In light of the mergers between banks, account holders will need to acquire new IFSC codes to access online money transfer facilities, to and from the bank.
In the wake of the recent mergers of banks in the public sector, many account holders will need to do away with their old Indian Financial System Codes (IFSC). The old IFSC codes will no longer be valid for the use of online banking, as per a report by Gadgets Now. The banks involved in these mergers in the public sector are Syndicate Bank, Allahabad Bank, Dena Bank, United Bank of India, Vijaya Bank, the Oriental Bank of Commerce, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank, added the report.
Account-holders in these banks would need to change their old IFSC codes as per the new post-merger bank regulations in order to access any online banking transaction facilities. In the event that accounts holders are looking to make a bank transfer online, from or to the mentioned banks, then they will need to delete the beneficiaries from the list of payees from relevant the online banking web portal.
Through the portal, account holders can then register for the new IFSC codes, to which the details have to be added again. The list of payees then needs to be re-listed and registered under these new conditions. This is done by adding their names, account numbers, contact details and bank details, which includes the new IFSC codes. Pending the registration, only after that will account holders of the newly merged banks be able to transfer money online through net banking facilities.
It is also worth noting that if any standing instructions or scheduled payments exist, then those have to be deleted first and then re-added to achieve the proper results.
The mergers that are taking place are as follows – Syndicate Bank merged with Canara Bank, Allahabad Bank has been merged with Indian Bank, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank have both been taken into the fold under the Bank of Baroda. The merger between Syndicate Bank and Canara Bank came in light of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s plan to bring about new banking reforms in 2019. The consolidation of the two banking institutions marked the formation of one of the largest public-sector banks in the country.
In August of 2019, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that the merging of banks such as this was geared towards cost reduction purposes. She went onto state that this would translate into operational costs being reduced due to network overlaps and more income opportunities for joint ventures (JVs) as well as subsidiaries.