THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: To protest against closure of associate banks and the takeover by SBI, bank employees under the banner of All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) will strike work on May 20. Thousands of employees of the State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Maharashtra, and will participate in the agitation.
AIBEA general secretary K S Krishna stated in a release here that the earlier decision of the directors of the associate banks was to merge those banks. But using the clout of the SBI directors on the Board of the associate banks, the SBI was forcing the associate banks’ Board of Directors to merge them with the SBI.
He said the SBT which has a major share in the state’s banking business has been catering to the need of the people across the state and in 15 states and three union territories. The SBT is the only PSU Bank with Kerala as its headquarters. With 1,177 branches and 1,707 ATMs, the bank has 14,892 employees and over Rs 1,00,473 crore deposits, loans worth Rs 67,004 crore and investment worth Rs 36,123 crore.He said the merger move was as part of limiting the number of government banks by six or seven and making them strong enough to engage in international corporate banking business. He said the board meeting of the associate banks was held in haste in Mumbai.