The State Bank of India, which started the process of merging all its subsidiaries with itself nearly three months ago, would become a single entity by April 2017, reflecting the speed at which the administration is moving towards revitalising the banking system.
The country’s largest lender will merge all its five subsidiaries — State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur , State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Hyderabad — with itself after the government gives final approval to the merger this October.
The proposal to the government will be submitted in September, and the bank’s officials expect “ to start migrating these banks by October”, an SBI official told a media organization. The whole process will be completed by the end of fiscal year.
The SBI servers have been readied to host the associate banks and, when it happens, is likely to be the fastest merger ever, the official claimed. The bank will be adding one third of its current customer base of 300 million during the merger process.
Once merged, the entity will be a banking behemoth with an asset base of Rs 37 lakh crore, a branch network of nearly 25,000 and 58,000 ATMs. It may be over five times ICICI Bank, the country’s second largest lender.
Earlier in June, the government gave the go-ahead to the merger of State Bank of India (SBI) with its five associate lenders and Bharatiya Mahila Bank.
It also will enhance SBI’s global ranking of 52 globally, in terms of assets in 2015, according to Bloomberg, helping it find a place in top 50 banks worldwide.
