(PTI)
Public sector banks are in the process of closing or rationalising about 69 overseas operations in the next few months as part of their capital conservation exercise. Planned rationalisation of operations and examination of a total of 216 overseas operations of the public sector banks (PSBs) was undertaken last year, sources said.
Following the review, as many as 35 overseas operations were closed while 69 are under process or being considered for rationalisation, sources said. Unviable foreign operations are being shut while multiple branches in same cities or nearby places are being rationalised with a view to achieve efficiency, sources said.
As on January 31, 2018, PSBs had about 165 overseas branches, besides subsidiaries, joint ventures and representative offices. State Bank of India (SBI) has the largest number of overseas branches (52) followed by Bank of Baroda (50) and Bank of India (29).
