State Bank of India (SBI) on Wednesday said it had not sought a blanket approval from the government for merging the remaining five subsidiaries with itself. SBI Chairman O P Bhatt said both the mergers done till now — State Bank of Indore and State Bank of Saurashtra — were with prior permission on a case-to-case basis from all the concerned bodies, such as the respective boards, the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
“We have not sought any blanket permission for the mergers,” Bhatt said, when asked about a media report on Wednesday that said SBI was mulling to merge all the remaining subsidiaries in the next 12-18-months. He further said SBI did not meet the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance yesterday.
State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Travancore and State Bank of Mysore are the subsidiaries, which are yet to be merged with the bank. It is argued that merging these will usher economies of scale and reduce administrative costs.