Bankers are not receiving right proposals for loans as they were a few years ago, a top official of Union Bank of India said on Saturday. National banking regulator’s curbs, which were recently withdrawn on lending by banks will not be an obstacle for banks to accelerate banking, he feels. Union Bank of India, on Saturday, began a two-day Consultative and Ideation Process at Ahmedabad, where the top bank officials are interacting with the staff to find ways to increase lending. Raj Kiran Rai, Managing Director and CEO, said that the right kind of loan proposals are not coming to banks nowadays. “This is more in case of corporate. If there are right proposals, banks will accept it,” said Rai. Banks have been told to increase lending to businesses, particularly the smaller ones, in order to counter the economic and business slowdown. However, businesses have complained to the government that there is not enough liquidity to fuel consumer demand, and therefore, production. Increased bank lending has been offered as one of the solutions. The move has come as a succession of removal of curbs on lending by 11 Public Sector Banks (PSBs) by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). RBI, in March 2018, barred these banks from further lending until their bad loans come under control. Rai said that sudden emphasis on increasing the credit will not affect the balance sheets, as the financial condition of banks has improved after capital infusion by the central government. He also informed that close to 55 per cent of the proposals coming under the 59-minute loan scheme are being approved and has contributed in expediting the lending by the banks. However, he admits that there is a perception gap between the banks and the clients and the two-day exercise is aimed to remove the bottlenecks in lending.

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