State Bank of India, Bank of India and Punjab National Bank have sought permission to open branches in Pakistan, the government said in Parliament on Tuesday.

In a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Pawan Kumar Bansal said the Reserve Bank has received requests from SBI and BOI to open two branches each in Pakistan.

"PNB has also evinced interest in opening two branches in Pakistan," he said.

To another query, he said gross non-performing assets of public sector banks have reduced from 5.5 per cent as on March 31, 2005 to 4.5 per cent as on December 31, 2005.

To a question on Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for small industries, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said 51 banks and three financial institutions have joined the scheme.

Out of these, 11 are private banks though no foreign banks have joined so far.

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