SBI staff oppose M&A plans

The employees of State Bank of India (SBI) is planning to protest against any move by their own bank to acquire any other banks such as State Bank of Mysore, Indore and Bikaner & Jaipur.

"We are completely against the merger of these banks as the smaller banks have a strong legacy in their regions, and if they are merged, they would loose their regional relevance and the specific customer base," said Rakesh Gangal, general secretary, All India State Bank India Staff Federation (AISBISF).

The government wants the State Bank of India (SBI) to acquire its smaller associates to achieve scale and size.

The government is working on a proposal, along with the SBI management, to merge four of its subsidiaries, the State Banks of Saurashtra, Mysore, Indore and Bikaner & Jaipur, with SBI to help increase its assets size by Rs 1 lakh crore.

The staff association of the State Bank of India was geared up for launch of nationwide agitational programmes from November 20, with three primary demands. It would oppose the merger of the public sector banks, seek nationalisation of private banks and stop outsourcing of various bank jobs.

Along with these, issues such as salary increment, new recruitment to fill up the existing vacancies and implementation of the pension option would also figure in the list of demand.

Commenting on the merger of the State Banks of Saurashtra, he said thet it was an exception as the employees of the above bank had been demanding for many years to get merged with the SBI.

"In all the other cases of proposed mergers, we are going to oppose tooth and nail," Gangal clarified.

The association would demand the nationalisation of private banks as a measure to protect the Indian banks from foreign acquisition from the year 2009, when the banking sector would open up and foreign banks would be able to acquire Indian banks.