RTI reveals more than 3400 branches of 26 Public Sector Banks closed or merged in last 5 years

November 3: As per a query filed under Right To Information (RTI) Act, by a  Neemuch-based activist Chandrashekhar Gaud, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) informed that 26 PSBs of the country either closed or merged 90 branches during FY 2014-15, 126 branches in 2015-16, 253 branches in 2016-17, 2,083 branches in 2017-18 and 875 branches during 2018-19. Of this, 75 per cent of the affected branches belong to the country’s biggest lender State Bank of India.

This means more than 3,400 branches of 26 public sector banks (PSBs) have been either closed or merged during the last five financial years due to merger under the consolidation exercise in the banking space. As per the RTI reply, the maximum 2,568 branches of the SBI were affected due to merger or closure in the last five financial years.