Amid the displeasure expressed by the regulators and judiciary on high-handedness of agents hired by banks to recover loans, the country's biggest lender -- State Bank of India [Get Quote] -- is planning to hire 3,000 marketing and recovery officers in its second such recruitment drive in less than a year.

The bank is looking to hire 3,000 people for the position of 'Officer (Marketing and Recovery)' for its rural operations on contractual basis.

SBI said in a public announcement, seeking applications by August 16, that the positions would have a contract period of two years.

Previously, SBI had announced in October 2007 plans to hire 3,000 marketing and recovery officers whose job profile would include 'soft recovery' of loans.

Besides, these officers would also market the bank's products, conduct pre-sanctioned survey, file applications and verify the documents.

While the emoluments being offered in the latest hiring drive could not be ascertained, in its October announcement the bank had said these officers would be given a compensation package of Rs 200,000 per annum.

According to SBI's latest annual report, the bank had a total 179,205 employees as on March 31, 2008, making it the biggest employer in the country's banking space.

These included over 32 per cent of officer and close to 43 per cent clerical grade employees.

While SBI is understood to have formulated a strategy to hire these marketing and recovery officers for its rural operations much before, a number of banks are believed to have started moving their loan recovery activities in-house, rather than hiring outside agent after the strong stand taken by RBI as well as the courts.

However, SBI's previous recruitment drive for recovery and marketing officers in October last year was announced within days of Reserve Bank of India warning commercial banks that it would not hesitate to ban them from hiring recovery agents if 'abusive practices' persisted.

After announcing the busy-season credit policy, RBI Governor Y V Reddy had asked banks to use their own staff to recover loans if their agents were found to be adopting abusive practices.

Later last year, RBI released a circular on engaging such agents, which was followed with its final guidelines on such practices in April this year.

In its guidelines issued on April 24, RBI said, "In view of the rise in the number of disputes and litigations against banks for engaging recovery agents in the recent past, it is felt that the adverse publicity would result in serious risk of reputation for the banking sector as a whole."

Suggesting a due diligence on recovery agents before engaging them, RBI asked the banks to inform the borrower the details of recovery agencies while forwarding default cases to the recovery agency.

Besides, the banks were also asked to ensure that the recovery agents were properly trained to handle with care and sensitivity, their responsibilities, in particular aspects like hours of calling and privacy of customer information.

Besides, RBI also said it is expected that banks would ensure that their employees also adhere to these guidelines during the loan recovery process.

RBI had said in its Mid-term Review of the Annual Policy for the year 2007-08 that 'complaints received by the Reserve Bank regarding abusive practices followed by banks recovery agents would invite serious supervisory disapproval.'