How technology integration, regional synergies drove bank merger plan

PNB will take over OBC and UBI to become the country's second-largest lender after SBI in terms of business

Friday’s mega announcement merging four sets of banks was the outcome of a process the government had started about six months ago, people working on the plan pointed out. 

The back story suggests it was in May, days before results for the general elections were announced, that the informal discussions with the Reserve Bank of India took place at a meeting in New Delhi. RBI deputy governor M K Jain, finance secretary Rajiv Kumar were among the key officials who attended that meeting.

While various permutations and combinations were discussed including merger of several banks into one, the policy makers were convinced