BANGALORE: Union finance minister P Chidambaram urged banks to focus more on ordinary people than on corporates, in what appeared to be an attempt to contain the ballooning NPAs (non-performing assets) of public sector banks on the one hand and woo the aam admi on the other in the run to the general elections next year.

“Banks are meant to serve largely the poor and middle class. Individual customers need banks more than corporates,” he said at a function to mark the inauguration of the 101st branch of the State Bank of Mysore in Bangalore.

Chidambaram took potshots at India Inc’s affluent promoters with sick companies, and urged banks to shift their focus towards the poor and middle class, “so that corporates are forced to go to the market, which is where they should go to raise money.”