Public Sector Banks report healthy profits, accelerated technology-driven reforms: Finance Ministry

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], August 25 (ANI): The Union Finance Ministry on Wednesday informed that public sector banks have reported healthy profits and have accelerated on technology-driven reforms.
As per an official release by the ministry, it informed, "PSBs have reported a profit of Rs 31,817 crore in financial year of 2020-21 as compared to a loss of Rs 26,016 crore in financial year of 2019-2020. This is the first year when PSBs have reported a profit after five years of losses. Total gross non-performing assets stood at Rs 6.16 lakh crore as of March 2021, reduction of Rs 62,000 crore from March 2020 levels. Number frauds at PSBs have substantially come down to 2,903 in financial year 2020-21 compared to 3,704 in financial year 2018-19."
This information came in by Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman today as she unveiled the fourth edition of the Public Sector Bank (PSB) Reforms Agenda 'EASE 4.0' for 2021-22-tech-enabled, simplified, and collaborative banking'. She unveiled the annual report for the PSB Reforms Agenda EASE 3.0 for 2020-21 and participated in the awards ceremony to felicitate best performing banks on EASE 3.0 Banking Reforms Index.
"Smt @nsitharaman launches EASE 4.0 in Mumbai. EASE (Enhanced Access and Service Excellence) is a common reform agenda for Public Sector Banks aimed at institutionalising clean and smart banking," tweeted the office of Sitharaman.
"Salient features of EASE 4.0 launched by Smt @nsitharaman in Mumbai--data enabled agricultural credit; collaboration amongst financial ecosystem players; accelerated push of technology, HR and governance reforms," the tweet added.
State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda (BoB), Union Bank of India won the top awards for PSB Reforms EASE 3.0. These three banks won the awards for best performing banks for PSB Reforms EASE 3.0 based on the 'EASE' index. Indian Bank won the award for the best improvement from the baseline performance. SBI, BoB, Union Bank of India, PNB, Canara Bank won the top awards in different themes of the PSB Reforms Agenda EASE 3.0.
Credit@click was a flagship initiative under EASE 3.0. Top 7 PSBs (based on total business size as of 1st April 2020) have set up mechanisms for instantaneous and contactless access to credit through end-to-end digitalisation of key retail and MSME credit products.
For unsecured personal loans (UPL), Rs 5,502 crore of fresh loans and for small credit loans, Rs 124 crore of fresh loans were disbursed end-to-end digitally in quarter ended March 2021 (2X growth in unsecured personal loans and 10X growth in small credit loans compared to quarter ended March 2020). Nearly 4.4 lakh customers have been benefitted through such instantaneous and simplified credit access, read the release.
PSBs have setup mechanism for customers where they can register loan requests 24X7 through digital channels such as Mobile and Internet banking, SMS, missed call and call centre. In FY21, PSBs have collectively disbursed Rs 40,819 crores of fresh personal, home and vehicle loans through leads sourced from such digital channels. This accounts for approximately 10 per cent of overall disbursements in personal, home and vehicle loans in the above said period.
The top 7 PSBs have built analytics capabilities through the setup of dedicated analytics teams and IT infrastructure to proactively offer loans to its existing customers. Such loan offers were generated using the existing customer transactions data within the banks. In FY21, Rs 49,777 crores of fresh retail loan disbursements were made by the top 7 PSBs based on these credit offers
PSBs have also extensively used external partnerships and dedicated marketing salesforce network for the sourcing of retail segment and MSME segment loans. Sourcing from such channels has been 9.1 lakh loans in FY21. (ANI)