Bhubaneswar: Three private commercial banks have been removed from the list of banks empanelled for handling business and deposits of Odisha government and its departments.

The Finance Department has removed HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank from the list of empanelled banks for handling business and deposits of the state government and state government supported organisations including government departments, directorates, HoDs, establishments, agencies, PSUs, societies and universities.

Finance Department Principal Secretary Saswat Mishra today sent a letter in this regard to all departments of the state government.

As per the letter, the three private commercial banks have been de-empanelled due to continuous poor performance in some flagship government schemes and discouraging general banking parameters.

The Finance Department has asked all the departments of the state government to close their savings, current and other running accounts in the above said three private banks immediately and transfer the account balance to any other empanelled bank.

However, Finance Department has asked the government departments not to close their fixed deposits and term deposits accounts in the three banks for now.

However, the departments have been told to transfer the money from their fixed deposit accounts in the three private banks to other empanelled banks upon their maturity.