Decision on State Bank of Indore’s merger soon: SBI

The government’s decision on merging State Bank of Indore with State Bank of India (SBI) is expected this month, the SBI chairman said Thursday. “We expect to hear from the government on merging State Bank of Indore this month. After that, it would take a month to complete the merger process,” SBI chairman Om Prakash Bhatt told reporters here. He was here to inaugurate the Green Channel counter that facilitates paperless banking. According to him, the interest rates have an upward bias now and would soon stabilised. However, Bhatt said the policy makers should disrupt the growth pace by measures that would tighten interest rates. He expected inflation to move down from next month onwards as the monsoon is expected to be good. Speaking of the credit growth Bhatt said the first quarter hasn’t seen much credit off take. “The RBI’s (Reserve Bank of India) estimates of 20 per cent credit growth is reasonable. It might go up to 22 percent but not higher,” he said.