Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 30: All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), the apex body of the Bank officers’ trade union movement in the country, has strongly opposed the wholesale merger of Public Sector Banks announced by the Union Ministry of Finance and Corporate Affairs on Friday.
In a press statement here today, the Confederation said that such bank merger announcements made by the Government undermines the autonomy of the Bank Boards and makes a mockery of the provisions of the Banking Companies Acquisition and Transfer of Undertaking Act 1970 & 1980. It said the PSU Bank Boards have no representatives of either officer or workmen director despite explicit legal provision and direction of Delhi High Court. Such illegal decisions against the interests of the PSU Banks and its staff are not acceptable, the statement said.
The Confederation pointed out that the justification for the bank mergers given by the Finance Minister is apparently misplaced. The SBI continued to face financial stress in the post- merger scenario. The BoB-Dena Bank-Vijaya Bank merger has not yielded any significant improvements either. The decision of merger will act as a major impediment to the dream of the Government of moving towards a five trillion dollar economy instead of being a catalytic process as claimed by the Finance Minister.
The AIBOC said that the creation of 4 new banks by merging 10 PSBs; Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank; Union Bank, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank; Punjab National Bank (PNB), Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) and United Bank of India and Indian Bank with Allahabad Bank , will only enable them to create larger balance sheets to conceal the NPAs and absorb more losses and haircuts. This is a clear diversion of attention from the core issues of NPA recovery.
The Confederation alleged that the ultimate objective of the Government is not only to bail out the delinquent Corporate, who owe the PSU Banks trillion of rupees in bad loans, but to eventually sell the PSBs to these unscrupulous Corporate entities and pave the way for NBFCs and Fintech Companies to make en-roads into areas dominated by PSBs. AIBOC resolved to launch country wide agitation/ resistance against this move, it maintained.
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