New Delhi, Apr 1 (UNI) The Bank of Baroda has become the third largest bank of the country on Monday after all branches of the Vijaya Bank and the Dena Bank started working as part of Bank of Baroda.

This is first-ever three-way merger of banks in India.

With the amalgamation, all branches of the Dena Bank and the Vijaya Bank have now started functioning as that of the Bank of Baroda from today onwards. The businesses and permanent and regular employees of the Vijaya Bank and the Dena Bank have been transferred to the Bank of Baroda.

The Government has announced the merger of the three banks in September last year. Prior to this, the Centre had also merged the five associate banks -- State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Travancore and State Bank of Hyderabad and the Bharatiya Mahila Bank -- into the State Bank of India effective April, 2017.

The merger was announced in order to tackle lakhs of crores of bad loans plaguing the banking sector and revive credit growth. Dena Bank is among the five PSU banks kept under PCA due to losses and NPAs.

The Bank of Baroda said, “The power of 3 became an organic thought for campaign and it came effortlessly from the intent and purpose of dynamic amalgamation. The articulation for it then became an evocative campaign line “Ab Saath Hain Teen, Behtar Se Behtareen” which takes inspiration from the fact that the whole is always bigger than the sum of its parts. That when three great institutions come together, things will go from better to the best.”

UNI SW ADG 1416