Chennai: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das has said banking reforms is an important issue and added that the RBI has initiated consultation with various stakeholders as to what kind of reforms can be brought in.
“We do not want to create a framework which imposes restriction or throttle the functioning of banks,” he said.
On Monday, Das expressed satisfaction over performance of the banking sector, saying non-performing assets (NPAs) have declined, particulary that of public sector banks (PSU banks). The central bank has also initiated stakeholder consultation on banking reforms, said the governor.
“One issue which engages our attention on almost daily basis is the state of NPAs and health of public sector banks. Our both Financial Stability Report (FSR) and Trends & Progress in Indian Banking Report have given out figures and there is definitely an improvement noticed in the reduction of NPA levels of banks as a whole and public sector in particular,” said Das.
According to the government, various initiatives undertaken in recent times have yielded results, with PSU bank NPAs declining by over Rs 23,000 crore from a peak of Rs 9.62 trillion in March 2018.
“There is considerable amount of improvements, which have to be sustained if banks have to fulfil their responsibility and if some of the banks have to become healthy,” Das said after meeting representatives of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector in New Delhi.