Finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the merging of 10 public sector (PSU) banks into four mega state-owned banks. These banks will be amalgamated to four mega PSU banks will come into effect tomorrow, i.e. April 1.
The government had announced the merger in August 2019 but now due to the coronavirus it was speculated that the government may postpone the merger.
The banks involved in the merger are:
- United Bank of India (UBI) and Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) will merge with Punjab National Bank (PNB) which will make it the second largest public sector bank.
- Syndicate Bank will be merged with Canara Bank, and Allahabad Bank with Indian Bank.
- Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank will be merged with Union Bank of India.
Customers of merging banks will be treated as customers of the banks in which these banks have been merged with effect from 1 April 2020.
After the merger, there will be 12 Public sector PSUs, six merged banks and six independent public sector banks.
The 6 merged banks are SBI, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, Indian Bank and 6 independent banks are Indian Overseas Bank, Uco Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Punjab and Sind Bank, Bank of India, Central Bank of India.
From April 2020, Syndicate Bank will function as the branch of Canara Bank, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank will function as branches Union Bank of India and all Allahabad Bank branches will function as branches of the Indian Bank.
