Tamilnad Mercantile Bank is implementing a comprehensive transformation of its workforce structure, with more than 50% of employees set to be repurposed into sales roles over the next two years. According to reports from The Economic Times, Managing Director and CEO Salee S Nair announced this strategic shift as the bank moves from maintaining traditional customer relationships to focusing on revenue generation. The bank currently employs 5,000 people and plans to expand its workforce by over 200 employees on a net basis, with the addition of 50 more branches to its existing 614 branches. Nair emphasized that there will be no layoffs during this transition, with the bank training employees for new sales roles and providing cost-to-company-based emoluments from the IBA package.
The bank has allocated a ₹250 crore outlay for FY26 for technology-led investments, with similar spending planned for FY27. As reported by The Economic Times, Nair explained that technology investments will lead to automation benefits in many repeat jobs, with the bank currently spending over 10% of operating expenses on technology-related activities. The bank has significantly reduced its reliance on manual processes, cutting down from 150 offices used for paperwork storage to just 30 offices through partnerships with private document storage companies. Nair noted that after joining the bank, he found many processes were being done manually, leading to a bank-wide effort on revamping processes with the best technology tools.
Despite technology gains that have reduced the cost-to-income ratio to 44%, Nair maintained the bank's guidance of keeping the ratio under 50%. According to The Economic Times, the bank retains its loan growth guidance at 16-17% for FY26 and Net Interest Margin guidance at 3.9%. The bank will focus more on the small business segment and push unsecured advances, while also accelerating home and car finance in FY27. Nair noted that the bank has been skeptical of the riskier unsecured segment till now but plans to push the pedal on unsecured advances going ahead.
The bank has successfully converted 83% of its workforce to sign up for cost-to-company-based emoluments from the IBA package, as reported by The Economic Times. Nair noted that the median age of the bank is 35 years, which has helped in adapting to the changes. The bank is launching a revised internet banking service that will nearly triple transaction capacity to 170 transactions, while also implementing plans for unmanned counters and customer lounges at branches. Nair engaged consultants to develop details of branches of the future, focusing more on sales with unmanned counters for transactions and lounges to explain product details to customers.
