PSU banks to get more muscle to tackle bad loans

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Public Sector Banks( PSUs) are going to get greater support from government in their struggle to recover bad loans.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley met with the head of PSUs on Monday to find ways to deal with the mounting bad loans of several public sector banks, and said that government is fully committed to supporting the banking system.

“Banks should be empowered and protected so that they can come out with commercially prudent settlements”, Finance Minister told reporters after the meeting.

He said that PSU banks must be supported to aid the economy, and added that he expect banks to be frank and upfront on NPAs.

On the agenda of the meeting with the PSU bank heads, Jaitely shared that credit flow, NPA position and banks expansion were the key discussion topics in the meeting. Inter-operability of financial inclusion scheme was also discussed.

Finance Minister said that the ministry will try to find more funds to support banks if needed.

He said that the net loss of PSU banks was at Rs 18,000 crore, and most of it was due to provisions made for bad loans. Jaitely added  that government is goin gto gibve a nod on SBI Associate Banks Merger Plan Soon. Bankruptcy code is also set to become operational very soon, added Jailtely.

Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance, talking to reporters after the meet, said that government has taken a host of measures to tackle NPAs. The government is also considering Stressed Asset Fund For Bad Loans.