Allahabad Bank's merger with Indian Bank gets in-principle govt nod

Allahabad Bank on Tuesday said the government has given in-principle approval to its amalgamation into Indian Bank.

Indian Bank is the acquiror while Allahabad Bank is the transferor.

"The Bank has received a communication from the Government, Ministry of Finance, Department of Financial Services communicating that the Alternate Mechanism has accorded in-principle approval to proposed amalgamation of Allahabad Bank into Indian Bank," Allahabad Bank said in a regulatory filing.

The government in August had announced four major mergers of public sector banks, a move aimed at making state-owned lenders global sized banks.

Following this, United Bank of India and Oriental Bank of Commerce will be merged with Punjab National Bank.

Syndicate Bank will be merged with Canara Bank and Allahabad Bank will be merged with Indian Bank. Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank are to be merged into Union Bank of India.

In January this year, the Union Cabinet approved the merger of Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with Bank of Baroda. The merger came into effect from April 1.

On Monday, Punjab National Bank and Union Bank of India informed exchanges about getting in-principle nod from the government to go ahead with the planned mergers. With these mergers, the number of public sector banks will come down to 12 from 27 in 2017.

Prior to this, the government had merged five associate banks of SBI and Bharatiya Mahila Bank with State Bank of India, which came into effect from April 2017.

These were State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Travancore and State Bank of Hyderabad and Bharatiya Mahila Bank.

In January this year, the government approved the merger of Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with Bank of Baroda, which came into effect from April 1, 2019.