The State Bank of India expects to complete merger of the five associate banks with it by March 2017, says Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman of the bank. She referred to the strike threats as well as other protests by the employees of the associate banks and said these people will have to understand that the change is inevitable and the bank will take up to educate them and take them on board. The comments came in even as bank staff struck work and some 80,000 bank branches in the country were closed in protest against the proposed merger. SBI has five associate banks – State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Hyderabad. Of these, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Hyderabad are unlisted.
