Protest against bank merger

Members of All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC) staged a protest against merger of public sector banks in front of Corporation Bank head office on Saturday.

The protesters said large scale of merger of branches would adversely impact banking for the common public. Customers of the small banks would face neglect and lack of attention in the merged entity.

They said that the experience of mergers had not been encouraging on business front, customer service, NPA (non performing assets) management. Without assessing the impact of previous two mergers, the Central government had brazenly proceeded with another and a bigger bout of merger.

AIBOC has demanded a white paper on the operational fronts of previous two mergers. It urged appointment of officer-directors in all public sector banks’ boards. It demanded to provide enough capital to public sector banks and involve recognised unions- the major stake holders in the banks, before any such decision be proposed or taken.

CPI General Secretary V Kukyan said the merger of would affect the economy.

“With the merger, a few branches will be closed down and employment will be affected,” he said, adding that increase in NPAs had put identity of banks at risk. The merger would have an adverse impact.