State Bank brass to meet at Agra

The top brass of State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest bank, will converge at Agra tomorrow for a two-day brain-storming on strategies to win back the market share lost in the last few years.

This will be for the first time that the top SBI management will have an off-site meeting, the brainchild of the bank's new chairman O P Bhatt. SBI's top officials meet twice every year to review business performance and plan for the future.

Apart from Managing Director T S Bhattacharya and the eight deputy managing directors, chief general managers heading the 14 circles of the bank will attend the meeting.

Private banks' aggressive tactics had resulted in a decline in SBI's market share to 17 per cent over the last few years. Bhatt had earlier said the bank would strive to increase its market share to 19 per cent in two years.

The meeting is also expected to discuss the experience with technology implementation and product initiatives in circles. The new chairman has put on hold implementation of core banking solution for 90 days to take stock of the bugs. The meeting is likely to draw up a plan to focus on customer service and erase the disconnect between customers.