New regulations in the non-banking financial sector have helped companies regain their goodwill among the public, Finance Minister K M Mani said on Thursday.
He said this while inaugurating the Annual General Meet of Kerala Non-Banking Financial Companies (KNBFC) Association here.
“People are not getting credit from banking sector owing to technical hurdles, but NBFCs are filling this gap. Banks face problems to expand their presence to rural areas, there NBFCs come to the rescue of the rural masses. The state government is committed to encourage the sector,” the minister said.
“Earlier there were complaints about NBFCs in the state of charging exorbitant interest rate. But the recent legislation in the Kerala Assembly was able to curb it,” he said. Speaking on the occasion, Thomas George Muthoot, KNBFC chairman, said over the years the NBFC sector has not only grown in size, but also in terms of interconnectedness and systemic importance.
Anil K Sharma, General Manager, Reserve Bank of India; Shreedhar Prasad, Director, risk consultant at KPMG; Kurian C George, vice-chairman, KNBFC; George Alexander Muthoot, managing director, Muthoot Finance, and V P Nandakumar, chairman, Manappuram Group, also spoke.