Bank unions are up in arms against the move by the country?s largest lender, State Bank of India, to merge its associate banks with itself. Unions have now intensified their efforts against the merger move with State Bank of Indore, following the merger of State Bank of Saurashtra with SBI.
The board of SBI, which met in Mumbai last Friday, approved the bank?s plan for the merger of State Bank of Indore.
Following this, the three-day all India State Bank Officers? Federation, which concluded in Agra on Monday, passed a resolution to oppose the merger move by SBI in all possible ways, said GD Nadaf, general secretary, of the federation . United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella organisation of bank employees? unions, will meet in Mumbai on June 29 to decide its future course of action over the merger. However, the strike call given by the All India Bank Employees? Association( AIBEA) on July 3 may be deferred to some other date so that all unions of the other banks can join the strike.
Meanwhile, a day-long strike was observed by the employees of the State Bank of Indore all over the country on Monday. An economist of a ratings agency said the merger of all SBI subsidiaries with the parent will kill competition in the Indian banking sector over a period of time.
?Such a move will prove to be merely numerical in the long run as I do not see any merit in it. Size is not an absolute necessity for the bank to be successful in a developing economy like India,? the economist said.
A senior bank official of another state-run lender told FE the move would prompt SBI to eat into other small banks market.