Workers’ interests will be protected: Nirmala Sitharaman on bank privatisation

New Delhi, Mar 16: Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman said that merging of banks of privatisation of financial institutions will not hurt the interest of the employees.

These decisions are not being taken in a hurried manner and the Centre is committed to taking care of the workers.

"There are many banks which are performing very well. Some banks are performing just alright. But now we need banks that are able to scale up. We need banks of the size of the State Bank of India to meet the aspirational needs of the sector," Nirmala Sitharaman said.

Even for those banks which are likely to be privatised, the privatised institutions too will continue to function after privatisation. The interests of the staff will be protected, the Finance Minister also said.
The Finance Minister at the briefing after the Cabinet meeting said that not all banks are going to be privatised. The interests of workers of banks which are likely to be privatised will absolutely be protected - whether their salaries or scale or pension, all will be taken care of, Sitharaman also said.

She also said that there is a need for many more banks the size of SBI to meet the aspirational needs of the country.

The comments come in the backdrop of the protest by the Union Forum of Bank Unions. The unions have been on a two day strike starting Monday.