New Delhi, June 04: State Bank of India plans to integrate many of the bank's functions with that of its seven subsidiaries including treasury operation, ATMs and technology in the near future for greater synergy and growth. Although merger of the subsidiaries with the parent bank does not seem imminent at present, top SBI officials said the country's biggest bank intends to merge branches, which are closely located and redundant, in near future as part of plans to rationalise operations and reduce costs.

"In the first phase, we will go for swapping of branches among the different subsidiaries. In the next phase, we will go for branch mergers," they said.

For instance, State Bank of Patiala will swap branches with State Bank of Hyderabad as the two banks are concentrated in the northern and southern part but want to have presence across the country.
Ruling out direct merger of its arms with the parent SBI, the officials said "it seems difficult due to diverse culture inculcated in each of the subsidiaries." Bureau Report