How Indian Bank-Allahabad Bank amalgamation proved an unlikely success

The merger was complicated by the fact that the government had not allowed post-merger lay-offs for any of the banks under this process

In 2019, the government announced the merger of 10 of its banks into four. These included Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India with Punjab National Bank (PNB), Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank with Union Bank of India, Syndicate Bank with Canara Bank, and Allahabad Bank with the Indian Bank.

Of these, the latter was a particular challenge for three reasons. First, unlike the other mergers, Allahabad Bank and Indian Bank were of roughly the same size (see chart). Second, the merger involved mid-sized banks rather than smaller banks merging with larger ones in the other three cases.