SBI transfers 70 execs, move seen as an attempt by new chief to stamp her authority

State Bank of India’s new chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya has transferred around 70 top executives, a rejig that insiders see as an attempt by the new head to stamp her authority and reorient the team. Change of portfolios and transfer orders have been issued for six deputy managing directors, 16 chief general managers and 46 general managers. SBIBSE 2.35 % executives expect more transfers as Bhattacharya gets her core team ready for the next three years. Bhattacharya was appointed chairperson of the country’s biggest bank earlier this month. 

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SBI plans to add 26,500 ATMs in five months

State Bank of IndiaBSE 2.66 %plans to add 26,500 ATMs over the next five months to take the total count to 65,000, a move that will strengthen the ATM network of the country's biggest lender and its five associate banks. The SBI group - SBI and the associate banks - already runs India's largest ATM network with 38,779 machines. A bank executive said SBI will, by March 2014, set up 7,800 ATMs under its own brand, while 17,200 will be brown-label ATMs that will be managed by a third-party vendor. SBI has given CMS Info Systems, a Mumbai-based IT solutions provider, the contract to instal, manage and service 7,800 ATMs, the executive said. 

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Transfers, open communication — High on SBI’s women folks wishlist

A faster and more rational transfer policy tops the wish-list of women employees of State Bank of India as they look to their new Chairperson, Arundhati Bhattacharya, with expectant eyes. Expectations have soared among women employees, at least in cities, after Bhattacharya took over the reins of the country’s largest bank. They expect their boss to empathise more with their concerns.

‘Spousal’ transfers

When Bhattacharya took over earlier this week, she said that she will try to make “spousal” transfers faster and effective. Most women employees, we spoke to, were welcoming of their new boss. An employee named Geeta Aravind said: “As a woman, it is a very proud moment for all of us. She seems co-operative, ethical and enterprising.

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With a woman at helm, fairer HR policies likely at SBI

Female employees at SBI can look forward to fairer HR policies as the bank's first woman chief Arundhati Bhattacharya today hinted at allowing staff to avail of long sabbaticals, among other initiatives. "Being a woman myself, I think womenemployees have special problems. I will definitely try to be more sensitive to that," Bhattacharya said at her maiden interaction with reporters after taking over the reins of the country's biggest bank. 

The 57-year-old Bhattacharya also hinted at easing transfer norms for couples, saying the organisation has to understand the changing work environment and culture wherein both partners work. 

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SBI to step up war against NPAs: Arundhati Bhattacharya, SBI Chairperson

State Bank of India, the country's biggest lender, will intensify its "war" against bad loans while lowering interest rates on select products for its retail borrowers during the festival season, Arundhati Bhattacharya, the bank's first woman chairperson, said on Tuesday. Bhattacharya, however, ruled out any reduction in the base rate, or the minimum rate at which it lends to its best customers, and the rate it charges on home loans, which is already the lowest in the sector. "There is no way interest rates would go down in the near future. But since the festival season is coming, we will definitely want to do something for our customers," Bhattacharya said while speaking to journalists after taking charge. 

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Arundhati Bhattacharya takes charge as SBI chief

Arundhati Bhattacharya is the new chairperson of State Bank of India. Bhattacharya becomes the first woman chief of India’s largest bank. Previously, she was Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of the bank.

Bhattacharya, who joined SBI as a probationary officer in 1977, will be at the helm until March 2016.

The top position at SBI was headless for about a week after Pratip Chaudhuri retired as Chairman on September 30. Managing Directors A. Krishnakumar and S. Vishvanathan were also in the race for the SBI chief’s position. But longer residual service clinched the Government’s decision in Arundhati Bhattacharya’s favour.

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SBI lags in business, profits per employee; RBI report

State Bank of India is number one in many aspects but when it comes to business and profits per employee, the country's largest lender ranks below the national average, says a Reserve Bank report. As per the latest data on Indian banking sector, the business per employee of SBI in 2012-13 was Rs 9.43 crore, while the all banks' aggregate was Rs 12.13 crore. Every employee on an average contributed Rs 6.5 lakh to the bank's profit in the last fiscal, according to 'A Profile of Banks: 2012-13', released by RBI. On this parameter also, the bank was lagging behind the all banks' aggregate which was Rs 8.3 lakh SBI's employees strength was 2.28 lakh at the end of March 2013.With regard to net non-performing ratio (NPA), SBI performed poorly. Net NPA of the bank stood at 2.10% of the total advances as compared all banks' aggregate of 1.68% in 2012-13. However, on the parameter of net interest margin (NIM), SBI's interest spread was better at 3.06% as against the all banks' aggregate of 2.79%.

