State Bank of India to Merge 5 Associate Banks from Oct 1: Four Things You Must Know

State Bank of India’s merger with its five associate banks viz State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Raipur, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Hyderabad as well as with Bhartiya Mahila Bank (BMB) will be effective from tomorrow i.e. October 1, 2017.

The merger with SBI’s five associate banks was approved by the central government earlier in February, 2017 and Bhartiya Mahila Bank too was approved to join the merger in March 2017. With this merger, State Bank of India’s total assets will be worth ₹29 Lakh Crores, from tomorrow (Sunday).

There are many implications that would come in effect from Sunday for the customers of these six banks. Here are 4 Key Things You must know if you have an existing account with State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Raipur, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Hyderabad or Bhartiya Mahila Bank (BMB):

1. Cheque Books and Post-Dated Cheques Will Be Invalid

Cheque Books of the account holders of the merging 6 banks will become invalid from tomorrow i.e. October 1st 2017. Therefore any post-dated cheques (other than ECS) that have been issued to a third-party must be replaced by the new SBI cheques.

Account holders of State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Raipur, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Hyderabad and Bhartiya Mahila Bank (BMB) must apply for SBI cheque books by visiting the home branch or via net banking, mobile banking, ATM at the earliest.

2. Electronic Clearing Service - ECS

Although, there’s no confirmation from SBI as yet for the ECS fund transfer; however, it is expected that the ECS facility will not be impacted due to this SBI merger as the bank is expected to sort out Electronic Clearing System at the back-end itself. In the past too, whenever bank mergers happen, the ECS transactions are tracked with account mapping techniques.

3. Mobile Banking and IFSC Codes

Mobile Banking will be impacted as the previous IFSC codes will become invalid from tomorrow onwards. Therefore, going forward you would need to give the IFSC code as per your new SBI bank branch details to do mobile banking.

4. Fixed Deposits

The terms and conditions for Fixed Deposits have always remained unperturbed with mergers in the past. Therefore, with this merger too, it is expected that SBI will let the FDs run their course as per the previous terms and interest rates of these 6 banks.