http://www.livemint.com/Industry/mX...ndia-strike-tomorrow-against-consolidati.html
Bank unions on all-India strike today against consolidation plans
Services at public sector banks are expected to be hit with employee unions going on a nationwide strike against bank consolidation, inadequate capital support for banks
Alekh Archana
The government is looking to reduce the number of public sector banks to 10-15, through a series of mergers and acquisitions. Photo: Mint
The government is looking to reduce the number of public sector banks to 10-15, through a series of mergers and acquisitions. Photo: Mint
Services at public sector banks are expected to be hit on Tuesday with employee unions going on a nationwide strike.
The employees are protesting against the proposed consolidation of public sector banks, inadequate capital support for banks and loan defaults by large borrowers. The strike has been called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine unions including the All Indian Bank Officers Confederation and All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA).
C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary of AIBEA, said in a statement on Monday that nearly 1 million bank employees across all 21 public sector banks will go on strike.
The strike is likely to impact State Bank of India as two of its unions have decided to participate, the bank had informed exchanges on Saturday.
“Banks are cutting savings deposit rates, but at the same time, they are losing interest because of the pile of bad loans, mainly due to large loan defaults. Only customers are getting burdened because of this,” Venkatachalam said.
Unions are demanding that banks should not write off non-performing assets (NPAs) and that wilful default be declared a criminal offence.
Gross bad loans of banks rose over 24% year-on-year to Rs7.79 trillion at the end of June. Of this, Rs6.83 trillion belongs to public sector banks.
The unions are demanding adequate capital support to banks instead of pushing them to raise funds from private players, as this would result in dilution of government’s stake.
The unions are also protesting against the government’s move to consolidate public sector banks.
The government is looking to reduce the number of public sector banks to 10-15, through a series of mergers and acquisitions, Mint reported on 21 August, citing Sanjeev Sanyal, principal economic adviser at the finance ministry.
A.K. Nayak, chief labour commissioner, met the representatives of UFBU and Indian Banks’ Association. However, there was no agreement over the demand, and unions decided to go on strike, Venkatachalam said.
First Published: Mon, Aug 21 2017. 08 49 PM IST
http://dsatest.moneycontrol.com.htt...ke-disrupts-banking-transactions-2366793.html
Bank unions plan to meet PM Modi next month; Tuesday strike disrupts banking transactions
The nationwide strike called upon by nine bank unions on Tuesday saw major participation of nearly 10 lakh employees and officers of public sector banks across 10,300 branches in the country.
ByBeena Parmar
Bank unions plan to meet PM Modi next month; Tuesday strike disrupts banking transactions
Bank unions have sought to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the morcha it plans to hold on September 15, to put forth their concerns over the consolidation and merger of public sector banks.
The nationwide strike called upon by nine bank unions on Tuesday saw major participation of nearly 10 lakh employees and officers of public sector banks across 10,300 branches in the country.
All cheque clearing operations, financial and cash transactions and other routine daily banking services were stopped due to the strike. Though ATMs were operational, some ran out of cash by noon as there were no replenishments.
Government treasury, foreign exchange, remittances, import and export bill transactions and sanction of loans among other services were also impacted.
CH Venkatachalam, General Secretary, AIBEA (All India Banks’ Employees Association) said, “We were happy to see more young officers also participate in the protest and that helped us put forth the message. The present political culture has ignored the bank unions’ views but there will be a long term confrontation on the same. We plan to meet the Prime Minister Modi post the September 15 morcha to put forth our points.”
The unions plan to hold a rally in New Delhi with the help of around one lakh employees and officers.
"Normally in the three clearing grids functioning from South, West and North - Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi - on an average about 40 lakh cheques and instruments worth about Rs 22,000 crore are transacted per day. This has been affected in a big way as a result of the employees' stir," Venkatachalam said.
New private sector banks including ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank skipped participation in the strike while old private sector lenders such as Federal bank, Dhanlaxmi Bank, South Indian bank and Tamilnad Mercantile Bank among others, participated in the strike.
Among the 17-point charter of unions’ demands, the major ones include government's denial of adequate capital to public sector banks, thus creating conditions for privatization, merger and consolidation of banks and problem of resolution of large bad loans.
