches this financial year to take the total to beyond 17,000 branches,” Rajnish Kumar, Managing Director of SBI, has said.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, he said about 100 new branches had already been set up this year so far and the remaining would be started in the next few months. “We have multiple channels that our customers can reach out to us. In a vast country like India, you need to have a variety of channels,” he said.

SBI to Soon Launch Wallet App ‘Batua’

The bank, which launched an e-wallet app for smart phone users, would launch Batua (purse), a multi-lingual app for feature (basic) phones. Claiming that this was a first of its kind app for feature phones, he said it would be available in 13 Indian languages,” he said. The bank is planning to launch the app in the next three weeks.

‘Batua’ can be used to make utility payments, transfer funds and buy air tickets, among others things, and it will be available in 13 languages, Mr Kumar added.

The bank witnessed a subdued growth in corporate credit in the first half of the current financial year. “At 8.4 per cent, the growth was subdued in this sector. Increase in investments in infrastructure would help this to grow in the second half. We see traction in the power sector,” he said.