Bank consolidation may resume...

The officials reckon that smaller PSBs, including Punjab & Sind Bank, UCO Bank and Bank of Maharashtra, won’t be able to match bigger banks when it comes to supporting larger ticket-size lending, efficiency and risk management.

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Such banks could therefore be among the candidates for mergers with their larger counterparts in the first phase.

During ‘Manthan’ last month, the finance ministry and top management of PSBs also agreed on the need to have two large PSBs among the top 20 banks globally.

The merger of five associate banks of the State Bank of India (SBI) with itself in April 2017 was a path-breaking act heralding large-scale bank mergers in subsequent years.