SBI to meet Basel-II norms by Mar: Purwar

State Bank of India (SBI) will meet the Basel-II norms by the March 2007 deadline set by the Reserve Bank of India.

"We will meet the Basel-II norms within March 2007. We have already appointed an international consultant for the job," SBI chairman A K Purwar said today.

"There will be no impact on the bottomline for implementing Basel-II norms," Purwar said when asked about the possible impact on profitability.

Speaking about the liquidity situation in the market due to the sharp rise in credit offtake by India Inc, Purwar warned that there might be some problems during the forthcoming busy credit season. "Liquidity in the system is Ok. There is no liquidity problem now. We had an healthy growth in credit offtake, but there could be a problem in liquidty in the busy season (November-December)," Purwar said.

He added that interest rates in the coming months would be stable with an upward bias.