Amid global banking crisis, Finance Ministry seeks PSB's bond portfolio data

As per Business Standard, the Union finance ministry has asked public sector banks (PSBs) to furnish details of their bond portfolios ahead of their meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday, amid the turmoil in global banks.

As an exercise to determine the resilience of banks against interest-rate risks, the ministry has specifically requested details on holdings under the held-to-maturity (HTM) and available-for-sale (AFS) portfolios, bankers said

While the HTM portfolio protects banks from potential losses on bond holdings, the government wants to ascertain how banks will respond in the case of large bond sales from that book, sources said.

Sitharaman will hold a meeting with all PSB heads on Saturday where she will review their work, including lending to infrastructure and flow of cash transfers to beneficiaries under various government flagship schemes.

Source: Business Standard