Bank unions oppose mega bank merger, to go on strike on March 27

Venkatachalam alleged that govt's decision to merge 10 banks would lead to the closure of six banks - Andhra Bank, Allahabad Bank, Corporation Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Syndicate Bank and Unite

All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) and All India Bank Officers Association (AIBOA) have decided to go on strike on March 27 against the government's decision to go for a mega bank merger, which was approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday.

“Banks are themselves facing problems due to the huge pile of bad loans. While the public sector banks made a total gross profit of Rs 150,000 crore for the year ended 31-3-2019, because of total provisions towards bad loans, etc amounting to Rs. 216,000 crore, the banks ended with a net loss of Rs. 66,000 crore,” said C H Venkatachalam, general secretary, AIBEA.

“Can anyone believe that the merger of banks will result in recovery of the huge corporate bad loans?  Rather, as we saw, after merger in State Bank of India (SBI), bad loans in SBI have gone up. These banks are facing the same risk now,” he said.

Meanwhile, Venkatachalam alleged that the merger of 10 banks simply meant that six banks - Andhra Bank, Allahabad Bank, Corporation Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Syndicate Bank and United Bank of India would be closed down.