Mumbai, February 11 Tamilnad Mercantile Bank will reallocate more than half of its staff towards sales as it shifts its focus from maintaining long-standing customer relationships to increasing revenues, a top official said.
This will be done through technology-led investments, which will lead to automation benefits in many repetitive tasks, Managing Director and Chief Executive Salee S Nair told PTI, emphasizing that there will be no layoffs.
Overall, the employee count is expected to increase by over 200 from the current strength of 5,000, Nair said, who is a career SBI banker who joined the south-based lender in August 2024.
"In two years, about 50-60 per cent of the employees will be repurposed for sales. We will be training them for these new roles," he said, speaking at an event to announce the bank's tie-up with tech major Oracle.
Nair recalled that after joining the bank, he found that many processes were being done manually, and the use of technology was largely limited to the core banking solution.
This led to a bank-wide effort to revamp processes using the best of technology tools, he said, adding that the board has sanctioned an outlay of ₹250 crore for FY26.
The spending will be similar in FY27 as well, and will decrease afterwards, he said, adding that currently, technology-related spending will be over 10 per cent of operating expenses, but this proportion will come down.
He said that the paperwork led to the use of 150 offices just for storing the paperwork, and that this has been reduced to 30 offices over the last year, as the bank has appointed two private document storage companies.
Similarly, in terms of processes, TMB has implemented or is in the process of implementing solutions for human resources, customer relationship management, and business processes, which will reduce reliance on people.
Nair said that currently, human resources account for 47 per cent of the overall ₹1,500 crore expenditure for the bank.
Despite the gains from technology usage, which has reduced the cost to income to 44 per cent, Nair has not revised the guidance on the cost-to-income ratio, which is under 50 per cent.
When asked about the impact on the overall employee base, he said that the bank will be expanding its workforce by over 200 people. This includes adding 50 more branches over the current 614, as well as providing support to customers with new technology.
A revised version of the internet banking service, which will nearly triple the number of transactions that can be undertaken to 170, will be launched soon, he said.
The bank has also engaged consultants to come up with details of its future branches, which will focus more on sales.
The plans include unmanned counters for conducting transactions at branches and alongside ATMs, as well as lounges to explain product details to customers for sales purposes.
When asked how employees are responding to these efforts, Nair said that they are enthusiastic about the changes, and that the bank has been successful in converting 83 per cent of the workforce to sign up for cost-to-company-based emoluments from the IBA package.
One of the factors that helped the bank was its younger staff, Nair said, pointing out that the median age of the bank is 35 years.
Nair has 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 will also increase unsecured advances going forward, he said, admitting that it has been cautious about the riskier unsecured segment until 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 applications, Shailesh Singla, said that the business is growing at high double digits, and that segments like banking, financial services, and insurance are witnessing a 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.