BoI says no talks on merging with any other lenders

State-run Bank of India today denied reports of it getting merged with any of its stronger peers and said it has not received any suggestion from any quarter in this regard.
There were media reports the government was planning a proposal to merge Bank of India, Uco Bank and Indian Overseas Bank into financial sound lenders.
"At no stage the Banks Board Bureau has discussed this as a possible strategy nor has the bank received this suggestion from any quarters," Bank of India chairman G Padmanabhan said in a statement today.
On Tuesday, the largest lender State Bank of India had proposed a plan to merge five of its associate banks, along with newly-created Bharatiya Mahila Bank with itself, a move that will create Rs 37-lakh crore banking behemoth with over 50 crore customers.

SBI has five associate banks State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala, and State Bank of Travancore.
SBI in a statement said, "This merger discussion is purely exploratory at this stage and not certain. A proposal seeking an in-principle approval to start negotiations with associate banks will be submitted to the government."
In the second edition of Gyan Sangam held in March this year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said the government would consider merger of some of the state-run banks.
"The country needs stronger banks rather than a large number of lenders.