Country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) plans to open 1,000 more branches in the next fiscal, taking its total branch network to over 13,000.
"SBI has opened 1,000 branches during this year and plans to open more than 1,000 branches next year," SBI said in a statement.
At present, the public sector lender has 12,448 branches and over 21,000 ATMs. By the end of March, it aims to scale up the number of ATMs to 25,000.
In the current fiscal, SBI has opened 1,000 branches and 10,000 ATM. Of the 1,000 branches, 600 were opened in rural and semi-urban areas.
During 2010-11, SBI plans to hire more than 27,000 people across its various divisions. The bank also plans to recruit 20,000-22,000 people at the clerical posts and 5,500 people at the probationary officer level.
As part of its strategy to enhance focus on rural operations, SBI plans to deploy 2,000 probationary officers in rural areas.