Mumbai, Nov 11 (PTI) Junior finance minister Anurag Thakur on Monday asked banks to ensure smooth flow of credit to MSMEs which are in genuine need of funds.

It can be noted that despite many measures announced by successive governments, small businesses continue to face funding issues, as banks don't chase them as they do with large companies for a variety of reasons.

"Banks should also focus on genuine customers who need financial support to grow their businesses and the MSME sector, which is the backbone of our economy, needs a lot of support from the banking industry," he said at the 101st foundation day celebrations of the state-run Union Bank of India here this evening.

Listing out the slew of reforms taken in the banking sector, he said, "we have adopted the four R approach to resolve the balance sheet issues of banks: recognising, resolving and recovering, recapitalising and reforms".

As a result, bad loans have come down from Rs 10.36 lakh crore in March 2018 to Rs 9.38 lakh crore in March 2019 system-wide, while for public sector banks, the same has come down to Rs 7.9 lakh crore from Rs 8.96 lakh crore.

He also asked banks to genuine commercial decisions without fear of witch-hunt later.

Speaking on the occasion, Union Bank managing director Rajkiran Rai G said, through the hundred years journey, the bank has been serving national priorities.

The bank launched three new products--Union Sampurna- a technology to provide one-stop solution for farm sector; e- way bills and an ATM geo-locator.

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