Bank of Maharashtra, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank Will Be Sold To Private Firms

The four major banks that have been shortlisted by the government for privatization are Bank of Maharashtra, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, and the Central Bank of India.

The privatization of banks has been in discussion for a long time now, and there has been news about privatizing two PSU banks, but now, news is that four mid-sized banks have been finalized instead.

Read on to find out all the details!

Bank of Maharashtra, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank Will Be Sold To Private Firms

A journalist, Aadesh Rawal, has announced in a tweet that four mid-sized state-run banks have been shortlisted for privatization. The four banks that have been shortlisted by the government are Bank of Maharashtra, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, and the Central Bank of India.

Government has big plans of disinvesting in public sector banks so that it can generate revenues. For that, the government will put 2 public banks on sale at the start of next financial year i.e April 2022. 

During the Budget 2021, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the government’s plans of privatization of two state-run banks, which excluded IDBI Bank. As per reports, the banks that are not on the list of mergers, will be put up for privatization.

Now the government has shortlisted four mid-sized state-run banks for privatization. Earlier, the government was considering only two public sector banks but now it plans to privatize four banks.

Employees Unhappy With Privatization?

The shortlisted banks have a massive workforce – Bank of India with 50,000 employees, Central Bank of India with 33,000; Indian Overseas bank with 26000; and Bank of Maharashtra with 13,000 working staff.

However, the employees’ unions of these banks are not happy with the decision, which includes All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) and All India Banks Employees Association (AIBEA). The associations have gone on strikes to protest against the decision as they feel that risk the dominance of the public sector banks.

Devidas Tuljapurkar, General Secretary, All India Bank of Maharashtra Employees Federation (AIBoMEF) said that particularly after the YES Bank episode, customers are apprehensive of private sector banks. Also that Co-operative Bank customers have suffered a lot in the states of Punjab & Maharashtra.