Banks should play major role in driving Prime Minister’s agenda, says Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said the banking sector had to play a crucial role in driving the agenda of making India a developed nation or Viksit Bharat by 2047.

Sitharaman was speaking at an event here to mark the 90th Foundation Day of the Bank of Maharashtra.

“Banks will have to play a crucial role in driving the agenda set by the Prime Minister and by your role, we are going to give greater momentum to achieving this dream,” she said.

Sitharaman said banks would be required to give strong momentum to the infrastructure sector, ensure the availability of need-based funding to MSMEs, bring unbanked population under the ambit of formal banking channels, and help increase insurance penetration.

She noted that technology was changing the banking landscape as it provides a secure and easy-to-navigate digital banking experience to all customers.

However, she added, “You (banks) cannot have a digital system which somewhere gets hacked, and the entire system and the trust which is laid on it getting compromised. So you need to have a robust and resilient system for which every now and then you need to make sure that the firewalls are adequate, any emergency drill which you need to do, what if situation so you know to handle if there is an emergency in terms of digital insecure incidents”.

The minister also highlighted the rising popularity of the UPI in driving digital payments, saying 45 per cent of all real-time digital payments globally take place in India.

The UPI was operational in seven countries, she added.