38 lakh cheques worth ₹37,000 Cr on hold due to bank strike

The two-day strike by government bank employees against the privatization of banks has affected clearing of around 38 lakh cheques worth ₹37,000 crore at the three centres in Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai.

Informing the same, CH Venkatachalam, general secretary of the All Bank Employees’ Association said due to the strike on Thursday and Friday, around 10 lakh cheques worth ₹10,600 crore are pending in Chennai, while around 18 lakh cheques worth ₹15,400 crore and 11 lakh cheques worth ₹11,000 are waiting to be cleared at the cheque clearing centres in Mumbai and Delhi respectively.

Around nine lakh employees of various public sector banks have participated in the strike, stalling banking operations across the country. According to Venkatachalam, apart from state-run banks, employees and officers of old generation private banks like Federal Bank, Karnataka Bank, Karur Vysya Bank, South Indian Bank, CSB Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank among others also participated in the strike.

A small numbers of employees of foreign banks like Standard Chartered Bank, Bank of America and Citi Bank, as well as those from Regional Rural Banks were also on strike.

As a result of the strike, around 1 lakh branches across the country remained closed barring some branches were senior officials held fort in the absence of striking employees.

The strike was called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), a collective of bank unions, in protest against the Centre’s decision to privatize a few state-run banks and introduction of the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021.

Under the Bill, the government plans to privatize two state-owned banks.

Venkatachalam said at the meeting between the Finance Ministry and the Indian Banks’ Association on Wednesday, the unions had agreed to postpone the strike if the Centre assured them to defer the introduction of the Banking laws (Amendment) Bill 2021 in Parliament.

He said the government’s only issue with Public Sector Banks was non-performing assets, a major share of which is held by big corporates. He said even though government have tried Debt Recovery Tribunals, SARFAESI and IBC to tide over the crisis, the measures have not helped, forcing banks to let go off loans and incur losses; and blames corporates for the crisis.

“Even under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, while bd loans have been resolved and banks could get back some portion of the loan, it has been with huge haircuts for the banks,” he told the media.