The Finance Ministry is working on savings bank account number portability, which will allow a customer to retain his account number while changing his bank. Financial Services Secretary D K Mittal told reporters in New Delhi that certain technical problems will be sorted out soon for implementing this initiative. Mr. Mittal was speaking to reporters after a meeting which among others, was attended by Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan, Finance Secretary R S Gujral and Chief Economic Adviser Kaushik Basu.

Mr. Mittal said, banks would have to work on identification code, know your customer (KYC) norms and core banking solution (CBS) for implementing the savings bank account number portability. The move would help customers change banks without the need of going through the KYC norms again. In October last year, the Reserve Bank had deregulated interest rates on savings account deposits, following which few private sector lenders have hiked rates to as much as 7 per cent.

Mr. Mittal further said, capital infusion in PSU banks will be completed by the end of this fiscal. The government has already announced that it is committed to providing adequate capital to public sector banks. The government has made Budget provision of 6,000 crore rupees for capital infusion in PSU banks in the current fiscal.