Strike will not affect SBI-SBS merger: Bhatt

Bangalore, Aug 19: Protests by 'some people' against the merger of an associate bank with State Bank of India (SBI) will not affect its plans to go ahead with the mergers, SBI Chairman O P Bhatt said. The All India Bank Employees' Association has called for a nationwide strike on Wednesday, Aug 20 to protest the merger of State Bank of Sourashtra (SBS) with SBI and its future plans of merger of other associate banks.

Speaking at a function here, the Chairman claimed that the employees of the group were not aversed to such mergers. ''You talk to the employees of SBS, those in associate banks or in the SBI itself. They are happy about this merger. This is not something which happened overnight. It had been planned for a year or so. We have never seen any issue about this,'' he said. Asked whether the backlash of the employees would hit the image of the group, Mr Bhatt said, ''I don't think so.

There are some people, who for some reason, called for a strike. We will see how do we resolve the difficulty we have. We will go forward after consulting the stakeholders,''he said.

The SBI Chairman replied in the negative when asked whether the strike would affect the bank's business.

He said the credit growth this year would be the same as it was last year.

UNi