PSU Bank Merger: A viral document claiming that nine public sector banks would be merged with State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Bank of Baroda (BoB) has been declared fake by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) Fact Check unit.
The document was presented as a Gazette of India notification issued by the Ministry of Finance and claimed that the government had approved a new public sector bank amalgamation scheme. PIB clarified that the document was not issued by the Finance Ministry.
The clarification came amid renewed discussion around PSU bank consolidation. However, the viral notification itself does not represent an official merger announcement.
What Did the Fake PSU Bank Merger Document Claim?
According to the fabricated document, Indian Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and Central Bank of India would be brought under SBI and become part of an expanded SBI Group.
It further claimed that Union Bank of India, Bank of India and Punjab & Sind Bank would be merged with PNB. The document also alleged that Canara Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and UCO Bank would become part of Bank of Baroda.
The purported notification also claimed that the assets, liabilities, rights, powers, contracts, employee arrangements and customer accounts of the merging banks would transfer to the acquiring institutions.
PIB Fact Check rejected these claims and said the document circulating on social media was fake and had not been issued by the Ministry of Finance. It advised people to verify government-related information through official and credible sources before sharing it.
How Did PSU Bank Stocks Perform on September 18?
The fake merger alert did not result in a broad decline across PSU banking stocks on September 18. At the time covered in the report, the Nifty PSU Bank index was up 0.34%, or 28.75 points, at 8,291.55.
Bank of Maharashtra gained nearly 3% to around ₹82.87, while Central Bank of India rose about 2.2% to ₹31.08. SBI also traded marginally higher at around ₹991.90.
Other PSU banking stocks, including PNB, Bank of Baroda, UCO Bank, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Punjab & Sind Bank, were trading with gains of up to around 0.51%. Union Bank of India and Canara Bank, however, were marginally lower.
Bank of Maharashtra’s September 18 market data also shows the stock trading around the ₹82.87 level during the session.
What Is the History of PSU Bank Mergers?
Public sector bank consolidation has taken place in several phases over the years. According to the Department of Financial Services, SBI absorbed State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Travancore and Bharatiya Mahila Bank with effect from April 1, 2017.
The next major consolidation took place in 2019, when Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank were amalgamated with Bank of Baroda.
In 2020, several more mergers came into effect. Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India were amalgamated with PNB; Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank with Union Bank of India; Syndicate Bank with Canara Bank; and Allahabad Bank with Indian Bank.
These mergers reduced the number of public sector banks significantly. The Department of Financial Services currently lists 12 public sector banks in India.
Which PSU Banks Remain Separate?
The 12 currently listed public sector banks include SBI, PNB, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Indian Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, UCO Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank and Indian Overseas Bank.
The banks mentioned in the viral document therefore include several institutions that remain separate today. However, the government has not officially announced the nine-bank merger described in the fake Gazette.
The earlier merger programme shows that PSU bank consolidation has been part of India’s banking reforms, but any future merger would require an official government announcement. The viral document circulating in September 2026 should not be treated as such.