The fund would be set up in about six months and meet the loan requirements in the range of Rs 10 crore to Rs 100 crore. The Rs 500-crore would be in the first tranche and the fund size would grow gradually. This would be managed by external agents and remain outside the purview of SBI. It would also advise clients on matter relating to taxation and trade apart from helping successful companies list on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Talking on the sidelines of the Indian Banking Conference at the Indian School of Business (ISB) here, Bhatt said they would discuss the repo rate hike and take a decision in a week. "We can afford to wait for a week.''
With the Law Ministry giving its go-ahead for the merger of State Bank of Hyderabad with SBI, the bank is now awaiting Cabinet's nod. He, however, said it would not be possible to tell when the merger would complete. It would first merge State Bank of Saurashtra with itself and then decide on others. "It is an amalgamation of family units,'' he said, adding customers would get the added benefit of SBI's vast network in the country and abroad too. The mergers would also increase the efficiency and reduce costs and time
"We will look for mergers outside the family once the 'in-house' banks are brought under one roof,'' the chairman said. On aligning with the unions, he said several members were positive about the development and did not foresee any major hindrance. The mergers would put the banking industry in a new perspective and would also prompt other banks to go the SBI way, he felt.
On retaining talent, he said salary revision was due in November. "There would be a hike in the salaries shortly as discussions are under way." The SBI has already issued a notification to fill 20,000 posts across all categories to give an impetus to the customer-centric exercise that the public sector bank
has taken up.
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It is also evolving an incentive model to motivate staff. "This one would be different from what private banks are giving,'' he said, refusing to draw parallels between the two. The bank is consulting faculty from the Indian Institutes of Management on evolving ethical incentives.
Besides, it is revamping about 3,000 branches and also working on a computer-based queue management system, which would enable customers to seek an appointment before visiting the bank.