Prefer merger among stronger banks: Arun Jaitley

Referring to divestment in Air India, Jaitley said the process disinvestment was moving quite well

Giving preference to consolidation for robust banks, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said he would rather have a merger of strong banks rather than weaker ones.
 
“The object of consolidation is to create bigger and stronger banks,” Jaitley said, speaking at Bloomberg’s India Economic Forum here. Bank consolidation has to move in tandem with the process of strengthening the banks, which are struggling with asset quality issues, Jaitley said.
 
So far, the focus was on merging weak banks with relatively stronger counterparts in the public sector space. Bankers have expressed reservations over this approach as it hardly