Kerala Assembly passed a resolution against merger of SBT with SBI

A substantive motion moved by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, asking the Union government and the RBI to desist from merging the State Bank of Travancore (SBT) with the State Bank of India (SBI), was recently adopted by the Assembly.

• SBT was formed way back in 1946 and was the succour of the Kerala government as a huge majority of its transactions was done through the bank.
• The majority union of SBT has already expressed deep concern in the move by the State Bank of India for the acquisition of its five associate banks including SBT.

Why merger is being opposed?

It is feared that if the merger took place, the SBI could lose sight of its welfare-oriented lending policies and become corporatised.

Background:

The Union Cabinet, in June 2016, approved the merger of State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, and its associate banks. The merged entity will have an asset base of about Rs.37 lakh crore, with nearly 24,000 branches and about 58,700 ATMs across the country as of March 2016. Associate banks to be merged are- State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Travancore.