Eight hundred new officers and clerical cadre staff will take up their assignments with State Bank of India across its branches and offices in Andhra Pradesh by March this year.
Around 400 officers and 400 clerical staff are joining this quarter. They have been recruited and undergoing training, Chief General Manager of SBI Amaravati Local Head Office Mani Palvesan said on Friday.
In a media interaction at the LHO, which functions from the erstwhile State Bank of Hyderabad headquarters in Gunfoundry here, he said SBI now had 16,366 officers, clerical cadre and sub-staff in Andhra Pradesh.
The decision to take on board around 800 more came in the backdrop of the significance of Andhra Pradesh as a robust market for the bank. The SBI Amaravati Circle, formed in April 2017, has under its control 1,379 branches and nearly 3700 ATMs across Andhra Pradesh.
According to Mr. Palvesan, total business of the circle was ₹1.80 lakh crore of which advances were ₹85 lakh crore and deposits ₹95 lakh crore. The home, agri and MSME loan portfolios were witnessing good growth.
On plans to set up LHO in the AP capital of Amaravati, Mr. Palvesan said, the State had allocated two acres for the office and half an acre for residential facilities. The LHO intended to approach the SBI head office next fiscal to get approvals for starting work on the facilities.
On branch and ATM expansion, he said the merger of five associate banks, including SBH, with the State Bank of India in April 2017, led to rationalisation of some branches. With the process complete, the SBI may open 15 new branches in AP in the coming financial year.
An official said around 800 ATMs had been opened so far in the current fiscal and 258 more were to be added by March. This included replacement as well as additional facilities.
