Bank strike: Services hit, impact to continue

New Delhi: Banking operations in the country were hit on Wednesday as 10 lakh employees, primarily from PSU banks, went on 2-day strike to protest against a "meagre" 2 percent salary hike offered by Indian Banks Association (IBA) -- the management body.

The strike, also supported by employees of some old generation private sector banks and foreign banks, will continue on Thursday.

Operations in the new-generation private banks like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank were however almost normal, barring few activities including cheque clearance.

There were reports of disruption in banking operations in various states. The impact of the strike in certain states like Kerala, West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand was more severe compared to other states.

Since the strike coincides with the month-end, salary withdrawals from branches are likely to get affected. Some ATMs went dry by the evening. The strike hit operations like deposits, FD renewals, government treasury operations, money market operations.

An RBI official said some digital banking work was done through electronic systems like the RTGS, but the functioning of banks' servers was hit.