New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chaired a meeting on December 30 to review the performance of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) on various parameters, informed a press release. The progress on the acquisition of accounts by the National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (NARCL) was also deliberated.
Sitharaman directed that the acquisition of stressed accounts by NARCL needs to improve further, and necessary efforts must be made in this direction. It was advised that NARCL and banks should hold regular meetings to expedite the onboarding of stressed accounts. In addition to the above measures, the Finance Minister emphasized the importance of mobilizing deposits, urging public sector banks to innovate and offer attractive deposit schemes to enhance their deposit base, which will also enable them to extend more credit.
The meeting was also attended by Union Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad; Vivek Joshi, Secretary, Department of Financial Services; Heads of Public Sector Banks besides senior officials of the Department of Financial Services. Sitharaman asked banks to concentrate fraud prevention activities on both large corporate frauds and willful defaults as well as on actions that defraud individual customers.
She also instructed to adopt advanced fraud prevention and detection mechanisms and ensure that the customers are further educated about safe banking practices. According to the release, the banks were directed by the Union Finance Minister to undertake consumer education measures for protection from malicious fraud calls. Banks were also directed to make efforts for timely identification of accounts as fraud and their subsequent investigation.
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