All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) has condemned the in principle approval of cabinate for merger of Public Sector Banks.

AIBOC said that “in the Parliament the Minister of State stated that there is no plan for merger. The announcement of merger plan just after a day of successful Nationwide strike indicates that the Government is not bothered about the Public opinion and feedback. This does not augur well for democracy.”

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It further says that “We can well understand the fact that the merger of public sector banks is a part of the government’s broader plan to privatize the public enterprises to attract foreign investment. Already ICICI, HDFC, Axis which were in the Public Sector have become banks with high foreign holding.

In India and world over, there have been innumerable instances where Mergers and takeovers of banks has been unsuccessful because of reasons like unsuccessful consolidation of banks‟ working systems and methodology, asymmetric organisation restructuring, improper and hasty communication, inappropriate human resources integration, unsystematic assessment of risk pre-merger, lack of synergy, illogical managerial decision and lack of cultural consideration.

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AIBOC claims that the merger of SBI associates with SBI was a faliure. Government has always understated the efforts put in by the PSBs and its employees to successfully conduct the various ambitious Social Security Schemes of GOI such as Jan Dhanyojna, Mudra, Standup India etc.

The GOI seems to be opening the gateway for privatization of PSBs, and quite unashamedly brushing aside the contribution of PSBs in implementation of GOIs various social sector schemes.

UFBU consisting of 9 Unions including AIBOC is launching a massive campaign and will intensify the agitations if the move continues.