FM urges banks to check NPAs; waive all e-banking transaction charges

13 Jun 2012 Evaluate

Pranab Mukherjee, the Union Finance Minister, in his review meeting of the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) and Financial Institutions (FIs), urged public sector banks and financial institutions to employ various measures at their command and keep a tight control over their non-performing assets (NPAs) in accordance with the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India. Appreciating their performance in the last quarter ending March 2012, he directed them to keep up the momentum and continue to take efforts to reduce the bad loans, known as NPAs in industry parlance.

While cautioning the financial institutions to check the steep rise of bad loans in their portfolio, the finance minister also instructed them not to choke the flow of credit to the sectors which require the uninterrupted flow of credit. Commending PSBs’ pro-activeness and good performance, Mukherjee cited recent decisions on restructuring of loans to the textile sector and power distribution companies are good examples of NPA management.

Stating that banks have managed to bring down their NPAs to 3.1 percent in the January-March period of 2011-12 from 3.18 percent in the previous quarter, the finance minister also underscored that priority sector lending grew by 16.37% as against 13.49% last year; recovery against outstanding dues in the last quarter of year 2011-12 was unprecedented; net profit grew to Rs.49,512 crores as against Rs.44,900 crore last year, registering an increase of 10.27%.

Highlighting Oriental Bank of Commerce’s recent decision to waive charges for electronic banking transactions like real time gross settlement (RTGS) and national electronic fund transfer (NEFT), Pranab Mukherjee also called other PSBs to follow this initiative and waive all charges for electronic banking transactions.

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