Mumbai- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said the country needs big and world-class banks, and discussions are on with the Reserve Bank and lenders in this regard.

Addressing the 12th SBI Banking and Economics Conclave 2025, Sitharaman asked lenders to deepen and widen credit flow to the industry, exuding confidence that GST rate cut-driven demand would unleash a virtuous investment cycle.

Stressing that India needs a lot of big and world-class banks, she said the“government is looking at this and work has already commenced. We are discussing with the RBI. We are discussing with banks”.

As part of the privatisation exercise, the government in January 2019 sold its controlling 51 per cent stake in IDBI Bank to Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).

Subsequently, the government and LIC announced plans for the strategic sale of their stake in IDBI Bank.

In October 2022, both shareholders had invited EoI (Expression of Interest) from investors for privatising IDBI Bank by selling a total of 60.72 per cent stake. This includes a 30.48 per cent stake of the government and 30.24 per cent of LIC.

In January 2023, the DIPAM received multiple EoIs for IDBI Bank.

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