The All India Bank Officers’ Association on Tuesday said it will initiate appropriate programmes of action to counter the calls for privatisation of public sector banks by industry bodies such as Assocham and FICCI in the wake of the $1.80-billion letter of undertaking scam at Punjab National Bank.
Recently, Arvind Subramanian, Chief Economic Advisor, Finance Ministry, also pitched for private sector’s participation in public sector banking.
S Nagarajan, General Secretary, AIBOA, said utterances by industry bodies and highly placed government officials that ‘privatisation is the best remedy’ is absolutely objectionable and needs to be rejected.
In the context of the LoU fraud at PNB, Nagarajan observed: “If PNB has not linked the SWIFT system (a global financial messaging platform) with their core banking system, blaming the industry (other Indian banks whose Hong Kong-based branches extended funding to PNB’s Indian customers’ overseas suppliers) is absolutely unfair and also unjust,” said the Association official.