Chidambaram meets PSU bank heads to review interest rates

New Delhi, Nov 4 : Finance Minister P Chidambaram met top executives of PSU banks today to review the liquidity situation and performance of lenders. The meeting comes a day after the captains of Indian industry met Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and demanded steps for enhancing liquidity and steps to create environment conducive for lowering of interest rates.

SBI Chairman O P Bhatt, PNB chief K C Chakrabarty, Bank of Baroda Chairman M D Mallya, Canara Bank head A C Mahajan, UCO Bank CMD S K Goel and top officials of the Finance Ministry and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) attended the meeting. On Sunday, Chidambaram said that he would ask the public sector banks to consider lowering lending rates to ease the liquidity crunch in the country.

While terming the RBI's latest policy package to inject more liquidity in the system as right, Chidambaram said, "I am happy with the policy package announced by the RBI. When it announced its (peak season) policy on October 24, the RBI had promised swift action in case it is necessary to infuse more liquidity." On Saturday, the RBI had announced a slew of measures to inject liquidity in the system. The apex bank had cut the repo rate by 50 basis points to 7.5 per cent and the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 100 basis points to 5.5 per cent and the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) by 100 basis points to infuse an additional Rs 85,000 crore into the system.

In October, the RBI had injected an additional liquidity of Rs.1, 85,000 crore in the wake of global financial crisis.

ANI