THRISSUR: The merger of the SBI and its associate banks will prove beneficial to the employees and the benefits of the merger will be seen within the next three years, SBI MD Rajnish Kumar told reporters on the sidelines of the inauguration of the SBI corporate social responsibility(CSR)initiatives here on Saturday.
Nearly 100 branches of the SBI and the SBT would be optimised post-merger. A total of 1,200-1,500 branches would be optimised across the country, he said. However, the top banker said ‘closure’ was a misnomer when used in the context of the optimisation of the SBI and the SBT branches in Kerala.
“Closure is not the right word. It is a question of like, there are branches in the same building or same location, then it does not make sense. I don’t need two banks functioning out of the same building. So we need to optimise it,” Kumar said.
“But there is a need to open new branches in places, where the SBI or the associate banks have virtually no presence. We have identified the locations where the duplication occurs. The voluntary retirement scheme(VRS) is available to the employees of all the associate banks and we have not set any targets in this regard.
The benefits of the merger will be seen within the next three years,” he said.
Kumar made it clear the bank would not revisit the decision on levying service charge on transactions and the minimum account balance.
“Our intention is not to cause inconvenience to the customers. Superfluous accounts are putting pressure on the system, on the IT system. Periodic updating of Know your customer(KYC)is needed. The charges will ensure some discipline on the withdrawals. The Centre has not issued any directions in this regard,” he said.
According to the SBI MD, the success of the merger depended on the happiness and the satisfaction derived by the customers and the authorities concerned were doing everything in their power to ensure this.
“A road map for the merger had been drawn up over the past seven-eight months. We are all set for the merger and from April 1 it will become a single entity,” he said.
Kumar insisted the employees of the associate banks would benefit as a result of the merger.“The brand is more or less same but in practice the SBI brand is much stronger than the others.
The employees of the associate banks will enjoy the same benefits available to their SBI counterparts,” he said.
On demonetisation, he said the SBI was through with it.