Consolidation of small state-run banks to happen under a panel of experts

A panel comprising 10 experts will make sure that the consolidation of smaller banks into one or two large state-run banks happens smoothly.

The proposed panel, which will also examine the acquisitions, will consist of senior executives along with Reserve Bank of India representatives.

Recently, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that the nation wanted public sector banks to give competition to private banks and run more professionally for which merger and acquisition was one of the good options.

“The bankers' themselves have supported the proposal of consolidation of banks in order to have strong banks rather than having numerically large number of banks," Jaitley had said.

"Any consolidation among public sector banks has to be done keeping in view factors such as geography and technology platform, besides human resource issues. The committee will look into these matters," an official told ET.

The last merger and acquisition happened when State Bank of India took over State Bank of Indore in 2010.