The CPI today asked the government to "abandon" its idea of allowing the corporates

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to open banks saying the decision was a "naked step to appease" big business and surrendering to the "pressures" of IMF and World Bank.

The RBI's recent draft guidelines on the proposed New Bank Licensing Policy is "an open surrender to the pressures of IMF and World Bank and a naked step to appease the industrial houses and big business companies in India", the CPI Central Secretariat said in a statement here.

It said the government had "not learnt lessons from the recent global economic crisis in which hundreds of private banks collapsed. World over, the experience of industrial houses running banks has been bitter".

But the UPA government was "so keen to hand over banking business to these industrial houses with a meagre capital of Rs 500 crore unmindful of its implications and consequences", it said.

Opposing the "retrograde" policy, the CPI asked the government to "abandon this idea in national interest", noting that over 10 lakh bank employees recently struck work in protest against this policy.

The CPI-M also has opposed the government's decision, saying it was a "completely irrational and retrograde" move that would cause "incalculable damage" to national economy.

Referring to the "bold decision" of Indira Gandhi to nationalise banks, CPI said the private-run banks then "never contributed to basic economic development and were confined to using the banks to build their own empires. There was so much of abuse and misuse of people's money".

Maintaining that the party and its trade union had in the 1960s conducted powerful struggles to demand nationalisation, it said since then, public sector banks have played a significant role in catering to the needs of the economy and the common man.