New Delhi
An official of the United Forum of Bank Unions-- the umbrella body of nine unions which has given the strike call -- said "over 10 lakh bank employees spread in more than 1,30,000 branches across the country have struck work hitting cheque-clearing activity".
With branches closed, ATMs might get empty sooner than normal. Government treasury transactions would also be impacted. Foreign exchange transactions, import and export bill transactions, sanction of loans and others would also be affected.
Normally in the three clearing grids functioning from South, West and North -- Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi -- on an average about 40 lakh cheques and instruments worth about Rs. 20,000 cr are transacted per day. This has been affected in a big way.
The strike hit all the 42,000 branches of 21 public sector banks, including SBI , IDBI, 18 old-generation banks, 8 foreign banks and 56 Regional Rural Banks in Mumbai and Maharashtra.
The strike comes after talks between UFBU and Indian Banks' Association, Chief Labour Commissioner and DFS failed on Friday.
