Sharp rise in CASA deposit growth: RBI

The incremental growth in current and savings account (CASA) deposits more than doubled in the past fiscal, thereby, nudging out the vast difference in term deposits, a report from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said.

While the CASA deposits of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) accounted for 48.4 per cent of the overall incremental growth in deposits in FY10, the same for term deposits during the reporting period stood at 51.6 per cent.

This is in sharp contrast to the incremental figures in the previous fiscal when CASA deposits stood at a low 21.7 per cent and term deposits stood at high 78.3 per cent.

In fact, the FY09 figure was the lowest during the past four fiscals when it came to CASA deposits, while the figures for the  previous two fiscals were higher at 32 and 28.3 per cent, respectively.

Similarly, the term deposit figure for FY09 was also the highest, while FY10 was the lowest, with FY07 standing at 71.7 per cent and FY08 at 68 per cent, says Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in 2009-10, released by the central bank.

"The composition of deposits indicated significant changes in FY10 with the per centage of the CASA deposits increasing from 33.2-35.4 per cent between FY09 and FY10 in contrast to the declining trend in the recent past. Moreover, unlike in the past, CASA contributed almost half of the incremental deposits in FY10.

"Saving deposits alone contributed about 34 per cent to the total increment in deposits in FY10. The calculation of interest rate on a daily product basis by banks with effect from April 1, 2010 is expected to give a further boost to saving deposit," says the central bank report.