A national business media group on Wednesday reported that talks are on for the merger of Jammu and Kashmir Bank with a public sector bank, most likely the State Bank of India.
According to a report in BTVI, the merger talks are on “as part of the government’s larger plan of consolidating small, “loss-making” banks with large public sector banks”.
The report said this merger plan is being considered in the face of “unsustainable structural issues” having cropped up in J&K Bank in recent past. The latest development is seen as worrisome by observers in Kashmir since J&K Bank is widely seen as one of J&K’s strongest economic institutions.
This latest development comes close on the heels of the transformation of J&K Bank into a public sector bank, RTI extension and removal of its chairman, Parvez Ahmed in June 2018.
State Bank of India (SBI) has already completed merger formalities of banks like State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Travancore (SBT), State Bank of Patiala (SBP), State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH) and BMB.