SBI, 5 associates, Bhartiya Mahila Bank merge into one entity; data integration next

India’s seven banks, including the country’s largest lender and the recently established bank for the women, today opened for business as one entity under the umbrella of the parent – State Bank of India. The state-run bank said it merged its five associate banks and Bhartiya Mahila Bank with itself effective April 1, and opened today as one bank.

Earlier this year, the Union Cabinet had approved the merger of State Bank of India and its five associate banks namely, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Hyderabad and State Bank of Patiala, paving way for bolstering the business operations of the state-run lending behemoth. While the merger of Bhartiya Mahila Bank was not finalised at that time, it was given a green light later.

The merger will further expand the size of State Bank of India, which, with over 500 million customers now, would be counted among the top 50 banks in the world. The merged entity now has a deposit base of more than Rs 26 lakh-crore and advances level of Rs 18.50 lakh crore.

“We opened today as one bank, so that new products and new services would come across more seamlessly,” State Bank of India Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya said. “We will continue to operate in the same manner as before,” she added.

“The combined entity will enhance productivity, mitigate geographical risks, increase operational efficiency and drive synergies across multiple dimensions while ensuring increased levels of customer delight,” she said.

Bhattacharya said that now the bank will undertake various audits before beginning to merge the data of all the associates starting April 1. “Our entire information technology systems will be totally integrated,” Bhattacharya said.

Meanwhile, the integration of Bhartiya Mahila Bank is complete, which stands fully merged with State Bank of India, Bhattacharya said, adding that the treasuries and dealing rooms of all banks are also completely integrated and are now working as one entity.

Further, she said that the share swap of the associates has also been completed, and the swapped shares are listed on the exchanges. The shares of the merged State Bank of India were trading up 0.5% at Rs 294 on BSE on Monday.

Bhattacharya said State Bank of India has taken additional provisioning worth Rs 8,600 crore towards bad loans, adding that the lender does not expect any nasty surprises on NPAs (non-performing assets) in the near future. She said that SBI aims to complete the integration of all the merged entities by the end of the current fiscal quarter (April-June).