Ordinance to help banks: SBI

Kolkata, May 5 (IANS) The Banking Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance, notified on Friday, is expected to facilitate bankers to adopt resolutions for NPA (non performing assets) accounts, a banker said on Friday.

State Bank of India's Chief General Manager (Kolkata Circle) Partha Pratim Sengupta said: "In most of the large accounts it was a difficult task for bankers to take a resolution. With the ordinance, the Reserve Bank of India is expected to ease that problem."

A clear picture will emerge once the details of the ordinance come out, he said on the sidelines of an event organised by Bengal National Chamber of Commerce.

Having completed the merger of five associate banks and the Bharatiya Mahila Bank with it, the SBI will rationalise 24 of its branches in Kolkata circle by September, he said.

Kolkata circle comprises Bengal, Sikkim, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

"As many as 49 branches of associate banks and three branches of the Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) were merged in Kolkata circle. Twenty-four branches will be rationalised," Chief General Manager (Kolkata Circle) Partha Pratim Sengupta said.

"As much as Rs 12,000 crore of deposits and Rs 11,000 crore of advances were merged in the circle," he added.

The country's largest lender started functioning as a unified entity from April 1 post merger of its five associate banks, besides BMB.

The associate banks merged with the SBI are the State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala and the State Bank of Travancore.

With the merger, the SBI joins the league of top 50 banks globally in terms of assets.