The association is protesting against the attempts to privatise nationalised banks, merger and consolidation of public sector banks, unrestricted foreign investment in banks with full voting rights, banking credit for speculation and hoardings and low-cost advances to large corporates.

The union wants wilful default on bank loans to be declared a criminal offence under the Securitisation Act. Moreover, it has demanded additional bank branches in the unbanked areas, reduction in service charges for normal banking offerings, increase in the interest rates on savings bank deposits, more priority sector lending and strengthening co-operative banks.

C H Venkatachalam, general secretary, AIBEA on Thursday released a list of wilful defaulters. According to the AIBEA data, there are 2,369 wilful defaulters with an outstanding of Rs 20,140 crore (Rs 201.40 billion).