Bank officers' union AIBOC on Wednesday said it is indeed insensitive on the government's part to go ahead with banks merger at a time when the country is reeling under Covid-19 pandemic and bank staff are busy providing essential banking services to the customers.
Six public sector banks (PSBs) namely Oriental Bank of Commerce, United Bank of India, Syndicate Bank, Andhra Bank, Corporation Bank and Allahabad Bank lost their individual identity as they were merged into four bigger lenders with the objective to make them globally competitive.
These six lenders were merged with four anchor banks-- Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, and Indian Bank.
"Despite our appeal to the Prime Minister to revisit the decision of the mega merger of the public sector banks (PSBs) in view of the pandemic and nationwide lockdown, RBI notified the PSB amalgamations on March 28," All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC) general secretary Soumya Datta said in a statement.
The AIBOC is of the firm opinion that implementation of the merger decision during this abnormal period will severely impair the normal activities of the PSBs and impose needless and avertable burdens on the bank officers and employees, it said.
Training and integration of technology platforms following the merger cannot proceed smoothly till the time lockdown restrictions are in place, it said.
"While priority should be accorded to the task of serving the distressed customers, particularly the farmers, daily wage earners, small creditors and PJDY account holders at a time of lockdown and economic shutdown, the merger related activities would come in the way of such forced prioritisation made by the government, thereby infringing its own precepts of Break the Chain' and Stay Home, Stay Safe' marked with widespread publicity in media and on social media platforms," it said.
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Employees, as the vanguard in nation building for the past several decades, are shocked and surprised to note that the government and the regulator RBI are unmindful of these legitimate concerns, it said.
"We have also filed a petition in the Delhi High Court challenging this 'Mega Merger' decision of the Union government. But unfortunately due to the lockdown scenario, the matter did not come up for hearing. On this note, we express our sincere appreciation to all our affiliates who have been fighting relentlessly along with other stakeholders to save their esteemed organisation against the draconian decision of amalgamation," he said.
Besides, it said, the less than desired level of provisioning coverage ratio (PCR) in some of the acquirer or acquiree banks coupled with ever increasing volume of stressed assets are certainly going to increase the provisioning requirement of the amalgamated entities for at least next 2-3 financial years, thereby diminishing their overall profitability, it said.