State Bank of India is likely to hire 25,000 persons by the end of March. SBI is the top lender of the country, having big network of branches and ATMs across almost all the towns of the country. SBI has presence in other countries as well.

The bank is planning to recruit 20,000 clerks and 5,000 supervisors as per the bank Chairman Om Prakash Bhatt. Interestingly, many banks and financial institutions are adopting cost cutting measures, including retrenchment of additional staff, following the world economic crisis. The world's largest bank, Citigroup is all set to terminate services of at least 10,000 employees and raise its credit card interest rates to deal with the credit crunch situation. US credit group American Express is also panning 10 per cent reduction of its staff.

The bank would also increase its automatic teller machines network. It has currently 9,000 ATMs and bank aims to increase it to 15,000. The bank has currently 180,000 employees and fresh recruitment would increase the number of employees significantly. It hopes to become the home loan leader by offering loans at attractive rates.