Banking unions aren’t happy with the government’s plans to divest stake in public sector banks (PSBs). The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) — an umbrella body of nine unions staged protest on Thursday evening before SBI Melarmath. However, past attempts and strikes to halt the privatisation of public sector banks have been unsuccessful. “Privatising them means handing over the people’s money to private hands with vested interest,” said UFBU. Earlier, United Forum of Bank Unions released a harshly worded statement opposing the announcements by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during the Budget 2021-22. The UFBU is also against the idea of a bad bank or Asset Reconstruction Company ARC to house non-performing assets (NPAs). According to them, the idea will only remove corporate defaults from the books, not fix the underlying issue. A number of experts too believe that a bad bank could create a moral hazard.
