Business Standard Banking Round Table: Key quotes from top bankers

Country's top bankers optimistic of strong economic recovery in 2015

Even as RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan was addressing the media in his post policy briefing, the country's top bankers had gathered at the Business Standard Banking Round Table in mumbai. While the Governor's decision to keep key rates unchanged was welcomed by the bankers, there is widespread expectation of a rate cut by february 2015. 

The bankers also expressed their views on credit growth, bank deposits, bad debts and impact of Jan Dhan programme of the government. One consensus emerged though among all the participants- optimism of a strong economic recovery and that the government is moving in the right direction to enable that recovery.

Here are some key quotes from the country's top bankers at the Business Standard Banking Round Table 2014

Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman, SBI

Let us hope rate cut happens in february 2015

There is no dearth of liquidity for banks to finance infra projects

We definitely need a bankruptcy law in India

Political interference does not affect decisions regarding big lending

Execution of laws has to be proper In recovering loans

Most corporate deposits going to liquid MFs and not to banks these days

Bank deposits need a leg up from the govt in terms of tax deducted at source

Savings in gold is something that should not be done beyond a certain percentage

TDS at Bank deposits makes them unattractive. Savings in gold is not good for the nation

Our reliance on bulk deposits is as low as 1.3%

Customers of JanDhan need to be served closer to their doorsteps

Aditya Puri, MD, HDFC Bank

India has a bright future but dont expect it tomorrow. Govt is working very hard 

There is real return available on bank deposits and would recommend people to access that

India needs something similar like Chapter 11 laws for bankruptcy

There is a space for all kinds of banks in India

Shikha Sharma, MD & CEO, Axis Bank

Debt recovery tribunals need to be more effective to collect loans from defaulters

We are definitely optimistic that things will look better in the next financial year

Govt is focused on clearing bottlenecks. Beginning to see some projects move.

The accounts under JanDhan are viable if they are used for direct benefit transfer

Success of JanDhan has been more than it was initially anticipated by the govt

Enabling infra for doing DBT in the near future is a big advantage of JanDhan

If govt decided to drop import duty then gold prices could drop further

Ravneet Gill, CEO, Deutsche Bank

We will see credit enforcement discipline being made even stronger

The biggest way to secure yourself is by client selection

India is a political economy and govt policies matter a lot

We will need to see a recovery in context of better cash flows this time and not in terms of capex

Banks will become more competitive with the payment banks coming in

Pramit Jhaveri, CEO, Citi India

For next 2-3 years, finding deposits will not be a challenge for the bank

India will be a big beneficiary of global capital flows 

Indian interest rates wl fall by next year while US rates will rise

We are seeing evidence that banks are being much firmer with borrowers