The Government of India proposes to merge BoB, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank

The Government of India (GoI) has proposed to merge state-owned Vijaya Bank, Dena Bank and Bank of Baroda (BoB) to create India’s third largest lender as parts of reforms in the public sector banking segment. The decision was taken at the meeting of a ministerial panel headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley which oversees merger proposals of state-owned banks. One of the reasons behind the choice of these banks was perhaps the fact that all three use the same core banking system—Finacle from Infosys—making the task of merging the technology platforms and back-ends relatively easier. Now, the boards of the three banks will consider the proposal. The combined lending entity will have a strong presence across the nation with more than 34% of low-cost deposits, a capital buffer of nearly 12% and a business book of Rs 14.82 lakh crore. Bank of Baroda is the biggest of the three with Rs 10.29 lakh crore of total business, followed by Vijaya Bank at Rs 2.79 lakh crore and Dena Bank at Rs 1.72 lakh crore.