FinMin asks banks to explore fintech partnership, co-lending opportunities

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ The Finance Ministry has asked public sector banks to explore fintech partnerships and co-lending opportunities to expand their business. In the recently concluded performance review of PSBs by the Finance Ministry, sources said, lenders were asked to focus on technology and data analytics to push their lending.

The ministry also urged the heads of the public sector lenders to strengthen IT security systems and cybersecurity to check fraud. According to the sources, banks were asked to sanction loans for productive sectors to accelerate the revival of the economy facing headwinds, including the Russia-Ukraine war.

As per the RBI’s latest data, growth in lending by PSBs has improved significantly to 7.8 per cent in March 2022 from 3.6 per cent a year ago. Some of the PSBs recorded 26 per cent growth. Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) recorded a 26 per cent increase in gross advances to Rs 1,35,240 crore at the end of March 2022. It was followed by the State Bank of India and Union Bank of India with 10.27 per cent and 9.66 per cent growth, respectively.