The government intends to continue with the plan of mergers of public sector banks, says finance minister Arun Jaitely. He said such mergers should create a few strong and bigger banks that can compete at international level. It is not necessary in today’s scenario to have 30 to 32 state-run banks, some of them weak banks, said Jaitely. Jaitley recalled the merger of the five associate banks and the Bharatiya Mahila Bank with State Bank of India and said in the coming days most probably there could be faster movement in this direction. A consolidation is necessary in the backdrop of increasing bad loans, he added.
