Small businesses to be served with effective credit support

New Delhi, January 29: “Public sector banks will become more profitable and proactive in the days to come”, said the Finance Minister Piyush Goyal after holding a review meeting with the heads of Public Sector Banks on Monday. This is after the RBI Governor met the MDs and CEOs of the Public sector banks on the same day, citing the Union Budget aligned.

 

The review was against the backdrop of visible signs of strengthening of the financial of PSBs as a result of Government’s comprehensive 4R’s approach of recognition, resolution, recapitalisation and reforms, which has positioned PSBs to step up their support to meet the lending needs of a growing economy. 

 

The chiefs of PSBs discussed issues faced in taking bad loan cases to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) along with ways to boost credit, particularly for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and improve recovering bad loans.

 

“The sum and substance of today's meeting is we are going to see a far more vibrant, proactive, profitable banking sector in the days to come. We would like them to look at ways to improve delivery of services to farmers. We would like them to be more proactive in encouraging retail businesses”, Goyal informed.

 

 

“The idea behind the meeting was to share with PSB chief executives the regulator's expectations from the banking sector and also to listen to them about their assessment of the state of the banking sector in general and the PSBs in particular and their take on the outlook of PSBs,” Governor Das told reporters meanwhile.

 

Goyal, after taking a performance review of public sector banks, said the government would protect genuine commercial decisions made by bankers and that it had assured all support to them to expand lending activity.

 

“Bankers expressed confidence that after the government amended the Prevention of Corruption Act while anybody indulging in bad practices will not be spared, genuine commercial decisions by bankers will be protected,” he said. He added the government was fully backing every PSB, which would perform better at the earliest.