Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Thursday expressed satisfaction at the performance of UTI Mutual Fund and said the government would take steps to strengthen financial institutions like the Industrial Development Bank of India and Industrial Finance Corporation of India.

Speaking at the Parliamentary consultative committee meeting, Singh said he was hopeful that the UTI Mutual Fund will move towards becoming a "global entity" and be comparable to the best global funds.

"The finance ministry will take steps to strengthen other FIs like IDBI and IFCI," he said.

Lauding UTI for restoring investor confidence, he said it has now positioned itself as a strong fund manager.

Singh agreed with the members of the committee that the mutual fund segment was maturing and said the government will play a role in the development of the industry by providing framework at par with the best in the world.

He said the question of multiple mutual funds being owned by the government-run agencies required to be looked into.

Singh also expressed hope that the FIs would benefit from the experience gained in the restructuring of UTI and the recovery process would lead to healthy self-sustained FIs.