Hyderabad, May 8 (IANS): State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH) Wednesday said it is not considering merger with the State Bank of India (SBI) and that it will continue as an independent bank.

SBI chairman Pratip Chaudhuri had said on Monday that the issue of consolidation of SBI's associate banks may be taken up for consideration after July.

SBH managing director M. Bhagavantha Rao told reporters here that it was not thinking of merger for now.

Rao, however, said it was for the government of India to take a decision on the issue. "Merger as a philosophy some times may favour and sometime may not favour. There has to be economic rationale for the merger," he said.

He said the proposal of consolidation make economic sense as the size of Indian banks was not comparable to the biggest banks in the world. He pointed out that three Chinese banks were among the top 10 banks in the world while no Indian bank figures in the top 20 banks.

State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur and State Bank of Travancore are five stand-alone associate banks of SBI.

In recent years, two associate banks State Bank of Saurashtra and State Bank of Indore have merged with SBI.