Need to ease EMI burden as cash flow set to be an issue: Amitabh Chaudhry, MD, Axis Bank

There will be a cash flow issue for both the people at large and the industry during the coronavirus lockdown period, said Amitabh Chaudhry, Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He was speaking to Zee Business Managing Editor Anil Singhvi today. In this scenario, Chaudhry said that the country's financial system and the government will have to collectively do something for them.

Amitabh Chaudhry was responding to a question if the banks should give some relaxation to individuals and small businesses on their EMI repayments amid the coronavirus lockdown.

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 Chaudhry, who leads India's third largest private sector bank, said that the payment capacity of the people is still not adequate and it needed some restructuring.

On customer service getting affected due to the lockdown, Amitabh Chaudhry said the bank activated its Central Emergency Response Team a week ago to deal with the ongoing coronavirus lockdown.

After the lockdown announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the footfalls in the bank branches have fallen by 50-75%, he said. He added that this has ensured that the branches can work with lesser number of employees, and that they have been doing a great job not only from the bank branches but also from their homes.

Chaudhry said that there were some niggling issues on the ground remain like police personnel not having a proper brief as to who to stop. Things will be smoother as instructions are being passed on, he added. 

As and when these things ease, the bank will be able to further improve services like putting cash in the ATMs, treasury operations and back office work, Chaudhry said.

Chaudhry clarified that there was no liquidity crisis in the overall banking sector as RBI has been providing adequate liquidity. He however said that there were certain areas in the market which were facing liquidity crunch - one was in Mutual Fund space where banks were getting debt redemption. This is forcing them to sell their liquid assets, he revealed.

In current situation, he added that it would not be correct to look at fiscal deficit numbers as the economic activity has virtually halted and the impact will be felt across the board. Everybody gains from an interest rate cut, he averred.

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"The RBI, Finance Ministry and the government will have to take a lot of measures including those for daily wagers, industry, travel & tourism and aviation. The government's economic package will have to be a combination of interest rate cut, forbearance and sector specific packages," he concluded.