Mumbai: Attrition at some private sector banks is “high” and the Reserve Bank of India is “closely” looking at the issue, Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Tuesday. Speaking at the annual BFSI Insight Summit organised by the Business Standard, Das said this is an “impatient generation”, where youngsters are switching jobs faster, as against the earlier generation’s tendencies to stick longer in a job. This is resulting in the high attrition rate, he said. It can be noted that disclosures made in the annual reports revealed that many private sector lenders experienced an attrition of over 30 per cent in FY23.
“We are also looking as a part of our supervision, the rate of attrition, which is seen to be high in certain private sector banks, and we have asked them to look at it,” Das said.
“… we are looking at it very closely because we find that the times have changed, and banks also need to give greater focus on this rate of attrition,” he added.
Drawing attention towards the changing preferences, Das said while the older generation stuck around for over 15-20 years in a job, the current does not and also hinted that switching jobs adds to the credentials on a CV these days.
Das said there is a need for the bank to build up its core team, which should grow with the bank over the years to take care of concerns around attrition.
He said there are a slew of opportunities in banking, non-banking finance companies and the fintech sector, which are attracting talent, but added that the RBI prefers leaving it to the management to deal with the issue, rather than prescribing anything.
Meanwhile, Das reiterated his concerns on the cryptocurrency issue, saying, “We need to start with the basics, including defining what is a cryptocurrency and assess what different do they have on offer as compared with the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDCs) before moving ahead.”
He also made it clear that the RBI’s intent is not to stifle innovation, but underlined the need for anything innovative to serve a public purpose.
On the repeated flagging of corporate governance issues at lenders, Das said at an overall level the banks fare nicely on the aspect but the RBI has been intervening selectively wherever it finds a deficiency.
He said the RBI wants to play a “constructive role” with the management of a bank on the issue of governance.
The RBI looks at the overall balance sheet of a bank when it makes suggestions on business models, Das said, adding that the central bank is not keen on micromanagement.
Das also said the RBI’s supervision has not fallen behind the curve as compared to other countries, and is in sync with the requirements of the times.
