Vasudev Calls Idbi Brass To Talk Universal Bank Moves

Economic affairs secretary C M Vasudev has convened a meeting of Industrial Development Bank of India top brass to take stock of the progress made by the financial institution (FI) in transforming into a universal bank and also the health of the FI.

The meeting, scheduled for November 28, would be Vasudev's first meeting with IDBI since he took over as DEA secretary. His predecessor, Ajit Kumar, while asking IDBI and ICICI to submit a proposal on universal banking to Reserve Bank of India by October 31, had also said that the government would take stock of the situation around November 15.

Since then both the institutions have submitted their proposals with RBI. While ICICI has proposed a reverse merger with ICICI bank, IDBI has said that it would take over a large bank to transform itself into a universal bank.

Vasudev is also slated to meet the top brass of Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) on the same day. Sidbi, is also in the process of appointing a consultant to undertake a feasibility study and work out a roadmap for universal banking.

Sources said that the DEA secretary would also take stock of the situation at Delhi-headquartered financial institution IFCI Ltd, though a date has not been fixed as yet.

For IFCI chairman V P Singh, this would be the first meeting with the finance ministry since he took over in September this year. In case of IDBI, however, the government has already held three rounds of meetings since August this year.