With the large number of bank branches handling the work, delays often occurred in the transmission of the relevant documents (paid cheques, challans scrolls etc) to Pay and Accounts Officers (PAOs) for accounting. Besides, there were certain difficulties in reconciliation of figures between government departments and banks.
The study documented the high levels of mergers and acquisitions among financial firms during the 1990s, including a noticeable acceleration during the last three years of the decade. Most of the consolidation was within countries and within segments of the financial sector. Cross-border or cross-sector consolidations have so far been less frequent. The data we collected suggested a number of conclusions.