PSU banks plan closure of 70 overseas offices in FY18

Banks’ move is part of capital conservation exercise

State Bank of India.

Public sector banks are in the process of closing or rationalising about 70 overseas operations as part of capital conservation exercise.

Unviable foreign operations are being shut while multiple branches in same cities or nearby places are being rationalised with a view to achieving efficiency, sources said.

As part of this exercise, public sector banks plan to close or rationalise about 70 overseas operations during the current fiscal, sources said.

Public sector banks (PSBs) closed down 35 foreign operations last year.

41 of 159 branches in red

According to the data, 159 branches of PSBs are operating in foreign countries of which 41 branches made losses in 2016-17.

The country’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) led the pack with nine of its overseas branches in the red. It was followed by Bank of India and Bank of Baroda with eight and seven branches, respectively.

As on January 31, 2018, PSBs had about 165 overseas branches, besides subsidiaries, joint ventures and representative offices.

SBI had the largest number of overseas branches (52) followed by Bank of Baroda (50) and Bank of India (29). PSBs have the largest number of branches in the U.K. (32) followed by Hong Kong and the UAE (13 each) and Singapore (12).