Chennai, Aug 4 (FN Agency) Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chaired a review meeting with Chairpersons and senior officials of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) from Southern Region, in Chennai, on Friday. The meeting was also attended by Secretary, DFS_India, senior RBI officials, with representation by the Finance/Special Secretaries/senior officers of the Finance Departments of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Puducherry and Karnataka. The meeting was also attended by MDs and CEOs of State Bank of India, Indian Bank, Union Bank of India, Canara Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and NABARD. During the meeting, discussions revolved around financial performance of the RRBs as DFS Secretary gave a presentation on various financial metrics of the RRBs.
Ms Nirmala Sitharaman stressed that the RRBs should continue their focus on the flagship schemes of the Central Government such as PMJJBY, PMSBY, PM SVANidhi, Atal Pension Yojana, PM Jan Dhan Yojana, PM Mudra Yojana, KCC, KCC Animal Husbandry & Fisheries, etc and aim for their saturation. While highlighting that the CD Ratio, Gross NPAs, and Provision Coverage Ratio (PCR) of RRBs of the Southern region was better than the national average, Ms Nirmala Sitharaman exhorted the RRBs and Sponsor Banks to improve the Current and Savings Account (CASA) Ratio of RRBs. The Union Finance Minister said that better adoption of technology, Loan Management System and Core Banking System should be done in a time- bound manner in the RRBs of the Southern region. She further said that RRBs should focus on increasing digitally active customers in line with government’s effort to move towards greater digitalisation, while stressing that Sponsor Banks should map RRBs with MSME clusters and improve their presence in these clusters, while devising innovative products for the MSME to serve them in a better way. Ms Nirmala Sitharaman further exhorted RRBs from the Southern region to work closely with the RBI and State Authorities concerned to improve their physical presence across the state. She also highlighted leveraging Account Aggregator Framework especially for lending to the Allied agricultural sector like fisheries and animal husbandry, besides granting loans to street vendors under PM SVANidhi.