MUMBAI, MAY 18: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Wednesday it has withdrawn restrictions on the purchase of shares by foreign institutional investors in State Bank of India because their holdings had fallen below 18 per cent. The limit on foreign portfolio holdings in SBI, India's largest commercial bank, is 20 per cent. SBI shares closed Rs 1.45 higher at 189.95 on Wednesday at the Bombay stock exchange. Meanwhile, SBI will offer E-commerce, E-trading and E-broking by March 2001, a statement from the bank said. The statement quoting the bank's chairman G G Vaidya said the bank plans to install 1,000 automated teller machines (ATMs) all over the country by 2002. Currently 113 ATMs are operational, the release said. The bank will also introduce Internet banking at all its non-resident Indian (NRI) overseas and specialised personal banking branches by September 2000. The bank had launched a Rs 600 crore technology initiative and planned to appoint KPMG as its information technology consultant to integrate its nationawide operations. The SBI and its seven associate banks account for 24-30 percent of the total credit and deposit business in India.
