| With the merger of the State Bank of Saurashtra (SBS) with parent State Bank of India (SBI) on card, the former have decided to go slow on its overall branch expansion plans in other parts of the country.
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| The SBS have expansion plans for its branches in northern India and elsewhere in the country.
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| With the merger initiated, the SBI top bosses have decided to go slow with its branch expansion.
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| Talking to Business Standard over phone, A K Jaganathan, chief general manager and managing director (officiating), SBS, said, "We had branch expansion plans. It will proceed as per the ongoing plan but now looking at the upcoming merger, we will go slow."
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| According to him, SBS will now rather concentrate on consolidating its branch presence within Gujarat.
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| "We will go slow for getting new branch licenses from RBI for other regions," adds Jaganathan. The branches outside the state of Gujarat will be merged with the respective circles of SBI, although SBS branches will function for a short duration after the amalgamation with SBI under Saurashtra circle formed by the Bank.
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| Speaking on the brand value of SBS, Jaganathan, said, "We will continue to be known amongst our loyal customers as SBS, irrespective of the change of the brand name from SBS to SBI."
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| The bank claims to have a strong brand loyalty in the Saurashtra region. On the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), Jaganathan informs that a few months ago the bank started VRS schemes for its present employees which will continue till August 31, 2008.
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| "Since we have an ongoing VRS schemes, we cannot comment on another VRS," said Jaganathan. Further, he said that it would be premature to comment on the status of VRS in post-merger scenario.
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| So far the ongoing VRS scheme has received no major response. As per Jaganathan, "It is difficult to expect a significant number of employees opting for VRS in near future."
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| Presently, SBS has nearly 7,000 employees.
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| Last week, SBI's board has given a go ahead to the merger of SBS with itself. SBI informed BSE, that its central board on August 25 had approved the merger, subject to approval of the government and RBI in accordance with State Bank of India Act, 1955. |
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