Inflows into foreign currency non-resident (bank), or FCNR (B), deposits have significantly underperformed market expectations, leading to a more than 1 per cent depreciation of the rupee against the dollar this week. Analysts point to fading RBI support measures, tepid interest due to rising global bond yields, and narrowing interest rate spreads compared to 2013 as key challenges.
State-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB) reported a 72 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) drop in net profit to 1,278 crore for Q1FY27 due to a $600 million out-of-court settlement related to NMC Health Plc. In contrast, Bank of India (BoI) saw its net profit rise by 36.23 per cent Y-o-Y to 3,068 crore for the same quarter, driven by healthy loan growth and improved asset quality.
The asymmetry in deposit and credit growth is the biggest challenge before the Indian banking industry. For every 100 deposit that a bank mobilises, it needs to keep 3 with the banking regulator in the form of cash reserve ratio on which it doesn't earn any interest. Another 18 is used for buying government bonds (statutory liquidity ratio). This means, a bank is left with 79 for giving credit. Add to this, its capital which can be used for giving loans. Most banks are facing a fund crunch. They need to find ways to attract deposits if they want to sustain credit growth, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The industry also emphasised on supply-side interventions by the government to tackle persistently high food inflation.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the central government have introduced a package of measures, including tax exemptions for FPIs on government securities and a concessional foreign-exchange swap facility, aiming to attract up to $50 billion in foreign capital. This initiative is designed to strengthen India's balance of payments and potentially cover the projected BoP gap for FY27.
Credit card transactions in India have surged over 2.6 times between 2021 and 2025, reaching 570 crore volumes and Rs 23.2 lakh crore in value, with private sector banks significantly increasing their market share, according to a recent RBI report.
Credit card transactions in India have surged over 2.6 times between 2021 and 2025, driven by private sector banks, while debit card usage declines due to growing adoption of UPI and digital wallets, according to an RBI report.
Sustaining 8 per cent-plus growth rates is necessary if we are to reach high-income status by 2047, points out Amitabh Kant.
Infrastructure bonds, which were relied upon the most in 2024-25 (FY25) by commercial banks to raise funds through the domestic debt capital market amid lagging deposit growth, seem to have lost their sheen in FY26. So far in FY26, no bank has tapped the domestic debt capital market to raise funds via infra bonds, and the expectation is that the amount raised through this route will be significantly lower than that last year, unless credit demand picks up.
The pace of loan growth among public sector banks (PSBs) has seen a surge in the financial year 2024-25, and this is an exception to the overall moderation in bank credit during FY25. PSU banks' share in incremental credit rose to 57.3 per cent in March from 51.7 per cent a year ago, according to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) Monetary Policy Report (April 2025).
Reserve Bank on Friday decided to cut Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) by a huge 1 per cent, which will unlock Rs 2.5 lakh crore liquidity to the banking system for lending to productive sectors of the economy. With the reduction in four equal tranches ending November 29, 2025, the CRR would come down to 3 per cent.
Infrastructure bond issuances by commercial banks in the current financial year (FY25) are likely to surpass Rs 1 trillion, almost double that of FY24, market participants said. So far this financial year, banks have raised Rs 74,256 crore via infra bonds. In FY24, the total issuances stood at around Rs 51,081 crore.
The Trump trade shock is a chance to push long-overdue reforms, rather than tinker with tariffs to appease the US, suggests M Govinda Rao.
State Bank of India (SBI), India's largest lender, is looking to raise Rs 10,000 crore through 15-year infrastructure bonds as early as next week, said multiple sources aware of the development. Market participants expect a coupon in the range of 7.15-7.18 per cent for SBI's upcoming infrastructure bond issuance. This comes as demand for longer-tenor papers has remained strong in recent domestic capital market offerings.
Public-sector banks, including Canara Bank and Bank of India, are tapping the infrastructure bond market. Canara Bank on Tuesday raised Rs 10,000 crore at a coupon rate of 7.40 per cent through 10-year infrastructure bonds. This comes after SBI on July 10 raised Rs 10,000 crore also through infrastructure bonds with a 15-year tenor at a coupon rate of 7.36 per cent.
Banks have issued Rs 7.78 trillion worth of CDs in the current calendar year until August 2024, compared to Rs 4.9 trillion in the same period of 2023, registering a 59 per cent growth
State Bank of India chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara has pitched for tax relief on interest income, saying it would help banks to garner savings that could be used for funding long-term infra projects. Currently, banks are required to deduct tax when interest income from deposits held in all the bank branches put together is more than Rs 40,000 in a year. With regard to savings accounts, interest earned up to Rs 10,000 is exempt from tax.
