Covid-19: Retail lending may not remain steady source of business for banks

Banks and finance companies may do more lending business in the retail segment on the digital platform

With a demand destruction, following the coronavirus (Covid-19)-driven lockdown, retail lending may no more be a steady source of business and revenue for banks, at least in the current financial year (FY21).
 

Delinquencies in unsecured loans are already on the rise. Now, other segments of retail loans — auto and consumer durables — may witness an upward trajectory in defaults.
 

Senior bank executives said with little or no investment demand from the corporate sector for the last many quarters, banks and NBFCs have been focusing on the retail segment — individual and households — to hawk consumer durables credit as