The All India Bank Officers’ Confederation has objected to Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel’s comment that weaker banks are losing market share and “that is a good thing”.

The General Secretary of AIBOC Thomas Franco asked: “Who made these banks weak? What is the role of the RBI representative on the board of these banks? When the deposits, advances and gross profit steadily increase, how can he call them weak?”

The central bank’s role is to develop a robust banking sector and not destroy it, he said, adding the RBI and the government have received good returns by way of dividends and taxes from these banks. There is no justification in stating that the weak banks should be sold, Franco said.

Making such a statement at a time when the AIBOC is preparing a turnaround plan for the 10 weak banks to make them profitable, is “unpatriotic”, Franco said and asked “Why can’t the regulator prepare a turnaround plan for one bank and prove its capability?”

He said the confederation is capable of turning around all the weak banks into profit-making ones, if the government and the RBI took some serious action on the NPAs as recommended by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance.

“We also demand that the RBI reimburse the cost of demonetisation to the banks, as this would help augment their capital,” Franco said.

He recalled that between 1960 and 1969 there were 48 compulsory mergers of private banks, 20 voluntary amalgamations, 17 mergers with State Bank of India, 125 transfer of assets and liabilities — all involving 210 private banks.