At least three insurance companies - Star Union Daiichi, Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance and India First Life Insurance - could see a change in their ownership structure because of a mega bank merger exercise.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last Friday announced the merger of 10 public sector banks into four entities to make them stronger, reported Economic Times.

The mergers are:

• Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank will be merged into Punjab National Bank
• Canara Bank will merge with Syndicate Bank
• Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank will be merged into Union Bank of India
• Indian Bank will merge with Allahabad Bank.

Union Bank of India has a life insurance venture with Bank of India and Japan’s Daiichi. Andhra Bank has a stake in IndiaFirst Life, which it may have to exit. Canara Bank has a joint venture in life insurance with HSBC and Oriental Bank of Commerce.

The completion of these latest mergers means that over the past two years, 27 state owned banks would have been merged into 12, with eight owning a national presence, while four will have a regional focus.