Sitharaman to meet heads of banks, FIs today for credit push

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will on Tuesday meet heads of banks and financial institutions to remove friction in credit flow to productive sectors of the economy battered by the coronavirus pandemic.

The two-day conference will also see the participation of the CEOs of top-six private-sector lenders and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), including HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Cholamandalam Investment and Finance, Shriram Transport Finance and Tata Capital.

The discussion during the period will focus on the flow of credit into different sectors of the economy in a seamless manner. In order to better understand the ecosystem and related issues..."a stakeholders' conference is being organised on November 17-18," the government has said.

Top officials of the government including secretaries representing various ministries, will also participate in the conference to provide insight on various initiatives or projects in the pipeline of their respective departments that may require credit. Industry associations have also been invited to share their perspective in this regard.

According to a report by PTI, the conference will also undertake a comprehensive review of progress in government schemes including the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.

The meeting comes at a time when banks are undertaking outreach programmes to push lending in the productive sectors of the economy.

Since the commencement of the government's nationwide Credit Outreach Programme on October 16, banks have sanctioned 13.84 lakh loans totalling ₹63,574 crore through 10,580 camps held across the country as of October 31.

As per the data shared by the Union finance ministry, as much as ₹21,687.23 crore in business loans were sanctioned to about 3.2 lakh beneficiaries, while vehicle loans worth ₹4,560,39 crore were sanctioned to 59,090 borrowers.