Bankers are well aware that till now only the appointments from Executive Director onwards are only done at Finance Ministry level (except in case of SBI).  

In all the PS Banks, promotions upto the level of General Managers (Scale VII) are done at the bank level itself.

The action of having a common promotion policy and transfer across banks (inter-banks) will have long term repercussions, not only on the careers of the senior bank officers, but also the way banks work. 

At present the CMDs and EDs have full say in the promotions of the officers at all levels, but  these are not transparent.   This breeds groupism and chamchagiri at all levels.  Thee is large scale nepotism and corruption at various levels.   The new policy will shift the centre of power from CMD level to Finance Ministry level. 

It has been reported that Finance Ministry has even advised all PS Banks to stop the promotion process for officers from AGM onwards.

A few days back,  the finance ministry has asked the banks to schedule their next Board meetings in New Delhi.   The reasons for such a step are now yet clear, but speculations are that this has been done to have wider discussions on this issue also.

We will issue more details soon.

(uploaded on 28th September, 2011)