Finance Secretary to review banking issues next week

Kolkata: The finance ministry has called a review meeting with public sector bank heads next week to discuss transmission of repo rate cuts and availability of liquidity for non-bank lenders amid concerns over economic slowdown.
Finance secretary Rajiv Kumar will chair the meet on September 19 in New Delhi.

Follow up action on rate cuts by Reserve Bank of India will be the top of the agenda at the meeting.

RBI has lowered repo rate by 110 basis points since February but banks have transmitted rate cut merely by the extent of 40-55 basis points. This has prompted the ministry to tell banks link their loan products with repo rate from October 1 for quicker transmission.

The secretary will also review the purchase of pooled assets of non banking finance companies including housing finance companies under the government's credit guarantee scheme. This was announced in the budget to infuse liquidity up to Rs 1 lakh crore to the NBFC sector that are under stress but has not gained traction as yet.

The one time settlement policy will also be reviewed, according to a meeting notice issued by the ministry. ET has reviewed the memo.

Among other issues to be discussed include mandated release of security documents within 15 days post loan closure, online tracking of loan applications, doorstep banking and banks' analysis of branch level performance.