The Dena Bank chairman also made a strong pitch for bank-specific wage negotiation breaking away from the convention of the Indian Banks' Association-brokered industry-wide wage pact. "The employees of profit making banks should get more than their counterpart in the weak banks," he said. According to him, introduction of a VRS is mandatory in the banking sector as the surplus staff comes on the way of computerising the branches.

"The VRS is necessary as otherwise banks cannot improve on the IT front," he said. Mishra also questioned the role of the nominees of the government and the Reserve Bank of India on bank boards. He advocated autonomy for banks in terms of offering lateral employment and fixing higher salary for officials in certain crucial segments. Corporation Bank chairman HS Hugar went on step ahead and said banks should be allowed to offer higher salary to IT officials.

"They can get even more than the chairman. If we want to employ the right kind of people, we have to pay them high packages," he said.

PS Kholi of Punjab & Sind Bank said the weak banks need more autonomy than the stronger banks. IDBI Bank managing director Deepak Mukherjee said unless the fundamental issues including legal structure are addressed, the "imported" global prudential norms can only effect "cosmetic" changes.