State Bank of India may, in the coming years, double its annual spending on information technology from the present Rs 500 crore, the public-sector lender’s chairman Pradip Chaudhary said today.
“Considering the RBI vision document 2011-17, we may look at enhancing customer experience, as well as ROI (return on investment) simultaneously through technology,” he told Business Standard.
“We may enhance our IT spending in the near future to enhance its use in areas like management information systems, overall risk management, financial inclusion and customer relationship management.”
Amid fears of pressure on the margins of banks in the prevailing high-interest rate scenario, SBI is witnessing an improvement in its net interest margin (NIM), the boss said. “We are expecting an NIM of 3.6 per cent in the current financial year against an earlier projection of 3.5 per cent.”
As far the deposits, the 1955-founded bank is expecting a growth of 20 to 21 per cent in the current financial year. The credit growth percentage for the year has been pegged between 16 and 19, he added.
The Mumbai-headquartered bank is also planning to open 800 to 1,000 branches across India in the current financial year. “We have already it got the regulatory approval,” Currently, SBI has a network of over 12,000 branches.
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The bank is also looking to increase the number of circles from the present 14 to 17. As for overseas expansion, SBI will open a foreign subsidiary in Australia, besides a new branch in Doha.
Also, it is planning to hire 7,000-8000 employees across all categories in the current fiscal year. Last year, it hired around 20,000 people.
On SBI’s much-delayed rights issue, through which it intends to raise Rs 20,000 crore, Chaudhuri said it “should happen within one and half month”. According to the proposal, SBI requires Rs 20,000 crore to fund its growth plans over the next two financial years.