After a while, it is indicated that the central government is again entering into the merger process of public sector banks. The agenda released by Parliament’s Legislative Committee yesterday has re-started the discussions on the merger.
It is on the agenda that the members of the committee will soon meet with the representatives of the 4 banks to discuss the merger process under the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.
Banks
The agenda is that a meeting will be held with representatives of Union Bank of India and UCO Bank on January 2 and with representatives of Bank of Maharashtra and Bank of India on January 6 in Goa.
With this, there have been discussions including on social media that the Center is planning to merge between UCO Bank and Union Bank and between Bank of Maharashtra and Bank of India.
Center with explanation
At the same time, the Finance Ministry has come forward with an explanation that there are only rumors about the merger. The Finance Ministry officials clarified that the parliamentary committee has no role in the policy formulation of banking mergers and the deliberations of the committee being organized in Goa for two days were only unofficial and the word ‘merger’ was not used in the agenda.
27 when Modi came, now just 12
In 2017, there were 27 public sector banks in India. Now there are only 12. In April 2017, 5 associate banks including State Bank of Travancore (SBT) headquartered in Thiruvananthapuram and Bharatiya Mahila Bank were merged into the parent bank, SBI. Then in April 2019, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank were merged into Bank of Baroda. On April 1, 2020, the country witnessed a mega bank merger. 10 banks were merged and the center made 4 big banks. Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India were merged into Punjab National Bank, Syndicate Bank into Canara Bank and Allahabad Bank into Indian Bank. Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank were also merged into Union Bank.