PSU banks employees strike may affect transactions worth Rs 15,000 crore

New Delhi: A day-long strike by public sector banks' employees to protest proposed merger of SBI associates with the parent and other issues is likely to affect transactions worth Rs 12,000 crore to Rs 15,000 crore, Assocham has said.

Services at around 80,000 branches in the country were hit today as employees of public sector banks went on a one-day strike.

The United Forum of Banks Unions (UFBU), an umbrella organisation of nine bank employees and officers unions representing 8 lakh staffers, has gone ahead with the strike, affecting services like cheque clearances, cash deposit and withdrawal at branches and other facilities.

"Public sector banks (PSBs) are already less profitable and have relatively higher ratios of non-performing assets (NPAs) compared to private sector banks. As such a complete halt of banking transactions following UFBU's decision to go on strike might result in significant losses," Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said.

Rawat termed banking sector reforms as the "need of the hour" with a view to revamp the functioning of the PSBs.

Private sector banks like ICICI Bank, however, were working as usual.

Most of the public sector banks including SBI had earlier informed their customers of inconvenience if strike materialises.