State Bank of India ready to grow by acquisition

New Delhi, June 10 (ANI): The State Bank of India (SBI) is keen to acquire domestic banks, its Chairman O.P Bhatt said here on Wednesday.

Bhatt was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of public sector banks meet with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Bhatt said that based on government's directive, the State Bank will go ahead with its acquisition plans.

"As far as acquisition through inorganic route is concerned, our first priority is domestic. Within domestic, our priority is to see whether or not we should go ahead with the further consolidation and merger and amalgamation of our own associates. One associate, state bank of Saurashtra has been successfully merged. There are six more associates. We need to get a signal from the government and based on that we will take appropriate action," said Bhatt.

Bhatt also expressed that the SBI would like to have a softer interest regime.

"Prime lending rate (PLR) is a function of several complex factors. Partly, it is a legacy issue, partly it is an issue of your cost of resources yield and advances. Therefore, partly it depends upon the business mix. We would like to have a softer interest regime," he added. (ANI)