Have Not Heard Of Liquidity As A Problem From Banks, NBFCs: Nirmala Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that she did not hear liquidity as a problem from anybody present in the meeting. She said this after her meeting with members of the banking sector and a few housing finance companies and non banking finance companies (NBFCs). 

"Didn't hear from anyone that liquidity is a crisis", she said after the meeting.

The finance minister also said that all the MFIs and micro-finance units clearly voiced a positive growth which is a good encouraging story.

FM:Message I get from this meeting today is that consumption is happening.Demand will get back&motivate our economy to move at a faster rate.The coming half yr, things will have to lookup&pep up every other sector,even if there are 1 or 2 sectors in which there may be some stress pic.twitter.com/lF7hf1btfW

— ANI (@ANI) September 26, 2019

“Many of the MFIs and micro-finance units which have come here are in deep country, they said that in those areas there is still demand and they are extending loans. All of them clearly voiced a positive growth which is a good encouraging story,” Sitharaman said.

She said that service sector is showing very high appetite for credit and there’s immense possibility to reach out to them provided of course there are some simpler tweaking that we can do using their salaries and cash they earn also as a part can be used for their credit assessment.

“On the whole it was very tonic-like meeting, where I heard a lot of positive things. Not one voice said there was a concern, shortfall of demand. None of them voiced liquidity concerns,” she said.

Sitharaman stressed that if there was a problem of liquidity, it was in the wholesale financing, and not in the retail.

Speaking on the crisis of PMC Bank, the finance minister said that RBI is handling the situation and government will do anything only after a comprehensive picture come out.

“At this stage, RBI is handling it. Let there a comprehensive picture emerge, post that the government will have to see what best can be done so that there is some assurance given to people who are affected,” she said.

The Finance Minister also said that demand will get back and motivate our economy to move at a faster rate.