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SBI joins ranks of dozen other headless PSUs

India’s largest lender, the State Bank of India(SBI) has joined the ranks of a host of other headless public sector undertakings (PSU) after its chairman Pratip Chaudhuri retired on the 30th of September without a successor being notified. Arundhati Bhattacharya was set to take over as the new head, but her appointment has been delayed. This is in some sense keeping alive the unholy tradition at SBI. The appointment of chairmen was delayed on the last 2 occasions as well, when A K Purwar and O P Bhatt retired. On both occasions an interim charge was given to others till the permanent chairmen took control. A former senior banker with SBI who spoke to Business Standard on conditions of anonymity said it is the finance ministry’s ad hoc decision to seek a relaxation to the eligibility norms for selection, that’s led to this delay. 

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FM's festival dhamaka may not fire up retail growth

Finance Minister P Chidambaram and RBI governor Raghuram Rajanare preparing for the festival season. Top of their to-do list is providing banks with money so that they in turn can provide consumers with money to buy goodies. The idea behind it is to propel growth. Well it’s a bad idea and will not help. Like everything these days, here are five reasons why it is such a bad idea. 1.  The govt plans to shell more funds apart from the Rs 14,000 crore earlier earmarked to be given to public sector banks. This they expect will help them lend more at lower interest rates to people interested in buying two-wheelers and select consumer durables. Well, how many of us have seen financing schemes of public sector banks (except for SBI in some cases) at the auto showrooms or electronic shops. It is either the private sector banks or nan-banking finance companies who have captured the market. Giving money to public sector banks will only end up in more decorative lights at their branches.

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Mobilising deposits, the SBI way

When the public is holding cash amounting to a whopping Rs 11,64,450 crore, shouldn’t banks try and convert a part of this money into deposits? State Bank of India Chairman, Pratip Chaudhuri, distinctly sees such a possibility at a time when the banking system is facing liquidity tightness.  In order to tap currency in the hands of the public, India’s largest bank is installing cash deposit machines (CDMs) at marketplaces across the country.

Traders, shopkeepers and vegetable vendors can deposit cash into these CDMs anytime of the day (24x7) and 365 days of the year just by swiping their SBI ATM-cum-debit card. The money gets instantly credited to their account and they get a receipt for their transaction. Chaudhuri said, “Today bank branches close at 4 pm or 5 pm, whereas most of India’s retail trade happens in the evening. No matter how much you promote cards (credit and debit), 70-80 per cent of the trade is in cash, especially at the street-level shops. So, banks need to have the ability to set up cash deposit machines.”

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Why all is not well with the State Bank of India

There is more to the downgrade of SBI than what meets the eye. Global rating agency Moody's downgraded the unsecured debt and local currency deposit rating by a notch citing asset quality and recapitalisation concerns. The rating agency has also pointed out the bank’s reliance on a fiscally constrained government to maintain capital at levels desired by regulators as another reason for downgrade.

In layman language, SBI does not have money to fund its losses in order to keep its capital in line with the RBI guidelines. Normally the bank would run to the government when its capital adequacy ratio came down, either due to strong growth or rising losses. 

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Outgoing SBI chairman Pratip Chaudhuri leaves poor investors, rich legacy

In the uncertain world of Indian banking one thing is certain — any state-run bank which gets a new chairman will report a jump in provisioning in the very first quarter of new leadership and will see its profits erode and stock value dip. The standard answer to explain such a phenomenon used to be that the balance sheet had to be cleaned up.

However, that should be the least of the worries of the top four contenders to succeedPratip Chaudhuri as the chairman of State Bank of IndiaBSE 2.39 % when one of them steps in to steer the nation's biggest bank next month. 

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SBI expects Rs 4,000-cr capital infusion from government this financial year

State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest bank, on Monday said it expected Rs 4,000-crore capital infusion from the government to shore up its capital. "We have requested the government for Rs 4,000-crore capital infusion (in the current financial year)," SBI Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri said here on the sidelines of a function to launch an Air India-SBI co-branded credit card.

When asked about his expectations from the coming RBI policy review, he said the bank had recommended a cut in the cash reserve ratio (CRR), as well as in repo rate. On recovering the debt of grounded Kingfisher Airlines, the SBI chief said the lender was taking all possible action to recover the loans. However, he refused to divulge the details.

