Privatisation of PSU banks will compromise financial security: Cong MP

Congress MP Ravneet Singh on Tuesday said privatisation of public sector banks will compromise financial security as private sector banks will extend credit to large businesses and not think about the poor.

He said 10 lakh employees of 9 public banks are on a strike to protest privatisation and asked the Government to start dialogue with the employee unions.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Singh said former prime minister Indira Gandhi had nationalised banks to connect poor with banking services. It is the PSU banks which saved the financial sector during the 2008 global financial crisis, he added.

Financial security of banks will be compromised if banks are privatised. It's not about 10 lakh striking employees, it's about people of the country, Singh added.

Nine bank unions have called for a two-day nationwide strike beginning March 16 to protest against the government's budget announcement to privatise public sector lenders.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Union Budget speech for 2021-22 said the government will privatise two more public sector banks going forward.

The government has already privatised IDBI Bank by selling its majority stake in the lender to LIC in 2019, and has merged 14 public sector banks in the last four years.