`RBI policy to make banks stronger’

MUMBAI, OCT 30: Leading bankers have welcomed the mid-term review of monetary and credit policy for 1998-99 of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and described it as a fire fighting equipment for the Indian banking sector to survive in future.

Says M S Verma, Chairman of SBI: "The RBI, as regulator, has taken a dynamic view of the domestic and international financial situations. The long term measures which have been announced by the RBI today will have a positive impact on the investment scenario, revival of credit flow and above all the basic perception about the overall economic situation."

Bank of Baroda Chairman K Kannan said the credit policy was aimed at making the Indian financial system more stronger. He called the policy an advance notice given to the banking sector to make it progressively better. "It is a long-term policy not a short-term one," he said about the stricter norms.