The All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) has urged the government to implement is demand to merge the 
five associate banks of the SBI group into a single entity. AIBEA’s general secretary C.H. Venkatachalam said the union has called for a strike on 7 June and 28 July to press for the merger. Venkatachalam said he hoped that the boards of the five associate banks – State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur and State Bank of Patiala – would consider the proposal. He said while the union is against consolidation in the banking industry, in the case of the five associate banks of SBI, it would prefer a merger with State Bank of India.
