SBI to complete merger of 6 banks in three months

State Bank of India, which would start merger process of five associates and Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) from April 1, expects integration to be completed in three months. 

"SBI has sought three-month time from RBI for merger. It should be done by that timeframe," SBI Managing Director (national banking group) Rajnish Kumar said here. "The merger has to be done in phases. As data are integrated, the new passbook and cheque books would be issued. The complete integration of various banks should take 3 months," he said. 

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SBI to merge with associates from 1st April

The government on Thursday said that 1 April will be the record date for the merger of State Bank of India (SBI) with five of its associate banks.The associate banks are State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Travancore (SBT), State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH) and State Bank of Patiala (SBP).

In a gazette notification dated 22 February and released on Thursday, the government said that all shares of these associate banks would cease to exist as individual entities and would stand transferred to SBI.

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State Bank of Travancore(SBT) Q3 result, posts loss of Rs 68 crore

SBI associate State Bank of Travancore(SBT) today reported a net loss of Rs 67.76 crore for third quarter ended December due to four-fold jump in bad loans. 

The bank had registered a net profit of Rs 91.47 crore in the year-ago period, it said in a BSE filing. However, the third quarter figures show that bank's net loss narrowed as compared to net loss of Rs 587.69 crore in the second quarter ended September 2016. 

As asset quality of the public sector bank slipped further during the quarter, the gross non-performing assets (NPAs) rose to 12.22 per cent in December quarter up from 3.87 per cent a year ago. Net NPA stood at 8.03 per cent against 2.46 per cent a year earlier. 

In absolute value, gross NPAs were Rs 8,169.97 crore, against Rs 2,603.88 crore. Net NPAs rose to Rs 5,121.89 crore from Rs 1,628.07 crore a year earlier. Thus, to cover bad loans, bank had to make provisions including contingencies of Rs 441.61 crore in the December quarter as compared to Rs 318.65 crore a year ago. 

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SBI pushes merger of 5 associate banks,Bharatiya Mahila Bank to next quarter

The merger of the five associate banks with State Bank of India (SBI) will be postponed to by a quarter due to the demonetization exercise, acknowledged SBI chief Arundhati Bhattacharya who for weeks had said that the merger is as per the schedule. The bank had announced in May plans to merge its five associate banks with itself by March 2017 to emerge as a global bank in order to compete with peers in emerging markets. 

Speaking to media on Monday on whether the merger of associate bank is as per the schedule, Bhattacharya said that the merger will “probably be delayed by a quarter”. She said that the delay has been because the government has not notified the merger. 

“The reason is we still have to get government approval. Even if I get the approval right now doing things in the last quarter is not a wise thing. There will be a lot of IT system changes and normally by mid-February we close down all IT system changes as these can impact something else quit unknowingly. We do not want to take any risks at the annual closing time. So we may just want to do the annual closing then look at it,” she said. 

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State Bank of Travancore Q1 Result, net loss at Rs 743 crore

Public sector State Bank of Travancore (SBT) has reported a net loss of Rs 742.89 crore for the June quarter due to higher NPAs.

Its net profit during the corresponding quarter in last financial year stood at Rs 81.32 crore, the bank said in a statement.

On account of higher provisions of Rs 1,170 crore for NPA (Non-Performing Assets) and additional prudential provisionsor other stressed accounts, the bank has faced losses.

The Gross NPA stood at 9.38 per cent, while Net NPA was 5.99 per cent as onJune 2016, it said.

The bank, however, has recorded an operating profit of Rs 426.65 crore during the quarter under review.

SBT — one of the Kerala based-banks — is proposed to be merged with State Bank of India (SBI).

The Kerala Assembly had recently passed a resolution asking the Centre and RBI to revoke the decision for merger. Staff Unions of SBT had also protested against the merger. Both ruling CPI(M)-led LDF and Congress headed UDF had supported the resolution.

The other income also grew by around 35 per cent to Rs 351.37 crore during the three-month period as against Rs 260.72 crore in June quarter of the preceding financial year, on the back of robust growth of 142 per cent growth in profit from treasury operations.

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Bankers to strike against merger of SBI associates

Opposing the central government's decision to merge State Bank of India's (SBI) five associate banks with the former, around 45,000 employees of the associate banks will strike on July 12, said a top official.

The All India Bank Employees'Association (AIBEA) official said that on July 13, there will be a nationwide strike in all banks by AIBEA and All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC).

"Consolidation in the banking industry is not a priority now. On the other hand, recovery of the bad loans should be the priority. Prior to the July 12 strike we will hold series of demonstrations opposing the merger," CH Venkatachalam, general secretary, AIBEA told IANS.

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SBI merger to create banking powerhouse

In a definitive push for consolidation in the banking sector, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave a go-ahead to the of State Bank of India (SBI) with its five associate lenders and Bharatiya Mahila Bank. The combined entity would create a financial sector powerhouse, with total assets worth Rs 29.7 lakh crore.

SBI has indicated it wants to complete the merger in 2016-17. While India's largest lender would reap benefits of scale and a larger balance sheet, it will be a major challenge to integrate staff and rationalise branches.

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Cabinet approves merger of 5 associate banks with SBI

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the merger of five associate banks — State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Hyderabad as well as Bharatiya Mahila Bank with State Bank of India, according to TV reports.

Last month, SBI cleared proposal for merger of subsidiary banks and Bharatiya Mahila Bank.

“Kindly await a structured briefing on that,” Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said when asked if the Cabinet approved the merger of associate banks with the SBI.

Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman, SBI said, “The merger of SBI and its associate banks is a win-win for both. While the network of SBI would stand to increase, its reach would multiply. One can expect efficiencies to be created from rationalisation of branches, common treasury pooling and proper deployment of a large skilled resource base. Currently, no Indian bank features in the top 50 banks of the world. With this merger, some visibility at global level is likely to increase. Customers of associates and subsidiaries of the bank will also be beneficiaries.”

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State Bank of Travancore Q4 profit falls 67.63%

State Bank of Travancore on Tuesday said its net profit for the March quarter fell 67.63% due to higher provisions.

Net profit for the quarter stood at Rs.62.14 crore as compared to Rs.191.97 crore a year ago.

Net interest income (NII) or the core income a bank earns by giving loans increased 8.6% to Rs.631.31 crore from Rs.581.40 crore last year. Other income increased to Rs.414.61 crore from Rs.371.59 crore in the same period last year, a rise of 11.58%.

Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) rose 35.76% to Rs.3,199.96 crore at the end of the March quarter from Rs.2,357.05 crore a year ago.

Provisions and contingencies jumped 217.34% to Rs.449.69 crore in the quarter from Rs.141.71 crore a year ago. The bank said its provision for NPAs jumped 464.3% from a year ago to Rs.520.32 crore.

In December, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) conducted an asset quality review across the banking sector, following which banks were asked to recognise visible stressed assets as N

PAs.

RBI also asked banks to make adequate provisions for these stressed assets over the third and fourth quarters of the current fiscal year. This could hit the profitability of some banks.

As a percentage of total loans, the bank’s gross NPAs stood at 4.78% at the end of the March quarter as compared to 3.87% in the previous quarter and 3.37% in the year-ago quarter.

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History of State Bank of Travancore (SBT)

State Bank of Travancore (SBT) was a major Indian bank headquartered in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, and was a major associate of State Bank of India.

SBT was a subsidiary of the State Bank Group, but also had private share-holders. It was the premier bank of Kerala. Overall, as of 31 March 2015 SBT had a network of 1,157 branches and 1,602 ATMs, covering 18 states and three union territories.

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