MUMBAI, Feb 11: Tamilnad Mercantile Bank will repurpose more than half its staff towards sales as it shifts focus from maintaining its long-standing customer relationships to increasing revenues, a top official said.
This will be done through the technology-led investments which lead to automation benefits in a lot of repeat jobs, its Managing Director and Chief Executive Salee S Nair told PTI, underlining that there will not be any layoffs.
Overall employee count is expected to rise by over 200 from the current strength of 5,000, said Nair, a career SBI banker who joined the south-based lender in August 2024.
“Two years down the line, about 50-60 per cent of the employees will get repurposed into sales. We will be training them for the new roles,” he said, speaking on the sidelines of an event to announce its tie-up with tech major Oracle.
Nair recalled that after joining the bank, he found many processes were being done manually and the use of technology largely limited to the core banking solution.
This led to a bank-wide effort on revamping processes with the best of technology tools, he said, adding that the board sanctioned an outlay of Rs 250 crore for FY26.
The spend will be similar in FY27 as well as it undertakes more efforts, and will go lower afterwards, he said, adding that at present, the technology-related spending will be over 10 per cent of the operating expenses but the proportion will come down.
He said the paperwork led to the usage of 150 offices just for storing the paperwork and added that over the last year, it has been reduced to 30 offices as it appointed two private document storing companies.
Similarly, on the processes front, TMB has implemented, or is in the process of implementing, solutions for human resources, customer relationship management and business processes, which will decrease the reliance on people.
Nair said at present, human resources accounts for 47 per cent of the overall Rs 1,500 crore of expenditure for the bank.
Despite the gains from technology usage which has reduced the cost to income to 44 per cent, Nair did not revise the guidance on the cost-to-income ratio which stands at under 50 per cent.
When asked about the impact on the overall employee base, he said the bank will be expanding its employees by over 200 people on a net basis. Addition of 50 more branches over the present 614, and also as it undertakes other efforts like handholding customers with new technology.
A revised version of the internet banking service which nearly triples the number of transactions which can be undertaken to 170 will be launched soon, he said.
The bank has also engaged consultants to come out with details of its branches of the future which focuses more on sales.
The plans include unmanned counters for undertaking transactions at branches and alongside ATMs, and also lounges to explain products’ details to customers for sales purposes.
When asked how the employees are receiving the efforts, Nair said they are enthused about the changes and added that the bank has been successful in converting 83 per cent of the workforce to sign up for the cost to company-based emoluments from the IBA package earlier.
One of the factors which helped the bank was the younger staff, Nair said, pointing out that the median age of the bank is 35 years.
Nair retained the loan growth guidance at 16-17 per cent for FY26, and the Net Interest Margin (NIM) at 3.9 per cent.
The bank will be focusing more on the small business segment, and also push the pedal on the unsecured advances going ahead, he said, admitting that it has been skeptical of the riskier unsecured segment till now.
It will also be accelerating home and car finance in FY27, he added.
Meanwhile, speaking at the same event, Oracle’s country head for the applications Shailesh Singla said the business is growing at high double digits and segments like banking, financial services and insurance are witnessing doubling of revenues.
The company is adding two new clients in the BFSI (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance) segment every month, he said, listing out that it already serves lenders like Indusind Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank. (PTI)
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