In a recent meeting with the heads of the state-run banks and the Indian Banks Association (IBA), Financial Services Secretary Hasmukh Adhia has asked public sector banks to promote Scale-II and III staff from within the bank.
"The banks can fill the shortage of manpower at higher levels -- of DGMs and GMs-- due to the likely mass retirement in near future by promoting officers from Scale-II and III on merit," Adhia said in a letter to PSU bank managements.
Since then, the ministry has been making efforts to come out with viable solutions to address the manpower issue at PSBs.
The country's largest lender State Bank of India said it is looking at the idea as an option to face the ongoing mass retirement within the bank.
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"The idea is still at a planning stage at SBI. In fact, this is something we have never tried. We have to promote people from the lower rung, as we cannot hire from outside," SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya told PTI.
Banks have not recruited officers for the past 8-10 years which has resulted in this precarious situation, he added.
According to an IBA data, there were 3,04,090 officials ranging between Scale I and Scale VII in PSBs as on March 2012. This included 1,731 DGMs and 549 GMs.
However, the IBA could not share the number of retirements that is facing the industry.
At present, interviews are on in all the PSBs for promotion of officials.