He said the bank had struck several deals yesterday from Mumbai. However, he assured that except for inter-bank transactions, the Calcutta office would handle all other operations, including accounting transactions.

The decision to shift the forex cover operations was a result of the Mckinsey study which advocated integration of treasury and foreign departments of the bank. SBI earlier had relocated its treasury operations to Mumbai.

Royappa said the decision to shift forex cover operations was a purely commercial one. According to him, even in this age of speedier communications network, a difference of seconds matters a lot.

The controversial move of SBI attracted strong protests from the city foreign exchange brokers, who were of the opinion that the entire foreign department in Calcutta would gradually become defunct.

The WestBengal government also drew the attention of the successive central governments, and urged them not to shift any foreign exchange operations from the city.

State Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta said that he had sought details from the union finance ministry about the shift of the forex cover operations of SBI from the city to Mumbai.

The minister told newsmen he was surprised to learn that SBI had shifted foreign exchange operations from the city, although the bank chairman, M S Verma, had recently assured the chief minister Jyoti Basu that the decision was being put on hold.