Banking operations were severely hit in the city on Wednesday as more than 70 per cent of bank branches kept their shutters down.

The All India Bank Employees’ Association and All India Bank Officers’ Association called a daylong strike to protest the proposed merger of the State Bank of Indore with State Bank of India (SBI).

The strike didn’t spare private and foreign banks either.

“We were forced to shut almost all our branches in the city and our division office,” said Bidyut K. Guha, ICICI Bank’s chief manager for corporate banking group in the eastern zone. “The protesters didn’t allow us to enter the branches,” Guha added.

With customers relying heavily on ATMs, a number of machines ran out of cash and could not be replenished.

The officers’ union of SBI didn’t join the strike. “Nearly all our branches in Calcutta were open but some branches in the suburbs were forced to shut down,” said a senior manager of SBI’s Calcutta head office.