It is true that State Bank of India is the largest lender in India when compared to other banks but it is nowhere close to the world's largest lenders. On the other hand Bank of America is almost six times larger than SBI. Thus if at all merging is approved it would start from the State Bank of India and its five subsidiaries namely State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Travancore. "I think this government is as keen on the consolidation as the previous government was, but the problem is ground realities. The government should announce that bank consolidation is an imperative. It may say there will be a three to four-year agenda to do it," said Abizer Diwanji, partner, EY.

“Cultural issues” are one of the main reasons behind the delay of consolidation of banks. There is a fear of opposition from bank employees and unions when two different banks are brought together, thus it can also end up in closing of overlapping branches. There is no use of a consolidation until and unless the government was able to cut on duplication in branches, people and infrastructure according to Diwanji. Also if the government is thinking of consolidations then this would be the right time to go for it, as a lot of public sector staff would be retiring in the next two-three years.

In order to achieve this synergy the finance ministry earlier divided banks in to seven different groups depending on their core banking solutions platform. These groups included Punjab & Sind Bank, Dena Bank, United Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, Andhra Bank, Vijaya Bank, Corporation Bank, Indian Bank, Allahabad Bank, Uco Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Syndicate Bank, IDBI Bank and Indian Overseas Bank other than SBI and small other state-run banks. However the mergers will not be taken according to the grouping as all the issues including the shareholding pattern will not be addressed then. Thus various banks using different technology banks will be kept in mind while merging or consolidation.