10 lakh PSU bank employees go on strike today; services affected

The banking operations likely to hit today as public sector bank employees are set to go on strike in order to protest against the proposed merger of associate banks with SBI and banking reforms announced by the government said a Zee Business report.

On Friday, the United Forum of Banks Unions, an umbrella organisation of nine bank employees and officers unions representing 10 lakh staffers, will go on strike, causing inconvenience to customers as services like cheque clearances, cash deposit and withdrawal at branches and other facilities are likely to affect.

"All India State Bank Officers' Federation and the All India State Bank of India Staff Federation are members of UFBU. With the strike, the customers of the bank will also be impacted", All India Bank Employees Association said.

As ZeeBiz had earlier reported, in June, the cabinet approved the bank's plan to merge with its associate banks. 

State Bank of India (SBI) has five associate banks -- State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Hyderabad.

The merged entity will create a banking behemoth, which can compete with the largest in the world with an asset base of Rs 37 trillion (Rs 37 lakh crore) or over $555 billion, with 22,500 branches and 58,000 ATMs as on December 2015. 

Presently, SBI alone has close to 16,500 branches, including 198 foreign offices spread across 36 countries.