Deposits by public sector banks up 8.8% in December quarter: RBI data

However, they still lag the pace of private banks

Backed by robust demand and healthy financials, public sector banks (PSBs) improved their business — advances and deposits — during the third quarter ended December 2022 (Q3), according to RBI data.

State-owned banks increased their credit portfolio by 15.7 per cent during the calendar year 2022 (4.7 per cent in the year 2021). The corresponding growth for private sector banks, however, remained higher at 19.1 per cent (13.1 per cent a year ago), Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in a statement.

The deposit mobilisation by PSBs improved to 8.8 per cent (year-on-year or YoY) in December 2022 (6.9 per cent a year ago), though it remained lower than 13.2 per cent growth in deposits with private sector banks.

Referring to overall growth of advances of the commercial banking system, RBI said bank credit growth (YoY) stood at 16.8 per cent in December 2022 as compared with 17.2 per cent a quarter ago (Q2) and 8.4 per cent a year ago.

Growth in credit was led by bank branches in metropolitan centres, which account for nearly 60 per cent of the total credit by scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) and recorded 17.2 per cent rise (YoY) in lending.

The urban, semi-urban and rural centres also recorded double-digit credit growth, it added.

Aggregate deposits of the system increased by 10.3 per cent (YoY) in December 2022 (9.6 per cent a year ago).

This was led by 13.2 per cent growth in term deposits. The current and savings account deposits recorded moderate growth of 4.6 per cent and 7.3 per cent, respectively.

The all-India credit-deposit (C-D) ratio increased further to 75.9 per cent in December 2022 (74.8 per cent in the previous quarter and 71.6 per cent in December 2021).

The C-D ratio remained above 100 per cent for Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana.