Bank unions to protest against Nayak panel's recommendations

Five bank unions will hold a nationwide protest Friday opposing the Nayak Committee recommendations, said a union leader.

Members in their individual capacity will also voice their views before the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

"Five unions will demonstrate across the country Friday against the Nayak Committee recommendations," All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) general secretary C.H. Venkatachalam told IANS Tuesday.

The four unions besides AIBEA are All India Bank Officers' Association (AIBOA), Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI), Indian National Bank Employees Federation (INBEF) and Indian National Bank Officers Congress (INBOC).

The RBI had constituted an expert committee under the chairmanship of P.J. Nayak, former chairman of Axis Bank, to review governance of boards of banks in India.

The committee submitted its report recently and the RBI asked for comments from the public on it by June 12, 2014.

Venkatachalam said the committee recommended reduction of government holding in public sector banks to less than 50 percent, merging government banks, keeping out government banks from the ambit of Central Vigilance Commission and Right to Information Act, transferring government's holdings to an investment company and repealing the Bank Nationalisation Act.

He said the main challenge before the banks is the increasing bad loans (more than Rs.5 trillion today).

"Bulk of these bad loans are amounts due from private corporate houses, business enterprises and industrial houses. It is not wise to hand over the banks to the very same private sector responsible for the huge bad loans in the banks," he said.

Queried about the new National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, he said we have seen its actions. He said the earlier NDA government had proposed to amend the Bank Nationalisation Act to bring down its stake in banks to 33 percent.