The gap between credit and deposit growth in the banking system is expected to decline sharply to 80 basis points (bps) in the next financial year from an average of 386 bps over the FY22-Q3FY25 period, according to rating agency India Ratings. This would be against the backdrop of sharp moderation in the incremental loan deposit ratio (LDR) of the Indian banking system to 85 per cent in February 2025 from 117-118 per cent in the same month of 2024.
The gold loan portfolio of banks continued to show strong off-take with 76 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth in January 2025 amid moderation in retail credit - especially in the unsecured credit segment - following increase in risk weights in November 2023. The gold loan pool had grown 17.4 per cent Y-o-Y in January 2024.
'I don't know when I will be able to access those funds.'
Raising overseas debt has become prohibitively expensive due to the depreciating rupee.
India Ratings on Thursday said that any broad-based or strong recovery in corporate capital expenditure was unlikely in the upcoming financial year 2026 (FY26) due to uncertainty of domestic and external demand. The uncertainty is adversely affecting the overall corporate sector capex. Interest rates on credit are not the primary deterrent to decisions about capital expenditure, said Soumyajit Niyogi, director, core analytical group, Ind-Ra, in a webinar on the credit market outlook.
'Challenge is basically near-term growth as the outlook has turned a bit adverse.'
At a time when banks are finding it challenging to mobilise resources, State Bank of India (SBI)-the country's largest lender-has devised a three-pronged strategy to boost deposit accretion. First is an aspirational product that promises to make depositors lakhpatis by helping them grow their deposits to Rs 1 lakh through recurring deposit (RD) schemes.
A grooming branch network for servicing HNIs is a stepping stone for a full-fledged wealth management business.
'In addition, we have geopolitics and politics and all the other things that will affect commodity prices.'
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's call for making lending rates affordable may not resonate anytime soon as banks still struggle with margin compression, and await clues from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on liquidity and rate action. Hinting that any lending rate cut was some time away, State Bank of India (SBI) managing director Vinay M Tonse said there was still some aggression in the market regarding deposit pricing.
Private sector banks in India are taking the lead in the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in areas like fraud detection, customer segmentation, and chat automation, according to a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) study. The asset size and capital adequacy ratio are influencing the rate of adoption.
Roughly 40% of this projected outlay is expected to go towards emerging industries, including green hydrogen, clean energy, semiconductors, and electric vehicles.
Businesses across the country may soon be required to issue electronic invoices, or e-invoices, directly to consumers for the sale of goods and services. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, in its forthcoming meeting on Monday, is expected to discuss extending the e-invoicing mandate to cover business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions. Currently, e-invoicing is compulsory for businesses with a turnover of Rs 5 crore and above, but only for their business-to-business (B2B) transactions.
Eying benefits from digital banking, lenders are now looking at building Unified Recovery Interface (URI) for enhancing efficiency, reducing costs, and getting good prices for properties of defaulters. This would be managed by PSB Alliance Ltd, a company set up by all public sector banks in the country. M V Rao, chairman, Indian Banks' Association (IBA), said: "Till now we had Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a product developed by National Payments Corporation Ltd (NPCI).
Full exemption for all health insurance premiums and reinsurance or a reduction in the GST rate from 18% to 5% on health insurance services is likely.
The government is planning to introduce legislative changes to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema) regulations, with a focus on easing the pathway for inflows from a foreign portfolio investor to transition seamlessly into foreign direct investments (FDI) once the FPI surpasses the 10 per cent ownership threshold in a company. This move stems from multiple requests by foreign investors seeking to streamline the reporting requirements that arise when their stakes in Indian firms cross the 10 per cent mark.
The suspected undisclosed income in these cases could reach as much as Rs 15,000 crore.
The Unified Pension System (UPS), approved by the Union Cabinet on Saturday, is "fiscally prudent" as it will be funded within the Centre's fiscal projections, according to T V Somanathan, the Cabinet Secretary-designate. Speaking to Business Standard immediately after the Cabinet nod, former finance secretary Somanathan, who headed the committee set up in March 2023 to review the National Pension System (NPS), said the UPS will not postpone pension expenditure as it will be contributory and financed each year.
About 1.2 trillion tax evasion cases have been detected and as many as 59,000 entities identified for verification in order to ascertain whether they are fake.
'In the case of corporate credit, especially to AAA borrowers, lenders will have to take a fresh look at pricing.'