Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday metthe representatives of private sector banks, non-banking financial companies(NBFCs) and Housing finance companies and said that during the meeting no onesaid that liquidity is a problem for them.

The Union minister said that many of the MFIs andmicro-finance units which were present during the meeting work in remote partsof India and they said that demand is still high in those areas and they areextending loans. "Many of the MFIs and micro-finance units which have comehere are in deep country, they said that in those areas there is still demandand they are extending loans. All of them clearly voiced a positive growthwhich is a good encouraging story," Sitharaman said. Sitharaman said thatthe appetite for credit is very high in the service sector and it is possibleto reach out to them by some tweaking that can be done using their salaries andcash they earn also as a part can be used for their credit assessment."The service sector is showing very high appetite for credit. There isimmense possibility to reach out to them provided of course there are somesimpler tweaking that we can do using their salaries and cash they earn also asa part can be used for their credit assessment," noted the BJP leader.

According to the Union Finance Minister, affordable housingscheme took off very well. She added that commercial vehicle related problemare seen as a cyclical problem and situation will improve in that sector in thenear future. Sitharaman admitted that there is liquidity problem in wholesalefinancing but retail financing is not witnessing any such blip.

Commenting on the Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative BankLtd crisis, Sitharaman said that RBI is currently handling this matter thegovernment might intervene only after the emergence of a comprehensive picture."At this stage, RBI is handling it. Let there a comprehensive pictureemerge, post that the govt will have to see what best can be done so that thereis some assurance given to people who are affected," she said.