Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said public sector banks needed "greater initiative" to attract buyers or promoters to tackle the non-performing assets. "One of the challenges which the banks mentioned they are facing...is finding alternative promoters or buyers. They have been making efforts to do that," he said after meeting the heads of state-run banks in New Delhi, according to PTI.

At the performance review, Jaitley assessed the overall health of the country’s banking system as well as the progress of various financial inclusion schemes. He also took up the issue of one rupee being deposited in accounts created under the Centre's Jan Dhan Scheme to reduce the number of zero-balance accounts. Jailtey said four banks were "investigating from their branches" to check whether "account holders have put in money or business correspondents have done it".

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Suggestions on issues such as non-performing assets and the expansion and consolidation of banks made during the last such review on June 6 were also discussed. "The government is fully committed to support the banks in this regard," Jaitley had said after the June review.

Friday's meeting was Jaitley's first review after the appointment of Urjit Patel as the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, The Hindu Business Line reported. While Patel will not be present at the meeting, he will be represented by an RBI official. Indian banks have disclosed that there has been a 96% spike in non-performing assets to Rs 6,29,774 crore in June 2016 from Rs 3,20,553 crore during the same month last year.