SBI's merger with subsidiaries will increase bank's coverage area: Bhattacharya

State Bank of India's (SBI) merger with five associate banks will increase the bank's coverage area and productivity of its employees, said SBI's chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya in a recent one-on-one interview with Zee Business news channel.

The bank's board last week gave an approval for merger of associate banks and Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) with itself. 

After the merger, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Patiala and Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) will stand merged with SBI.

The Government of India in June this year had given an approval to the merger between five associate lenders of the bank and Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) with SBI.

"Currently, no Indian bank features in the list of top 50 banks of the world. With the merger, visibility at global level is likely to increase. Customers of the associates and subsidiaries of the bank will also be beneficiaries," Bhattacharya had told PTI on June 16.

The merger is considered to be the first ever large-scale consolidation in India's banking industry. It is expected to create a banking behemoth with an asset book of Rs 37 lakh crore. 

Watch the full one-on-one interview of Arundhati Bhattacharya here-