All the banks were opened on Sunday (May 8) prior to launch of LIC IPO for giving acceleration to the sale of the IPO found to be damp squib. In a recent RTI response from the various banks shows the same.
RTI responses show that just a few 1,000 applications were processed at the branches of some of the major public sector banks.
In the case of Punjab National Bank, as many as 10,088 branches were kept open on May 8 to process applications for the IPO of LIC, but only 833 branches processed such applications.
In all, PNB had received 2,500 such applications on May 8. 9,255 branches of PNB processed zero applications.
Similarly, in Bank of India, 190 branches processed just 591 ASBA applications.
In Ahmedabad zone of Bank of Baroda, 465 branches were kept open on May 8 and 999 officers and 15 clerks reported on duty on the day.
These type of monopolistic decision are baseless and caused huge losses to the exchequer. An unofficial union of the bank with the name of We Bankers said its team had sought information from different banks under the RTI Act on various parameters, including the total number of ASBA-enabled branches, the total number of branches opened on May 8 for LIC IPO, the total number of staff on duty on the day, the total number of LIC IPO applications processed through the branches on May 8 in the whole bank as well as the total compensation paid to the staff for working on the day.
Bank of Baroda’s Ahmedabad Zone said 220 officers had applied for a compensatory off for working on a Sunday. Bank of India did not share details of compensation given to staff working on Sunday. PNB said it has a policy on compensating staff for working on holidays and Sundays.
To encourage robust participation in the IPO of LIC, the government had directed all bank branches designated to process ASBA applications to remain open on both Saturday and Sunday (May 7 and May 8).
The ₹21,000-crore IPO of LIC was fully subscribed on the second day with strong response from policyholders, employees and retail investors and lesser number of bids were received on May 8.
According to BSE data, the offer received bids for 29.08 crore shares by end of May 8 as against bids for 26.83 crore shares by end of May 7.
Bank unions had at that time, also expressed their displeasure to the move.
The All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) had also written to Reserve Bank of India Governor and urged him to revisit the decision to keep bank branches open on Sunday.
“...the decision to keep open all the branches will not yield any result rather impose huge financial burden which is estimated to be more than ₹100 crore on account of employee compensation and other operational costs to keep open the branches on a holiday,” it had noted.
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