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The central government on Monday proposed to create the country’s third-largest bank by amalgamating Mumbai-based Dena Bank and Bengaluru-based Vijaya Bank with much larger Bank of Baroda (BoB) in an all-stock deal. The banks’ boards are expected to meet in 10 days to take a call. The deal, though, is almost a certainty since the government is the majority owner.
“The government had announced in the Budget that consolidating banks was on our agenda and the first step has been announced,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said. He justified the action, stating that the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) were forced to take “concrete steps” once the asset quality review of banks revealed the bad debt rot in
