On the occasion of 55th Bank Nationalisation Day, the All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC) stated that on July 19, 1969 the central government nationalised private banks but the trend of late is vice versa.
“In the last 10-15 years the government is seeing that private banks grow and the public sector banks (PSBs) are going to be sold off,” Devadeep Dasgupta of AIBOC’s Meghalaya state unit said here today.
He said that if this happens then it will be disastrous for poor farmers, small artisans and small investors as PSBs give loans to such people at lower rates of interest.
According to Dasgupta, the nationalisation decision made 55 years ago changed the entire course of the country’s financial and economic history by nationalising 14 private banks.
Dasgupta said that with the nationalisation of banks, the poor got access to banking by depositing small amounts as well as getting credit.
He also said that since 1935 a total of 1,600 private banks have gone out of business and PSBs had to step in to bail them out.
Dasgupta also claimed that the strength of the Indian economy and its financial sector is due to public sector banks.
When in 2008 the world was facing a global meltdown and large banks in the United States fell but the country that is dependent on PSBs was able to withstand the recession as well as Covid-19 a few years ago.
Meanwhile, Davis Lyngdoh, state secretary of AIBOC’s Meghalaya unit, said that for small loans no collateral is needed but many are not aware of it.
“But there is credit guarantee trust by the government. A small entrepreneur need not bring any collateral, the government stands as the guarantor. But this is only when a person comes to a nationalised bank,” Lyngdoh said.
