New Delhi, August 10 (IANS): On Saturday, Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman appealed
banks should increase public deposit taking and lend more money for government initiatives that were highlighted in the 2024–2025 budget. The Finance Minister told the reporters following a post-budget meeting with the Central Board of Directors of the RBI that banks need to concentrate on their primary operations, which include lending and deposit-taking. She emphasised that the RBI has given banks ample latitude to set interest rates, and that they ought to launch creative deposit-attraction portfolios to draw in more money for lending, which will support economic expansion and job creation. Although more and more investors were looking to the stock markets, she said banks also needed to come up with plans to increase the number of deposits. The Finance Minister went on to say that banks, with their extensive branch networks, should concentrate on obtaining more smaller deposits, which arrive in “trickles” but are the “bread and butter” of the banking system, rather than just massive deposits.