The Hindu Business Line : StanChart plans to hire 500 this year

Hyderabad, Feb. 10 Standard Chartered Bank is planning to hire about 500 this year in various roles. The bank has no plans to retrench or downsize its workforce to beat the impact of the slowdown.

“In fact, we are currently hiring through campus recruitment as well as routine channels. We feel that this is the best time to tap talent at reasonable cost,” Ms Madhavi Lall, Head Human Resource (India & South Asia), Standard Chartered Bank, told Business Line.

The headcount of the bank in India now stands at 8,000 while the group (including subsidiaries) employs 19,000.

“We are also tying up with leading management schools for campus hiring,” she said.

Expand base

The UK-based financial major, which has over 20 per cent of its global investment in microfinance in India, is also planning to expand its base.

“We are partnering with 18 MFIs in India (68 globally) and are constantly talking to others for collaborations,” Mr Prashant Thakkar, Global Business Head (Microfinance) for Standard Chartered, said.

Its Indian investments are about Rs 500 crore (during the last three years), including Rs 250 crore outstanding. “This forms about 25 per cent of our global exposure to microfinance sector. We continue to invest in the sector as the outlook is encouraging,” he said.

Stanchart is taking up innovative pilot programme such as mobile banking model in Kenya and commodity supply chain in Ivory Coast. “In India too we are evaluating some pilots which will be announced in due course of time,” Mr Thakkar said.

The non-performing assets are not a worry. “At the moment, we are not seeing any deterioration on this front,” he added.

PRIVATE EQUITY

While international debt is not coming to MFIs in India largely due to regulatory hurdles, the private equity flow has been significant. “In the last year, the top three firms alone had attracted private equity of over $200 million,” he said.

Out of 800 MFIs in India, about 50 MFIs have crossed theRs 100-crore capital mark, Mr Joseph Silavanus, Head (Development & Financial Institutions) South and South East Asia, said.

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