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627 bank branches closed in three years

BS Banking Bureau

It's all happening in the banking sector. Branches are being shut down and new branches are being opened. Over the last three years, all commercial banks put together shut down 627 branches across the country.

At the same time, banks went on a major opening spree with as many as 2,113 new branches set up across the country.

The Reserve Bank of India's 'Branch Banking Statistics - volume 2: March 2001', brought out on Friday, identified that the total number of branches has risen to 67,929 as on March 31, 2001. The study entails the three-year period between 1998-99 to 2000-01.

Nationalised banks took the cake, opening 914 branches in the last three years. At the same time, they closed down 200 branches.

But it was the regional rural banks which closed down the majority of branches, with as many as 236 considered unviable. Another 271 new branches were opened in the three years.

As new-generation private sector banks decided to focus on the retail segment, in the last three years they opened 575 branches.

The merger of HDFC Bank with Times Bank resulted in 40 of the former bank branches being closed down. Old private sector banks closed down 138 branches. At the same time, some of them also opened new branches.

Even with State Bank of India's branch strength, it opened 126 branches in the three-year period, and shut down 14 of its unviable ones. SBI Associates only closed down three branches, and opened 174 new branches in three years.

The difficulty in obtaining licences from the banking regulator resulted in foreign banks opening 35 branches. The merger of British Bank of Middle East with HSBC, and Standard Chartered Bank with Grindlays also saw 28 foreign bank branches closing down.

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