SBI awaits Bharatiya Mahila Bank merger date

New Delhi, March 21 (IANS) A day after the Centre approved the merger of Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) with the State Bank of India (SBI), the public lender on Tuesday said the effective date of implementation will come from the government.

"As per the Finance Ministry, the merger of BMB with SBI has been approved. We are awaiting the date of merger. The effective date of merger will come in the notification. As soon as we get the notification, we will have the clarity," SBI Managing Director Dinesh Kumar Khara told BTVi in an interview.

The Bharatiya Mahila Bank has about 100 key branches, which will merge with the SBI.

Khara said that the merger would serve the objectives of creation of BMB more effectively.

"We will be in a position to reach out to the women population and offer products and services at a much reasonable cost as compared to BMB. So, it is a value proposition. The merger will realise the objectives of the Bharatiya Mahila Bank," he said.

The BMB, established in 2013, would have taken time to improve the employee's skill level, Khara said. "We have skilled manpower, improved technology and digital means to carry out transactions. Operations will become efficient and cost of renting services will come down in the interest of the BMB customer."

Khara said that he does not expect resistance from the bank unions as the SBI had been constantly engaging in talks with them and address their concerns.

In the three years since the BMB was set up in 2013, it has extended loans of Rs 192 crore to women borrowers. The SBI group has provided loans of about Rs 46,000 crore to women to date.

The SBI has more than 20,000 branches. Out of its workforce of around two lakh, 22 per cent are women.

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