Government committed to support all state-run banks says, Piyush Goyal

The interim finance minister, Piyush Goyal held his first press meet as a finance minister on Friday after meeting the heads of public sector banks.

During the meet, he said, that the government was committed to support all state-run banks and strengthen their operations after several lenders reported a jump in net losses earlier this month.

"The government stands committed to support all 21 Public sector banks," Piyush Goyal told reporters after a meeting with bank chiefs.

Indian banks, already burdened by a near-record 9.5 trillion rupees ($141 billion) of soured loans as of last year, reported a further rise in bad loans in the March quarter after the Reserve Bank of India withdrew half a dozen loan-restructuring schemes and tightened some rules in February.

Goyal further informed media that they discussed credit flow and other issues with PSU bank heads.

He further informed that bankers are looking to put up a mechanism to resolve stressed accounts in transparent and speedy manner and the banks will soon create a mechanism for managing stressed accounts.

"A presentation was made by SBI based on several years of experience and I am given to understand that all the bankers are now wishing to set up such a mechanism which will enable faster resolution of stressed accounts in a very transparent manner," news agency ANI reported. 

Piyush Goyal is a minister of railways and coal but currently, he has given an additional charge of a finance minister as Arun Jaitley is undergoing a treatment.

(With inputs from news agencies)