Liquidity crunch not systemic, NBFCs meeting payment obligations: Bankers

Top bankers Thursday said the current liquidity crunch is not a systemic problem and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) are meeting payment obligations.

"All (NBFCs) of them have been able to meet their commitment as far as roll overs are concerned," SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar said on the sidelines of an event organised here.

Speaking on liquidity position in the banking system, National Bank For Agriculture And Rural Development (Nabard) Chairman H K Bhanwala said the condition is improving as interest rates are seen declining.

"So as such there is no big problem... Issue arose on account of some of entities which had borrowed short and created long assets. So, it may be specific problem. It does not seem to be a systemic problem," Bhanwala said.

Fears of liquidity crunch gripped the market following a series of defaults by group companies of IL&FS in the past two months. These led to concerns that non-banking lenders would be unable to meet their commitments for market borrowings, impairing growth.

He further said that various banks are supporting NBFCs, including Nabard which has an exposure of around Rs 15,000 crore.

"(Our) total assets are Rs 4.80 lakh crore. Of this, the Rs 15,000 crore exposure to NBFCs is small. Nothing is at risk. I haven't seen any default. Everybody is meeting the commitments to Nabard," Bhanwala said.

On capital infusion from the government, he said Nabard has already received Rs 2,000 crore and it may not require more funds this year.

On the financial inclusion, the SBI chairman said the massive Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and other social security schemes launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi have changed the complexities.

"...when we started this (PMJDY) programme and over this period of time, more than 300 million financial accounts have been opened. It is unparallel in the world. And all these accounts started with zero balance but today more than 85 per cent of the accounts are having balance in the accounts. With SBI, we are having an average balance of Rs 1,800 in these accounts," Kumar said.