Three-way merger creates enlarged Bank of Baroda
The merger of three Indian public banks to create the country’s third largest bank has officially taken place, reports Martin Whybrow.
The third largest player in India, after State Bank of India and ICICI Bank
The branch network of Bank of Baroda now stretches to 9,500 outlets by incorporating the 2,050 branches of Vijaya Bank and 1,850 branches of Dena Bank. The combined entity will go under the Bank of Baroda brand.
It will clearly take some time for the technology platforms of the three banks to be brought together but this is the stated intention. At present, customers will retain their existing account numbers and other identifiers.
At their core, all three banks are long-standing users of Infosys’ Finacle. While this might ease some of the consolidation task, the long-standing system will have been customised at the banks over the years and each has a host of other software around the core, including separate digital banking channels.
In a statement, the banks says interoperability of some banking services across all branches would be introduced by the end of April, with others to follow. It expects IT integration to be completed in 12 to 18 months, when customer accounts of all three banks will be migrated to a single core banking system.
With the merger, the new bank becomes the third largest player in India, after State Bank of India and ICICI Bank. It states it has no plans to close any branches.
