Bankers want SLR reduced if HTM bond limit is cut

Bankers have asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to cut the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) limit if it also considers reducing the Held-To-Maturity (HTM) limit of banks. In a meeting of chief financial officers (CFOs) of public sector banks with RBI today, the central bank sought feedback on the idea of reducing the HTM limit. The CFOs suggested a cut in the SLR limit from the present 23 per cent, so that the impact on banks’ balance sheets was minimal. RBI has been in favour of reducing the HTM, whose upper limit is 25 per cent of SLR securities but it is traditionally aligned to the SLR ratio.......

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