Lto R -M. Nagaraju,secretary,Department of Financial Services, Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs and Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary at a high-level meeting in New Delhi to review performance of PSBs
Sitharaman directed the PSBs to participate actively in the upcoming 3-month Financial Inclusion saturation campaign, beginning July 1, 2025, covering 2.7 lakh Gram Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies
New Delhi: Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman chaired a high-level meeting today in New Delhi to review the performance of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) across key areas, including financial parameters, credit offtake, financial inclusion, customer service, grievance redressal, digital banking, and cyber security.
The meeting was attended by Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, M. Nagaraju, MDs of PSBs; and senior officials of the Department of Financial Services (DFS).
During the review, Sitharaman urged public sector banks (PSBs) to proactively identify emerging commercial growth areas for the next decade, which can aid profitability and growth for the PSBs.
Deepening corporate lending in productive sectors was also emphasised, with a strong focus on maintaining robust underwriting and risk management standards
Lending to the energy sector, particularly in renewable and sustainable areas, was underscored as a national priority to advance India’s green growth agenda.
In line with the Budget 2025-26 announcement to develop indigenously designed small modular nuclear reactors (SMR), banks were advised to develop credit models to support this critical sector.
Banks were instructed to scale up efforts under key financial inclusion schemes, including PM MUDRA Yojana, PM Vishwakarma, PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana, PM Vidyalaxmi, and the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme.
Enhancing customer experience remains a key priority, and banks were directed by the Finance Minister to ensure faster grievance redressal, offer simplified digital platforms, and provide multilingual services both online and offline. Maintaining clean, customer-friendly physical branches and expanding in metro and urban centres to keep pace with urbanisation was also highlighted.
Sitharaman directed the PSBs to participate actively in the upcoming 3-month Financial Inclusion saturation campaign, beginning July 1, 2025, covering 2.7 lakh Gram Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies.
This campaign would also focus on assisting the citizens with respect to KYC, re-KYC & unclaimed deposits. Banks were directed to ensure focused outreach, adequate manpower deployment, and effective publicity of this special campaign to further deepen financial inclusion under schemes such as PM Jan Dhan Yojana, PM Jeevan Jyoti Bima, PM Suraksha Bima Yojana, etc.
As announced in the Union Budget 2025-26, PSBs were encouraged to focus on Agri credit in the 100 low crop productivity districts to be identified under the PM Dhan Dhanya Yojana.
Banks were instructed to tailor special credit products to enhance agricultural productivity and unlock local economic potential by identifying & supporting farm products that can be developed in these particular districts.
Banks were further advised to expand their presence in GIFT City to support India’s aspirations in international financial services, tap into emerging global opportunities, and increase participation in the India International Bullion Exchange (IIBX).