Indian Bank board gives in-principle approval to merge Allahabad Bank with itself

Indian Bank on Wednesday said the board has given its in-principle approval for the merger of Allahabad Bank with itself.

It also cleared the proposed infusion of capital by the government up to Rs 5,000 crore in the bank by way of preferential issue of shares, Indian Bank said in a statement.

The board after deliberations conveyed its in-principle approval for the amalgamation of Allahabad Bank with Indian Bank, it said.

After the amalgamation, the combined entity will have over 6,100 branches across the country and overseas presence in three countries, it said.

The business after the amalgamation will be more than Rs 8 lakh crore.

The Union government had last month approved to merge 10 state-owned banks into four entities, to strengthen them and also to cut number of publicly hold banks into of the global-sized banks.

Among the other amalgamation proposals, Punjab National Bank is to merge Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India with itself. And, Canara Bank will merge its regional peer Syndicate Bank with itself.

With these merger proposals, the number of state-owned banks in India is slated to come down to 12 from 18 earlier.

Until 2017, there were as many as 27 banks under the ownership of the government.