Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chaired a meeting to review the performance of Public Sector Banks, (PSBs) in New Delhi yesterday. She held discussions with the heads of Public Sector Banks on the positive macro trends, improved business sentiments, and twin balance sheet advantage. Finance Minister Sitharaman emphasized on banks’ adherence to the regulatory framework by focusing on risk management, and diversification of the business base. 

She said the business outlook is progressively improving in spite of the headwinds from recent global banking sector developments. The Finance Minister noted that while the overall Priority Sector Lending (PSL) has exceeded the mandated target, PSL targets in the sub-categories should also be met, including agriculture particularly the small and marginal farmers, and the micro-enterprises.

The Finance Ministry said the asset quality of PSBs has improved significantly with gross NPAs at 4.97 percent and net NPAs at 1.24 percent in March 2023. During the last financial year, PSBs earned a record aggregate net profit of around one lakh five thousand crore rupees.