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Interview for SBI Chairman post next week

A Government appointed search panel will conduct interviews for selecting the Chairman of the country’s largest bank SBI on September 21. All the four Managing Directors of State Bank of India have been called for the interview, a senior Finance Ministry official said.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed by the Prime Minister, had recently suggested that all the four SBI MDs should be called for the interview. 

The incumbent Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri is set to retire at the end of this month.

The Finance Ministry had sought exemption in regulatory guidelines so that more candidates could be interviewed for SBI’s top post.

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SBI report welcomes RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan's focus on mobile banking

Terming it as a "game changer", aState Bank of IndiaBSE -0.18 % report has welcomed Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan's stated focus on deepening the penetration of mobile banking.  "Mobile payments could be a game changer, both in the financial sector as well for mobile phone companies," an SBI research report said after Rajan announced a slew of measures in his maiden address as the head of the central bank. 

In this address, Rajan had announced the constitution of a technical group to study the feasibility of using an encrypted, SMS-based application for fund transfer, which which can run on any cellular phone handset.  Speaking of the advantages of mobile banking, the SBI note said that only 60 per cent of the population is covered by banking services today, though more than 75 per cent have mobile phones. 

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'State Bank of Hyderabad would not be first to be merged with SBI'

State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), the largest among the five  associate banks of SBI, would probably be the last bank to be merged with  the parent    bank in view of the     political situation   prevailing in Andhra Pradesh over its division to create Telangana, a top   SBH official said today. 

"It (SBH) will not be merged at the moment because of the prevailing situation in Andhra Pradesh right now. It will not be the first bank to be merged. It will probably be the last," SBH Managing Director M Bhagavantha Rao said replying to a query by reporters here. 

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FinMin seeks relaxation in SBI chief's selection norms

The Finance Ministry has sought relaxation in the eligibility norms for selection of SBI Chairman so as to have more candidates to interview for the top post at the country's largest bank. "To have suitable panel of candidates, we have requested Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) for exemption in regulatory guidelines," Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Takru told PTI.

ACC, which comprises of Home Minister, the administrative ministry in-charge, is headed by the Prime Minister. The current Chairman of the State Bank of India, Pratip Chaudhuri, is to retire next month. As per the existing norms a candidate is eligible for the interview of the post of the Chairman if he/she has at least two years of service left before the retirement.

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SBI net dips 14% as bad loans, provisioning rise

A jump in bad loans, provisioning for pension liabilities and a fall in the value of international investments pulled down State Bank of India’s profitability in the April-June quarter. India’s largest bank reported a 14 per cent drop in net profit to Rs 3,241 crore from Rs 3,752 crore in the year-ago period.

In the reporting quarter, the bank saw a net incremental growth in bad loans (after taking into account cash recoveries, upgradation of loan and write-offs) of Rs 9,702 crore (Rs 7,480 crore in the year-ago period). Bad loans came mainly from the small and medium enterprises (SME), agriculture and retail (mostly personal loan) segments.

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SBI poaches big-ticket corporate loans

Dangling   the carrot of cheap loans, State Bank of India (SBI) has turned aggressive in taking over blue-chip (with credit rating of AA and AAA) corporate loans from rival banks, especially public sector lenders.

SBI, the country’s largest lender, has picked up loans worth Rs 8,000 crore including that of the Nuclear Power Corporation from Bank of India and the Gujarat Power Corporation account from Power Finance Corporation. “There is trade-off. We have not lowered the risk bar, but the price bar (read cheap loan). The focus is on corporates with high credit rating,” said a senior SBI official. SBI’s large corporate loan book grew by 40.3 per cent in 2012-13 to Rs 1,75,831 crore by the end of March.

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SBI's Chaudhuri: Bright sparks amid bad numbers

Two words describe Pratip Chaudhuri’s two-and-a-half year tenure with the State Bank of India (SBI) – ‘higher provisioning’. In his first quarter as the chairman of country’s largest bank, he took a hit of 99 per cent in profits due to higher provisioning of Rs 10,000 crore due to non-provision of pension liability for the previous five years.

Yesterday, the bank’s first quarter profits fell 13.6 per cent due to rise in bad loans, provisioning for pension and loss in the value of investment bonds.  Even the provision coverage ratio fell from 66 per cent to 60.6 per cent. But Chaudhuri had little option in front of him, more provisioning would have meant further hit in profits – something he did not chose to do.  

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