The regular midyear meeting between the finance minister and the Indian Banks Association is now quite overdue. Yashwant Sinha, the finance minister till recently, had fixed 19 June 2002 for a meeting, but had to rush off to Bangkok, and the meeting was postponed to 29 June 2002.

But that too failed to materialise because of the strong speculation about Sinha's continuance in the ministry after the cabinet reshuffle. With Singh now replacing Sinha in North Block, bankers feel that their first interface with the new minister may actually turn the review meeting into a brainstorming session on the state of the financial sector per se.