India will soon have banking point within the reach of 5 kms of every citizen, Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Shri Arun Jaitley said. He was speaking at the 100th Foundation Day programme of Union Bank of India, in Mumbai today. The year in which Union Bank of India was launched brings to our memory the Jallianwala Bagh incident and the launching of the Bank by Mahatma Gandhi denotes the strength of Indian financial institutions, said Shri Jaitley.

Private banks rely on retail banking to grow but nationalised banks have to focus on industry and infrastructure. Keeping in mind the goal of financial inclusion, the Department of Financial Services will have a banking point within 5 km of every citizen, Finance Minister said. The FM observed that during the period of 2014 - 2018, the population who had access to banking services rose from 58 per cent to almost 100 percent. The banking sector has helped weaker sections with low cost insurance.

In order to reduce corruption, it is necessary to reduce interfaces and customers need not have to visit banks for anything. The recent scheme of loan approvals in 59 minutes for MSMEs, launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is a step in that direction, stated the Finance Minister.

Further, the fiancé minister said that despite higher oil prices and periodic slowdowns, the Indian Economy has clocked good growth rate. NPAs of banks needs to be curbed as healthy banks are necessary for growth of economy. The problem of NPAs which arose due to indiscriminate lending was concealed for a long time, but government adopted a multi-pronged approach and government will ensure that dishonest decisions and not erroneous ones are punished, Shri Jaitley said. Due to various steps like Insolvency Act, exit laws and removal of discretion, the pace of recovery will be faster in coming days.

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