Business

Finance Secretary to meet private bankers

NEW DELHI: The Finance Ministry will hold talks with private sector bankers, including foreign lenders, on Wednesday on money supply situation and lending rates, a day after getting an assurance from public sector banks on considering slashing interest rates and expediting credit delivery.

Senior representatives of ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, HSBC, Citigroup, Duetsche Bank, among others, are likely to interact with Finance Secretary Arun Ramanathan and other senior officials, official sources said.

Briefing the media after meeting heads of PSU banks on Tuesday, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said Mr. Ramanathan had called a meeting of the private and foreign banks to discuss the issue. Since the meeting had been called at a short notice, no official agenda had been circulated but the interaction was expected to revolve around liquidity and interest rates, a senior private sector bank official said.

After their meeting with the Prime Minister on Monday, chiefs of apex chambers had met Mr. Chidambaram. CII President K. V. Kamath, who is also the CEO of the country’s largest private lender ICICI Bank, had promised to review the interest rates in the next few days. — PTI

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