Sitharaman to meet CEOs of PSU banks on Friday

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will meet the CEOs of public sector banks on Friday to review the financial performance of the lenders and discuss ways to increase credit growth to propel the economy, sources said.

The meeting will also review the progress of resolution of NPA cases under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), the sources added.

It is expected to take a stock of the banking sector, and discuss ways to improve their financial health.

The meeting assumes significance as it will be the first after the Narendra Modi government returned to power in May this year.

Secretaries of both the Department of Revenue and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs will attend the meeting, a finance ministry official said.

In reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, the finance ministry had said that public sector banks have recovered Rs 3.59 lakh crore over the last four financial years, including record recovery of Rs 1.23 lakh crore during 2018-19.

The provision coverage ratio or PCR has increased from 46 per cent in March 2015 to 74.2 per cent in March 2019, it had said.

The country's largest bank, State Bank of India, has lending worth Rs 1.76 lakh crore classified as NPA till march 2019.

State-run banks had 8,582 wilful defaulters as at March-end, as against 7,535 a year earlier, the government said. As much as Rs 7,654 crore has been recovered from wilful defaulter accounts during the last five financial years.