State Bank of India changes names, IFSC codes of nearly 1,300 branches post merger with five associates

The country's largest public sector bank has changed the names and IFSC codes of branches located in major cities such as Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Lucknow, among others.

"Some of our old associate branches are getting merged with SBI branches. When that merger happens, the IFSC codes get changed," the bank's managing director (retail and digital banking), Praveen Gupta, said.

He said customers have been informed about the change in IFSC codes, but internally also the bank has mapped them to the new codes.     

 "Even if some payment comes based on the old IFSC codes, it will get mapped with the new codes. It will not cause any problem to any customer," he said. The bank has close to 23,000 branches.

The bank has put up the list of branches with old and new names and IFSC codes on its website. Indian Financial System Code, or IFSC, is an 11-digit alpha-numeric code used to uniquely identify all bank branches participating in any RBI regulated funds transfer system.

The IFSC code is required to transfer money from one account to another using RTGS, NEFT or IMPS methods. In April this year, SBI merged its five associate banks - State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore - and also Bhartiya Mahila Bank into itself.