Bankers' Presentation at Gyan Sangam - The Bankers’ Retreat

A two-day Gyan Sangam or Bankers’ Retreat was arranged by the Finance Ministry opene a healthy dialogue between the government, regulators and the banks.

In a presentation made to the Prime Minister, on behalf of all bankers, State Bank of India Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya reportedly said, "We as a group (all public sector banks) have decided to adopt five major resolutions."

The five points include -- a decision to re-orient the portfolios of small public sector banks to focus on specific and differentiated niches, build people capacities, use of more technology (especially in the top 30 processes), strengthen risk management practises and strengthen the partner channels such as business correspondents.

The bankers have requested the government to move from a state-owned structure to a state-linked structure, as recommended by the P.J.Nayak committee report. This includes setting up of a banking bureau comprising of professionals and eminent bankers to appoint and empower individual bank boards.

Bankers also highlighted other areas to the government: Fully empowerment of banks on human resource related decisions, creating environment with minimal interference, strengthening the legal framework for recovery of loans, simplifying processes for credit insurance, stopping debt waivers and need to remove interest rate caps, and enabling the infrastructure for digital banking.



>>> Read about PM Narendra Modi address at Gyan Sangam