Indian Banks Association Meeting, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman – Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman believes that the country not only needs more number of banks but also bigger banks.
Speaking at the 74th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Indian Banks’ Association, she said that the country’s economy is moving in a new direction and the way the industry is adapting to new things, many challenges have arisen.
The Finance Minister inaugurated the meeting of the Indian Banks Association. She also paid tribute to the bank workers who lost their lives due to Corona.
Important pointers of her speech
The Finance Minister inaugurated the meeting of the Indian Banks Association. She also paid tribute to the bank workers who lost their lives due to Corona.
Need 4 or 5 more banks like SBI
Finance Minister said that India needs 4 or 5 more banks like State Bank of India (SBI). We need to expand banking to meet the realities that have changed in the backdrop of recent changes in the economy and industry.
She said that today the books of the banks are more clean. In such a situation, they can lift money from the market, this will reduce the burden of recapitalization of banks on the government.
According to the Finance Minister, banks need to be fast-paced. They have to understand the requirement of each unit so that the export target of $400 billion can be achieved. He said the National Asset Restructuring Company should not be called a ‘bad bank’ as it is called in the US.
The Finance Minister praised the bank staff for doing a good job during the Corona period.
Need to adopt small-scale model in the streets
She said that in many districts the level of economic activity is very high, but the banking facilities are very less. There they should further improve their efforts to increase their presence. He told the banks that they have the option to decide where they need to establish a banking presence through the small scale model in the street.
Banking sector changed a lot after Covid-19
Finance Minister said that if we look at the circumstances after Covid-19, then India’s banking sector looks quite unique, which has adopted digitization well. While banks in many countries were unable to reach their customers during the pandemic, digitization of Indian banks helped us transfer money to small, medium and large account holders through DBT and digital mechanisms.
Nirmala Sitharaman pays tribute to the bank workers who lost their lives due to Covid-19. Said that in the time of Corona, it was a big challenge for the bankers to complete the work of merger of banks.
This work happened at a time when the banks were engaged in helping the people of remote areas of the country during the Corona epidemic. “I commend the bankers for ensuring that the merger does not cause any inconvenience to the customers,” she said.