Bank unions on all-India strike today against consolidation plans
Services at public sector banks are expected to be hit with employee unions going on a nationwide strike against bank consolidation, inadequate capital support for banks
Alekh Archana
The government is looking to reduce the number of public sector banks to 10-15, through a series of mergers and acquisitions. Photo: Mint
The government is looking to reduce the number of public sector banks to 10-15, through a series of mergers and acquisitions. Photo: Mint
Services at public sector banks are expected to be hit on Tuesday with employee unions going on a nationwide strike.
The employees are protesting against the proposed consolidation of public sector banks, inadequate capital support for banks and loan defaults by large borrowers. The strike has been called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine unions including the All Indian Bank Officers Confederation and All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA).
C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary of AIBEA, said in a statement on Monday that nearly 1 million bank employees across all 21 public sector banks will go on strike.
The strike is likely to impact State Bank of India as two of its unions have decided to participate, the bank had informed exchanges on Saturday.
“Banks are cutting savings deposit rates, but at the same time, they are losing interest because of the pile of bad loans, mainly due to large loan defaults. Only customers are getting burdened because of this,” Venkatachalam said.
Unions are demanding that banks should not write off non-performing assets (NPAs) and that wilful default be declared a criminal offence.
Gross bad loans of banks rose over 24% year-on-year to Rs7.79 trillion at the end of June. Of this, Rs6.83 trillion belongs to public sector banks.
The unions are demanding adequate capital support to banks instead of pushing them to raise funds from private players, as this would result in dilution of government’s stake.
The unions are also protesting against the government’s move to consolidate public sector banks.
The government is looking to reduce the number of public sector banks to 10-15, through a series of mergers and acquisitions, Mint reported on 21 August, citing Sanjeev Sanyal, principal economic adviser at the finance ministry.
A.K. Nayak, chief labour commissioner, met the representatives of UFBU and Indian Banks’ Association. However, there was no agreement over the demand, and unions decided to go on strike, Venkatachalam said.
First Published: Mon, Aug 21 2017. 08 49 PM IST
http://dsatest.moneycontrol.com.htt...ke-disrupts-banking-transactions-2366793.html
Bank unions plan to meet PM Modi next month; Tuesday strike disrupts banking transactions
The nationwide strike called upon by nine bank unions on Tuesday saw major participation of nearly 10 lakh employees and officers of public sector banks across 10,300 branches in the country.
ByBeena Parmar
Bank unions plan to meet PM Modi next month; Tuesday strike disrupts banking transactions
Bank unions have sought to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the morcha it plans to hold on September 15, to put forth their concerns over the consolidation and merger of public sector banks.
The nationwide strike called upon by nine bank unions on Tuesday saw major participation of nearly 10 lakh employees and officers of public sector banks across 10,300 branches in the country.
All cheque clearing operations, financial and cash transactions and other routine daily banking services were stopped due to the strike. Though ATMs were operational, some ran out of cash by noon as there were no replenishments.
Government treasury, foreign exchange, remittances, import and export bill transactions and sanction of loans among other services were also impacted.
CH Venkatachalam, General Secretary, AIBEA (All India Banks’ Employees Association) said, “We were happy to see more young officers also participate in the protest and that helped us put forth the message. The present political culture has ignored the bank unions’ views but there will be a long term confrontation on the same. We plan to meet the Prime Minister Modi post the September 15 morcha to put forth our points.”
The unions plan to hold a rally in New Delhi with the help of around one lakh employees and officers.
"Normally in the three clearing grids functioning from South, West and North - Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi - on an average about 40 lakh cheques and instruments worth about Rs 22,000 crore are transacted per day. This has been affected in a big way as a result of the employees' stir," Venkatachalam said.
New private sector banks including ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank skipped participation in the strike while old private sector lenders such as Federal bank, Dhanlaxmi Bank, South Indian bank and Tamilnad Mercantile Bank among others, participated in the strike.
Among the 17-point charter of unions’ demands, the major ones include government's denial of adequate capital to public sector banks, thus creating conditions for privatization, merger and consolidation of banks and problem of resolution of large bad loans.
