Background :-

  • Government of India is planning to merge government owned banks to create a few strong banks that can compete in a global race.
  • PSU banks were hit hardly by Non-performing Assets (NPA). This is the reason Indian government is thinking about renovating PSU banks.
  • Merger will be between equal players.

Yes :-

  • Consolidation of banks will result in forming a few strong banks. These newly formed banks can compete with strong foreign banks and can emerge as a global banks.
  • With increasing NPAs, small banks cannot give more loans, but with merger big banks can better deal with NPAs and may not have to stop giving more loans.
  • Now, there are more than required no. of banks in many areas. For example, there are Andhra bank, State bank of India, Bank of India, Syndicate bank in a small town. After merger only one branch can replace all these branches. This will result in reduction of operational costs and improved efficiency.
  • Some companies and persons are taking loans from multiple banks and are not repaying. With the merger of PSU banks, this problem will be solved.
  • Though merger comes with extra expenses and problems associated with merging, in the long run merger of banks will yield positive results.
  • Investors are more likely to provide capital for strong banks rather than weak ones. This is the problem currently faced by medium to weak banks. Strong banks like SBI are able to attract investments.

No :-

  • Unlike SBI merger, PSU banks merger will create more problems because of merging heterogeneous banks. These banks have different policies and regulations. Merging different types of banks will lead to confusion and can further aggravate the present problems.
  • Merger of banks is expensive.
  • If big banks fail, that will be a big blow to country’s economy. Hence it is risky to form big banks.
  • Merger may result in years of administrative problems.
  • NPAs are piled up not because of small banks, but because of inefficient policies to do with NPAs. Hence, merger will not solve the problem of NPAs.
  • There will be problems of synchronization. For example, after SBI merger, SBI didn’t extend the benefits available to employees in SBI branches to its associate banks like SBH. This resulted in protests by its employees.
  • Weak banks will be left out in this process, and may shut down as they can’t compete with big banks.
  • Regionality will be missed. All banks will attain the status of national banks.
  • Even after the merger, there is no guarantee that the newly formed banks can compete in the global race.
  • Several bank unions are protesting that government is going for merger just to privatize the newly formed banks. If that is true, instead of renovating and privatizing, if the present banks are directly privatized, a lot of expenditure of renovation will be saved. The responsibility to reform banks can be transferred to private players.
Also Read :  Should Politics and Business be mixed?

Conclusion :-

NPA problem may not be solved by the merging of PSU banks, but this will definitely result in cost efficiency and can reduce burden of operational costs for banks. To compete with the world, India need more global level banks. But, how the government deals with the problems associated with merging will decide the success of merging.

Afterwords :- Do you think merger of PSU banks will yield positive results? Express your opinion in the comment section below.

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9 Comments

  • Jhansi Rani, Sep 5, 2018 @ 5:29 am Reply

    I don’t agree with this merging of Banks.. Due to this merging employment creation will be reduced.. Banks lost their own brand…. People who are in position of CEo, manager like there might be changes in their position… authorization giving to many it will collapse the entire system…

  • Ponnu, Aug 31, 2018 @ 11:49 am Reply

    > merger of psu banks will reduce the recruitment for some years as merging of heterogeneous banks employing different practices is a long term process.
    > Unlike sbi which brought all its subsidiaries under single umbrella with brand name sbi other banks needs to tackle the problem of brand name which can effect the banking business as different banks are lead banks in different areas.

  • cadet gautam, Jun 4, 2018 @ 8:16 pm Reply

    yes merger of psu banks will solve the problems of not only npa but also creating many accounts in different bank to save their black money. and govt should make strict law and should not give big amount of money to anybody.

  • vengatesh N, Apr 17, 2018 @ 12:35 pm Reply

    NO:
    *Here no nationalized bank is 100% owned by govt.so if we merge those banks with another banks it will simply collapse the ownership and management.
    *there is no guarantee if we merge banks means it will reduce the NPA.

  • sandip sinha, Apr 6, 2018 @ 11:08 am Reply

    MERGER OF PSU BANKS:-
    YES:-
    As per present situation there are
    many psu banks are struggling with bad loans,ineffiency of risk management and scams also.
    So to tackle these kind of problem there need to support for their active operation. Merger of weak psu may be the better options instead of further capital infusion to them.
    >Merger may not give a short term profit but may satisfy its long term goal.
    >merger of banks is hard to fail than single risky PSB. As post merger situation may result huge capital,less operational cost,better management strategy to perform in their weak areas.
    >rbi will also supervise well as this under one umbrella.

  • venkataiah koothadi, Feb 25, 2018 @ 5:45 pm Reply

    no it will create more problems among employees and causes regional imbalances

  • Sachin Gore, Oct 25, 2017 @ 12:07 am Reply

    No:-
    1.Merger will also have psychological effect on the bank employee , it is not easy to get adjust with the new enviornment and working culture.
    2. Also it will create a big pressure and responsibilty on higher authorities of owner bank..as they will have to deal with the more customer base and if they didn’t do well this can be a big blow to economy.
    3. Accumulation of power to one brand instead of many can cause threat of big scams.

    • Team GD Ideas, Nov 6, 2017 @ 8:50 am Reply

      Well said!!!

  • Amey, Oct 14, 2017 @ 4:10 am Reply

    No:-

    1. Instead of merging banks carrying huge NPA with other strong banks, why can’t these PSU banks be implemented with same strong policies as that of SBI? Reducing NPA for PSU banks prior merger might be good or it may even bring strong banks investment/capabilities down.
    2. Instead of merger, banks employees can be trained in a way to be least influenced by political factors and nepotism to avoid corruption which is one of the the main factors responsible for huge NPA.

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