Srinagar, Sep 18 (KNS): Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Rohit Jain on Friday chaired a meeting with the Zonal Heads of major banks operating in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to review the banking and financial landscape of the region.

The meeting was held in Srinagar and focused on strengthening financial inclusion, improving credit delivery and ensuring greater outreach of banking services, particularly to underserved sections and priority sectors.

In his opening remarks, Jain highlighted the important role of banks in supporting economic activity and strengthening financial inclusion in J&K. He stressed the need for banks to maintain adequate banking infrastructure, improve credit delivery and ensure greater outreach to priority sectors.

He also called for coordinated efforts by banks to meet the evolving credit requirements of the Union Territory.

Emphasising the importance of customer service and grievance redressal, Jain said banks should remain responsive to customer needs. He also stressed greater digitalisation of banking services while flagging the growing concern over digital frauds.Click Here To Follow Our WhatsApp Channel

The RBI Deputy Governor further emphasised the need for banks to increase loan processing through the Unified Lending Interface (ULI), highlighting its potential to transform credit delivery in a manner similar to the transformation brought about by the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in digital payments.

During the meeting, the Regional Director, RBI, Jammu, presented a broad overview of the financial landscape of J&K, highlighting the Union Territory’s economic potential across agriculture, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), tourism, handicrafts and services.

Subsequently, Zonal Heads of major banks operating in the region presented an overview of the financial landscape, including their banking network, Credit-Deposit Ratio, credit flow and Priority Sector Lending.

They also apprised the meeting about the progress made by their respective banks in onboarding onto the Unified Lending Interface (ULI), re-KYC coverage and settlement of unclaimed deposits, besides outlining special initiatives undertaken for the Union Territory of J&K. (KNS)