FM meets heads of PSBs, reviews financial performance

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman on Saturday held a meeting with heads of public sector banks and reviewed their financial performance. During the meeting, concerns related to cyber security and the risks on the financial sector were discussed, sources said.Issues related to fraud and wilful defaulters and progress on the National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (NARCL) also came up for discussion, they said. This is the probably last full review meeting before the presentation of Budget 2024-25 and general elections later next year.On the performance front, PSU banks have earned a net profit of about Rs 68,500 crore during the first six months of the current financial year.
During 2022-23, it said banks' balance sheets grew at a healthy pace, with .The Gross Non-Performing Assets (GNPA) ratio of Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) fell to a decade low of 3.9 per cent at the end of March 2023 and further to 3.2 per cent in September.As per the report, the improvement in asset quality of banks that began in 2018-19 continued during 2022-23. The GNPA ratio stood at 3.2 per cent in the April-September period of the current fiscal.NARCL, a government entity, was incorporated in 2021 with a majority stake held by Public Sector Banks (PSBs) and the balance by private banks. Canara Bank was the sponsor bank.It is registered with the Reserve Bank of India as an asset reconstruction company under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002.