'Interest of staff in banks that may be privatised will be protected': FM

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that not all state-owned banks are going to be privatised. She added that the interest of employees of banks that are likely to be privatised will be protected. The finance minister was addressing the media following a Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) meeting. “Today, we have quite a few banks and they have very big roles to play. Yet, we need banks which are going to be able to scale up. We need to look at amalgamating banks so that we have banks which are big enough. We need banks of the size of SBI, not all of the banks are going to be privatised. Even for those which are likely to be privatised, they will continue to function. We will also have to ensure that the interest of every staff is protected,” she said. FM's statement comes amid a nationwide bank strike against the government's privatisation decision. The 2-day strike was called by United Forum of Bank Union, an umbrella body of 9 bank unions. The government has privatised IDBI Bank and merged 14 public sector banks in the last four years.