State Bank of India to shut down nearly 50% offices of associate banks after merger

Close to the heels of the State Bank of India (SBI) getting the final approvals to merge operations with its five associate banks and the Bharat Mahila Bank (BMB), the country's largest public sector bank has said that it will shut down nearly 50% of offices of these banks including the head offices of three of them, according to a report by The Economic Times. 

The report said the shut down will start from April 24, quoting SBI Managing Director Dinesh Kumar Khara as saying, "We will keep their structure in place till April 24 and post that, we will start dismantling the associate banks' controlling offices, which includes the head offices, regional offices, zonal offices, and network offices."

SBI has received the required approvals to merge the operations of State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Patiala, and State Bank of Hyderabad, with itself. 

Khara said SBI will retain only two out of five head offices, shutting down three head offices along with 27 zonal offices, 81 regional offices, and 11 network offices of the associate banks. 

This will help the banks avoid overlapping offices in the same area and to help remove any kind of duplicity in the controlling structure. However, the employees who would lose their jobs thanks to the shutdowns -- around 1,107 -- "would be redeployed, mostly in customer-interface operations," he said. 

"The net result is that people in controlling functions will be available for deployement on the ground for improving reach to the customer."

SBI is likely to follow the merger blueprint formed by its previous mergers - State Bank of Indore with SBI in 2010 and State Bank of Saurashtra in 2008.