Banking News

Govt mulls new ways to raise capital for banks

Proposals include tapping pension, insurance money to augment core capital of banks

The Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India will discuss new ways of raising capital for banks on March 7. Finance Minister P Chidambaram also sees nonperforming assets at the end of 2013-14 to be higher than in the previous year, which was 3.84 per cent of total advances.

“Bankers have given various suggestions for raising Tier-1 capital. These suggestions include investment by pension funds and insurance companies, rights issue for minority shareholders at the time of capital infusion by the Government and issuance of shares to employees,” Chidambaram told newspersons after a three-hour meeting with bankers here.

With the announcement of a consolidated list, the PO–II allotment is deemed to have been completed.