Bank Employees to Stage Dharna on Sept 20 Against Merger Move

Mumbai: United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), the umbrella body of nine bank employees unions, are staging dharna on September 20 outside Parliament to oppose the government's recent mega public sector banks merger plan.

Last month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced to merge 10 public sector banks into four with a view to creating fewer and stronger global-sized lenders with robust balance sheets.

"We oppose the merger of 10 PSBs into four banks, as announced by the Finance Minister Sitharaman, and have decided to hold a dharna before Parliament on September 20," UFBU said.

The UFBU will also submit a memorandum to the finance minister.

The government has identified four state-run banks-Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Union Bank of India and Allahabad Bank for the merger process.

Punjab National Bank will be taking over Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India; Syndicate Bank will be merging with Canara Bank; Union Bank of India will amalgamate with Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank, and Indian Bank will merge with Allahabad Bank.

With these four mergers, the number of state-run banks will come down to 12 from 27 in 2017.