State Bank of India on Monday made it clear that it was not looking at consolidation of any of its associate banks with itself for now.

But the issue has not gone off its radar and may well be taken up for consideration after July, Pratip Chaudhuri, SBI Chairman, told Business Line here. He was in the Capital to attend the board meeting of State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur (SBBJ).

Chaudhuri, however, maintained that there was good economic logic in going for consolidation of its associate banks with SBI.

In recent years, two of SBI’s erstwhile associate banks — State Bank of Saurashtra and State Bank of Indore — were merged with it.

The other five stand-alone associate banks of SBI are State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur and State Bank of Travancore.

NO LENDING RATE CUT

SBI has also ruled out any lending rate cut for now, post the Reserve Bank of India’s move to reduce repo rate by 25 basis points last Friday. “It is not possible for us to cut the lending rate. The benefit coming from 25 basis point cut is too little to make a meaningful impact for our lenders if we decide to pass it on,” Chaudhuri said.

Currently, the public sector banking major’s total repo borrowing from the central bank is about Rs 20,000 crore. So, a 25 basis point cut in repo would result in a gain of Rs 50 crore for the bank.

This is too minuscule when looked against the backdrop of SBI’s advances portfolio of Rs 5 lakh crore, Chaudhuri pointed out.

The SBI Chairman said the situation could have been different had the RBI resorted to a cut in Cash Reserve Ratio or announced certain non-monetary measures.

State-owned banks were looking for some measures from RBI such as reduction in the minimum number of days for which deposits could be accepted (from seven to three days) and also allowing them to provide interest on current account balances.

None of these non-monetary measures materialised in the latest RBI policy announcement, Chaudhuri rued.

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