Finance Minister’s Press Conference: Nirmala Sitharaman Announces Series Of State-Run Bank Mergers
Follow live updates from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s press conference here.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
Watch: Impact Of PSB Mergers
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the government has decided to merge ten public sector banks into four large lenders.
They are:
- Punjab National Bank + Oriental Bank of India + United Bank of India
- Canara Bank + Syndicate Bank
- Union Bank + Andhra Bank + Corporation Bank
- Indian Bank + Allahabad Bank
India will now have 12 public sector banks—Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, Indian Bank, State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, UCO Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, and Punjab and Sind Bank.
Meanwhile, India’s GDP growth fell to a six year low of 5 percent. Read that story here.
Economy Update: GDP At Six-Year Low
The Indian economy continued to slow down in the April-June quarter, as private consumption in the economy weakened further.
GDP growth in the first quarter fell to 5 percent, compared with 5.7 percent that economists were expecting.
Read more here...
Meanwhile, India's fiscal deficit continued to swell in July, reaching 77.8 percent of the full-year target.
Mergers Will Be Beneficial: PNB Chief Executive
Punjab National Bank’s Sunil Mehta told BloombergQuint that the merger of three banks will bring in a lot of synergies.
he three bank merger will bring lot of synergies in the amalgamated entity because Oriental Bank of Commerce has got good systems and processes. We have overlapping geographical presence where we can optimise utilisation of our infrastructure as well as resources and improve profitability. United Bank of India has a lot of strength, a large CASA base and especially they have a presence in east and northeast India. So the bank will be able to serve a lot of new customers and existing customers on a pan India basis. This will bring in a lot of convenience for the customers.Sunil Mehta, CEO, Punjab National Bank
Won't Exceed Rs 70,000 Crore Bank Recap Amount
The government does not see any need to exceed the bank recapitalisation amount of Rs 70,000 crore budgeted in this fiscal, Rajiv Kumar said.
Government Yet To Decide On How To Use RBI Transfer
What has been received from the RBI, the government will take a call how to use it.Nirmala Sitharman, Finance Minister
Roadmap Final, No More Mergers
This roadmap is final and there could not be any more PSU bank mergers, Rajiv Kumar said. “Twelve is the right number as of now.”
