Small banks to hire 5,000 more people in small towns by March; JSFB set to hike staff strength to 15,000

India’s small banks are set to recruit about 5,000 people in small towns in the next three months as these small finance lenders are expected to open their branches soon, said media reports. Some of the leading small finance banks namely AU Small Finance Bank, Ujjivan, Utkarsh, Suryoday and ESAF will hire up to 5,000 people in smaller towns between January and March, said a report in The Economic Times. AU Small Finance Bank said that it would hire about 1,500 people by March, while Ujjivan would add about 600 people, ESAF wanted to recruit 500 people and Suryoday 200-250 people, said the report. [caption id=“attachment_5194331” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Getty Images[/caption] India’s newest commercial bank Jana Small Finance Bank (JSFB) has said that it plans to recruit 1,000 fresh employees in the current financial year to meet its expansion road map, said a report in Business Standard. In July 2018, JSFB had said that it would increase its staff strength by 15,000 by the end of the year, managing director and chief executive officer of the bank Ajay Kanwal was quoted as saying by PTI. As many as 150 of the branches would cater to small and medium enterprises and the bank planned to hire 1,000 employees by this year-end to bolster its current manpower of 15,000, he said. JSFB had a loan book of Rs 7,600 crore during the year ending 31 March, Kanwal said. He said the bank had started its operations with a capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of about 35 percent. Kanwal said the bank currently was having a subscriber base of over 45 lakh and planned to add another 40 lakh by 2020. For covering its extensive customer base, the bank had opened 157 branches which include 12 in unbanked rural areas, he said. By 2019-end, 500 branches would be operational in 19 states, after conversion of majority of its micro finance storefronts into branches, Kanwal said. The bank has so far spent as much as Rs 2,000 crores on digitisation, which would cost Rs 70-80 crore yearly in future, he said. — With PTI inputs     To keep watching India’s No. 1 English Business News Channel – CNBC-TV18, call your Cable or DTH Operator and ask for the Colors Family Pack (inclusive of 24 channels), available for Rs. 35/- per month, or subscribe to the channel for Rs. 4/- per day. To keep watching the Leader in Global Market & Business News – CNBC-TV18 Prime HD, call your Cable or DTH Operator and ask for the Colors Family HD Pack (inclusive of 25 channels), available for Rs. 50/- per month, or subscribe to the channel for Rs. 1/- per day.