Bank mergers may bring down the curtains for old-world forex brokerages

The flurry of state-run bank mergers will see an era come to an end

“My grandfather left this world peacefully aged 91. I will not live anywhere as long at the rate I am wining and dining bankers for business. If I get a good deal, I will sell out,”  says Gautam Ashra, managing partner at Kanji Pitamber & Co, set up in 1933.

The finance ministry’s big-bang merger of four sets of state-run banks is set to squeeze the blood out of dozens of time-worn forex brokerage firms; and many will have to wind up. Business is expected to fall after the mergers — of Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, and United