SBI to close nearly half of associate banks’ offices after merger

New Delhi, March 21 

Country’s largest lender SBI, which will see five associate banks merge into it on April 1, has decided to shut down almost half the offices of these banks, including the head offices of three of them. This process will start from April 24.

“Out of the five head offices of the associate banks, we will retain only two. Three head offices of the associate banks will be unbound along with 27 zonal offices, 81 regional offices and 11 network offices of the associate banks,” SBI Managing Director Dinesh Kumar Khara said.

“We will keep their structure in place till April 24 and, post that, we will start dismantling the associate banks’ controlling offices, which includes head offices, regional offices, zonal offices and network offices,” Khara said.

SBI is India’s largest bank with assets of Rs 30.72 lakh crore and figures at  No. 64 in the global ranking of banks (as of December 2015; December 2016 ranking is still awaited). 

The shut-down move is to avoid overlapping offices in the same area and “we intend to remove any kind of duplicacy in the controlling structure”, Khara said.

The five associate banks will cease to exist as legal entities and become a part of SBI from April 1, but the various merger processes will start only after April 24, once the balance sheets of the five entities are audited and added.

“We will have to get the balance sheets of the associate banks audited a day prior to the merger, that is, on March 31. The balance sheets of the banks will be drawn up and added; it takes 15-20 days. Soon after the audit is done, the branches will be completely merged with SBI,” Khara said.

There are currently 550 SBI offices while its associate banks have 259. The target for the number of controlling offices after the merger is 687 — a reduction of 122 offices. — IANS