Banks are preferring instruments with higher premium over government securities for their held-till-maturity (HTM) portfolio, following the new investment norms, which came into effect from April 1. They are stocking up on corporate bonds and state government securities to boost yield on their portfolio, according to market participants. "Definitely, if there is a good spread available and without lower credit risk, those instruments will be favoured to boost the yield on the portfolio.
The flow of money into Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) deposits witnessed a substantial increase, touching $2.14 billion in the first quarter of this financial year (Q1FY24), compared with $349 million in the same period in FY23. The outstanding NRI deposits rose by $2.5 billion, standing at $141.28 billion at the end of June 2023, up from $138.77 billion in May 2023, according to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data. RBI released the updated data in the bulletin after almost three months.
Amid a debate on the basis of a monetary policy stance, one may be curious enough to know how non-food retail inflation has behaved over the years in India. Let the eager souls catch a glimpse of facts. In the past 10 years, non-food inflation came down below 4 per cent on two occasions - pre-Covid period of 2019-20 and now in the first four months of the current financial year (FY25).
'We may see little softness in liquidity position after the stabilisation of the government.'
The RBI, which had been following soft monetary policy since September last year to inject liquidity into the system to help industry combat the impact of the global meltdown, on Tuesday reversed its stance by increasing the SLR by one per cent to 25 per cent, though it kept other rates unchanged.
RBI's exercise will take into account standards of governance, the viability of the payment bank (PB) business model, and changes, if any, if needed.
HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh on Monday said harmonisation of rules between banks and non-banks which reduces the regulatory arbitrage was one of the key factors which influenced the decision for merger between the largest home financier and HDFC Bank. Parekh, who said the merger discussions have happened over the last three weeks, noted that requirements like non performing asset recognition being at par and size-based regulations for non-bank finance companies are among the changes in landscape. Addressing a press conference after the surprise announcement earlier in the day, Parekh said the last three years have seen harmonisation in the regulations which reduce the "regulatory arbitrage" of running a separate home finance company.
For over a decade, HDFC Bank consistently outperformed industry growth rates in both deposits and advances, maintaining impeccable asset quality. Amid a landscape where other banks struggled with soaring non-performing assets (NPAs), HDFC Bank thrived, eventually surpassing ICICI Bank to become the largest private sector lender in India. Its net interest margin (NIM) remained stable in the range of 4.1-4.4 per cent.
UCO Bank mulls AT1 offering to raise Rs 1,000 cr.
Days after JP Morgan announced the inclusion of government bonds in its emerging market (EM) bond index, a host of banks and other financial institutions (FIs) are set to tap the debt market. They plan to raise Rs 18,000 crore by issuing non-convertible debentures (NCDs) and bonds. National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) plans to raise up to Rs 3,000 crore via five-year social impact bonds on Tuesday, the first of its kind in India.
'For the first time ever it has come below 1 per cent, at 0.97 per cent.'
The Reserve Bank on Friday superseded the board of the city-based Abhyudaya Cooperative Bank on concerns emanating from "poor governance" and appointed an administrator to manage the affairs of the lender. In what can be seen as a step that should allay depositors' concerns, the central bank did not put any restrictions or moratorium on deposit withdrawals because of the comfort it gets on the bank's finances, according to people in the know. "(The) action is necessitated due to certain material concerns emanating from poor governance standards observed in the bank.
The government has introduced friendly policies for the infra sector
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State Bank of India (SBI) may carry out a planned Rs 10,000 crore sale of infrastructure bonds in the market this week, with the securities likely to be of 15-year maturity, sources told Business Standard. SBI, the country's largest bank, had last week said its board had approved the issuance of infrastructure bonds in the current fiscal year. It, however, had not mentioned the maturity of the bonds or when the sale would take place.
'Data-dependence means you can raise or drop rates. The present stance is only for raising rates.'
Breaking the streak of continuous fall in outstanding amounts, non-resident Indian (NRI) deposits rose for the first time in the financial year to $134.54 billion in October 2022. The figure was $133.67 billion in September. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed that NRI deposits were in shrinking mode for the first six months of FY23. They fell to $133.67 billion in September from $139 billion in March.
Between March 2022 and September 2023, HDFC Bank added 56,310 employees.
The Centre's fiscal consolidation resolve led to the cut in banks' mandatory SLR for the second time in a row, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said on Tuesday, hinting at more such liquidity enhancing steps in tandem with the government's action on fiscal deficit.
What's encouraging is that the process of unwinding some of the extraordinary steps taken in last July-August is continuing, so moreliberalisation is back on their agenda.
There are however, enough dovish signals in the governor's statement to indicate a pro-growth policy going forward.
Benchmark share indices ended at record closing highs as the cut in statutory liquidity ratio by the Reserve Bank of India at its policy meet today will help inject liquidity, paving the way for credit growth revival.
The Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday kept key rates unchanged.
