SBI approves plan to raise up to $2.3 billion in capital

MUMBAI (Reuters) - State Bank of India (SBI), the country's biggest lender by assets, said on Wednesday its board had approved a plan to raise up to 150 billion rupees ($2.3 billion) from capital markets in the next fiscal year starting from April 1.

In January, SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya told Reuters the bank could tap capital markets next fiscal year to raise up to $1.5 billion.

Ratings agency Fitch estimates India's banks will need about $90 billion to meet global Basel III rules which are due to be fully implemented by March 2019.

SBI last sold shares in January 2014 to raise $1.2 billion.

On Wednesday, SBI also decided to inject 11.6 billion rupees into two credit card joint ventures companies - SBI Cards & Payments Services Ltd. and GE Capital Business Process Management Services Ltd. - to raise its share in both the companies to 74 percent, it said in a separate statement.

($1 = 65.6300 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Mark Potter)