The State Bank of India will open three more offshore banking units in Kochi, Kandla and Surat after the success of its first unit at the Seepz special economic zone in Mumbai, a top bank official said in Dubai on Tuesday.

The offshore unit at Kochi will be opened in six to eight weeks and Kandla will be launched in December, while no time frame has been set for Surat, said Indrajit Gupta, chief general manager of the SBI, who was here in connection with the roadshow of two new schemes for non-resident Indians to mop up funds from the bank's Resurgent India Bonds.

The SBI's Mumbai OBU, a landmark in the history of India's banking sector, which was opened in July 2003 as a deemed overseas branch, has been doing exceeding well and going by the current export performance, other units should also fare well, Gupta told reporters.

The functions of the OBUs include raising funds in convertible foreign currency as deposits and borrowing from non-resident sources, transacting in foreign exchange with residents in India who are eligible to do so under the Foreign Exchange Act, opening foreign currency accounts abroad as well as other OBUs in India and trading in foreign currencies in the overseas market.

Gupta said the SBI is set to open 18 new overseas branches in the next 15 months to take the total number of its overseas presence to 65 by next year-end. It was also getting out of non profitable locations and had wound up its branches in Brazil (Sao PaulSo) and Vietnam.