India needs more big banks the size of SBI: Sitharaman

India needs a lot more banks and a lot more large sized ones to meet the growing needs of the country needs in the path of making a smart recovery post pandemic disruptions, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Sunday.

Speaking at 74th Annual General Meeting of Indian Banks' Association at Mumbai, Sitharaman said there was an urgent need to scale up banking to meet the growing needs of the industry and also to ensure that all economic centres of the country are covered with at least one physical or digital banking presence.

"We need to scale up banking. The need is for at least four-five more SBI sized banks," she said, while reminding that the amalgamation exercise among public sector banks have helped in moving ahead with creation of large banks.