New cheque book and passbook will be issued to the account holders of these banks as the previous ones will become invalid from April 1.
The bank account numbers of the customers of eight banks–Dena Bank, Vijaya Bank, Corporation Bank, Andhra Bank, Syndicate Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, United Bank of India and Allahabad Bank–will change starting April 1. This is following their merger with other big lenders.
New cheque books and passbooks will be issued to the account holders of these banks as the previous ones will become invalid from April 1.
Punjab National Bank (PNB) had already alerted their customers that the existing cheque books of Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) and United Bank of India will get discontinued from April 1, as they are valid only till March 31. These account holders also need to know the new IFSC and MICR code.
What do customers of these banks need to do?
-If you are a customer of any of these banks, then you are required to update your details such as your mobile number, address, name of the nominee, etc. You have to get a new chequebook and passbook of the banks with which your old bank has been merged.
-After getting the new chequebook, and passbook, you will have to update your banking details recorded in various financial instruments.
Merger of banks
Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank were merged with Bank of Baroda on April 1, 2019, while the amalgamation of the Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) and United Bank of India with Punjab National Bank came into effect last year (April 1, 2020). Besides, Syndicate Bank has been merged with Canara Bank, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank merged with Union Bank of India, while Allahabad Bank has been merged with Indian Bank.
The government in August 2019, in the biggest consolidation exercise in the banking space had announced the merger of 10 public sector lenders into four bigger and stronger banks. With this, the number of public sector banks in India will come down to 12 from 27 in 2017.
