State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, has a capital requirement of an

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estimated Rs 50,000 crore in the next five years for business needs, the bank's chairman said on Sunday.

“As per our latest estimates, we need capital amounting to Rs 50,000 crore in the next 5 years. We expect that half of this amount will come from internal accruals while the rest would have to be raised. Around Rs 15,000-20,000 crore would be raised through equity route in the next two years," OP Bhatt, chairman of SBI, said while attending an event of bringing Sanyasidanga (in West Bengal) under its service net.

On its proposed merger with State Bank of Indore, Bhatt said that he is awaiting required approvals from the government and regulatory authorities. "We have given our recommendations to the government which include the scheme of merger, share swap ratio, etc. It will be a technical merger as we already own 98 per cent in State Bank of Indore. We can complete the merge in a week's time when the nod comes. We expect to get the approvals in this financial year. So far our experience of integrating an associate bank with us has been a good.," Bhatt said.

Bhatt said he expects non-performing assets (NPA) to rise in the coming quarters as the after-effects of economic recession lead to some borrowers not being able to pay off existing liabilities. At the end of December, gross NPA stood at 3.11 per cent, which Bhatt said the bank is working on to contain.