India is planning to set up ‘digital-only’ banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) to ensure that business continuity in the lending system is not affected even in exceptional times.

In her first public appearance before the Atlantic Council think tank, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told a select Washington audience that the government had achieved macroeconomic stability by recapitalising banks and increasing foreign exchange reserves.

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“Bad loans and provisioning were taxing. We have to keep infusing money into banks … We have amalgamated several of them … The Reserve Bank of India has also been very nimble about setting up ‘digital only’ NBFCs. Now we are setting up digital banks as well, not one but 75 of them this year,” she said.

Sitharaman is in Washington DC to attend the annual spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.