SBM and SBI data integrated

State Bank of Mysore was merged with State Bank of India over a month ago, but their database was integrated as recently as Saturday May 6. Customers, who have been facing problems with their transactions, can now heave a sigh of relief. On Monday, operations were carried out without any major hitch. Earlier, there were several complaints of transactions being affected. Prakash (name changed) tried withdrawing money from his erstwhile SBM account from an SBI branch, but was turned down. “The bankers told me that the transaction could not take place since the customer database was yet to be integrated,” he said. Transactions affected were fund transfer and clearance of cheques. “The SBM web portal was suspended and customers were asked to login through OnlineSBI. From April 1, SBM customers started carrying out transactions at SBI branches and vice versa, assuming that the merger was seamless. But, since the two databases were not integrated, there were some time lags,” a senior bank official said. Till Saturday, like earlier, any SBM – SBI transaction continued to be routed through the Reserve Bank of India. The database integration essentially meant the real merger of the two banks, another banker said. Sources said of the 1,072 SBM branches, database integration at over 130 branches were pending due to various issues. This would be rectified by Tuesday, they added. An IT official working on the data integration said that except for some login issues at some branches, the integration was a success. Five State Banks – State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur – were merged with State Bank of India on April 1. SBI had sought a three month window from RBI for completing the merger process. Data-integration of State Bank of Travancore was completed before that of SBM, sources said. While SBI had earlier said that SBM customers would be issued new pass books and cheque books of SBI post data integration, it is not clear whether this will done immediately or after branch rationalisation, which is expected to take a couple of months. Until then, the IFSC code for SBM customers will remain the same.