FM Sitharaman meets heads of PSBs, exhorts banks to improve deposit growth

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman on Monday held a performance review meeting with heads of public sector banks and urged them to improve their deposit growth.

Deposits have been growing 300-400 basis points lower than the credit growth in the last few months, creating an asset-liability mismatch for banks.

According to sources, the finance minister reviewed the financial performance of banks and progress made in the implementation of various flagship schemes of the government, including PM Awas Yojana, PM Surya Ghar and PM Vishwakarma Yojana.

Sitharman also took stock of deposit growth, credit-to-deposit ratio (CD ratio) and asset quality, sources said.

The minister asked the banks' chief to focus on core banking business and increase the pace of deposit growth by introducing innovative products.

Earlier this month, the finance minister had said there is a mismatch between deposit and lending growth.

"Growth in lending is higher...I will be meeting banks (on August 19) for vari