‘Indian Bank, Allahabad Bank merger to create jobs’

The merger of Allahabad Bank with Indian Bank will generate more jobs and not result in the closure of branches or loss of jobs, said a top official.

“After consolidation, we might need more people at the zonal level, processing centres, MSME, ICT departments, digital initiatives and marketing,” said Padmaja Chunduru, MD and CEO, Indian Bank.

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Asserting that there would be no closure of branches, she said the overlapping of branches was very little either in the north or south. “We have only 50 branches of Allahabad Bank in the south,” she added.

‘IT, HR are key’

“IT and human resources are the two crucial issues in this merger. Since we are on the same technology platform, we expect the merger to be smooth. Human resources will not be an issue. However, integration will take some time,” she added.

Ahead of its merger with Allahabad Bank, top Indian Bank officials are visiting Mumbai to understand the previous mega mergers involving State Bank of India and its subsidiaries and Bank of Baroda (BoB) with Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank.

“We are in Mumbai for three days to understand how BoB and SBI went ahead with their mergers successfully. We learnt about the steps taken by them through presentations. We expect the transition to be smooth,” she said. After getting an in-principle nod from the board, Ms. Chunduru plans to address the staff of Allahabad Bank next week to dispel fears about job loss or transfer of staff. The culture, identity and value of both the banks are different. We would try to preserve them, she said.

Asked about her views on getting merged with a weaker bank, she said in the short term it would have an impact. But there would not be any dilution in operations or scale.

Mentioning that Allahabad Bank was on its way to recovery, she said it had posted a net profit in the first quarter of 2019-20. It had made huge provisions and any recovery will add back to their profit.