<b>Bank Strike</b>: SBI, BoB, IOB not to participate

State Bank of India (SBI) and its associates, Bank of Baroda (BoB) and Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) will not participate in tomorrow's strike called by AIBEA, AIBOA and BEFI.

Prafulla Patnaik, general secretary of the National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE), told PTI that although the banks would remain open tomorrow, employees would lend moral support to the strike.

He said that MICR branches of SBI, which act as clearing houses of the bank, would continue to function normally.

AIBEA, AIBOA and BEFI had together called a strike tomorrow to protest against the RBI circular on outsourcing of banking operations, and its decision to outsource clearing operations for which a new company had been floated, the National Payments Corporation of India. Besides RBI, SBI is the only other entity among nationalised banks to have a clearing house.