Services at around 80,000 branches in the country were hit on Friday as employees of public sector banks went on a one-day strike.
A day-long strike by public sector banks' employees to protest proposed merger of SBI associates with the parent and other issues is likely to affect transactions worth Rs 12,000 crore (Rs 120 billion) to Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion), Assocham has said.
Services at around 80,000 branches in the country were hit on Friday as employees of public sector banks went on a one-day strike.
The United Forum of Banks Unions (UFBU), an umbrella organisation of nine bank employees and officers unions representing 8 lakh staffers, has gone ahead with the strike, affecting services like cheque clearances, cash deposit and withdrawal at branches and other facilities.
"Public sector banks (PSBs) are already less profitable and have relatively higher ratios of non-performing assets (NPAs) compared to private sector banks. As such a complete halt of banking transactions following UFBU's decision to go on strike might result in significant losses," Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said.
Rawat termed banking sector reforms as the "need of the hour" with a view to revamp the functioning of the PSBs.
Private sector banks like ICICI Bank, however, were working as usual.
Most of the public sector banks including SBI had earlier informed their customers of inconvenience if strike materialises.
40,000 bank employees in Bihar join nationwide strike
About 40,000 employees of various public and private sector banks here joined the nationwide strike called by United Forum of Bank Unions.
B Prasad, president of Bihar Bank Employees' Federation, said about 40,000 bank employees took part in the nationwide strike paralysing banking services in the state.
Transactions to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) have got stuck due to the strike, he said.
Prasad claimed that about 8,000 branches of nearly two dozen public and private sector banks remained closed during the day.
The United Forum of Bank Unions have given a protest call against the merger and privatisation of public sector banks and "anti-workers" labour law reforms, besides rooting for effective steps to recover huge amounts of bad loans from the borrowers.
Strike: Bank ops hit in 4,000 branches in Andhra Pradesh,Telangana
Services at around 4,000 bank branches in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were hit as employees of public sector banks went on a day's strike on Friday to protest proposed merger of SBI associates with the parent and other issues.
All India Bank Employees Association Secretary B S Rambabu said clearing operations across the two states were paralysed as almost 70,000 employees working in various banks participated in the stir.
"About 4,000 branches in both the states (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) have been shut down today as part of the strike. Processions were held at all important locations throughout both the states," Rambabu told PTI.
Around 20,000 employees working in 2,800 branches and offices of Andhra Bank across the country along with 10 lakh bank employees and officers participated in the nationwide bank strike, Andhra Bank Award Employees' Association said in a statement.
The Association has demanded that the government take stringent measures to recover loans from defaulters and declare willful default of bank loans as criminal offence.
Bank strike total in Bengal
Banking operations came to standstill in some 15,000 bank branches in West Bengal due to one-day strike by the bank unions protesting against the government's measures and actions toward banking.
"The strike was total across the state and nationwide. Some 15,000 bank branches remained closed," National Confederation of Bank Employees' Assistant General Secretary Debashish Basu Roy said.
All India Reserve Bank Employees Association General Secretary Samir Ghosh said RBI cheque clearing activity also remained non-functional as participating banks were not present due to strike.
The nine-bank unions under umbrealla of UBFU went on strike protesting against merger of SBI associates, proposed privaisation of IDBI Bank, consolidation and merger plan for the PSU banks, demanding disclosure of defaulters, stringent action for non-performing assets recovery and amendments in various acts impacting trade unions.
Nationally, some 80,000 bank branches were affected due to strike.