Bank unions rap Govt for gifting top PSB posts to private players

Bank unions on Tuesday opposed the Government’s move to rope in private sector executives to head state-run banks, calling it an attempt to dilute the character of the nationalised banks. 

“The appointment of private sector executives as chairman and MD/ CEOs of various public sector 

banks, though not surprising going by the policy approach of the Government, is a definite step towards diluting the public sector character of our banks,” general secretary of All India Bank Employees Association (<g data-gr-id="23">AIBEA</g>), C H Venkatachalam, told.

He <g data-gr-id="36">said,</g> <g data-gr-id="35">appointment</g> of private sector executives to head public sector banks will not serve the purpose of social good, one of the biggest objectives of the public sector lenders. The social orientation of PSBs will be undermined as their total outlook would be only on maximising profit, he said. Additionally, it will also deprive senior cadre of their career growth opportunities, he added. 

The comments came in light of the government’s move to appoint private sector executives to head two state-run banks with an aim to “professionalise” the operations. In the first, P S Jayakumar (Bank of Baroda) and Rakesh Sharma (Canara Bank) were drawn from private sector lenders to lead the banks as managing directors and chief executives. 

However, the Finance Ministry had clarified over the weekend that no such appointments would be made from the private sector further. Venkatachalam said the appointments will not help fight the ills at the state-run banks, including the high incidence of bad loans. 

“We have experienced how some private sector executives have messed up the banks they were associated with, which later had to be salvaged by takeover by public sector banks,” he added. The private sector banks have their own sphere of working and operation and mixing up with PSBs will be in the wrong direction, he said. “It is nothing but an attempt to build a private sector ‘superstructure’ with the help of the public sector infrastructure. <g data-gr-id="28">AIBEA</g> will launch nationwide agitation against it,” Venkatchalam said.

He also requested the government to be indiscriminating in <g data-gr-id="26">capitalisation</g> of the public banks. “While the decision to subscribe to the capital of some of the public sector banks is a welcome step, it is highly discriminatory and unjustified that many of the PSBs have been left out for capitalisation,” he said.

He urged the government that it should come forward to capitalise all the PSBs without any discrimination or exception, else it will put pressure on these banks to desperately go for private capital and ultimately get privatised.