There has been a moderation in unsecured lending growth to 22.9% year-on-year in December, down from the previous figure of 24.3% before the Reserve Bank of India’s stringent measures came into effect.
The RBI last year impose elevated risk weights on unsecured lending by commercial banks has had a tangible impact, reflecting in the latest sectoral data of bank credit The outstanding unsecured loans, as of the end of December, stand at Rs 13.33 lakh crore.
The revised norms have also left their mark on credit card outstanding growth, which moderated to 32.6% year-on-year in December, compared to 34.2% in November. The total credit card outstanding now amounts to Rs 2.5 lakh crore as of December 2023.
Beyond unsecured loans, the broader retail loans segment experienced a slowdown, recording a growth of 17.7% year-on-year in December, down from 20.4% a year ago and 18.6% in November.
Credit offtake grows
Credit offtake continued to grow, increasing by 20.3% year-on-year (y-o-y) to reach Rs 159.7 lakh crore, for the fortnight ended January 12, 2024. This rise was due to the impact of HDFC’s merger with HDFC Bank along with the growth in personal loans. If we exclude the impact of the merger, credit grew at a lower rate of 16.1% y-o-y for the fortnight compared to last year’s growth of 16.5%. The outlook for bank credit offtake continues to remain positive for FY24.
Deposits too grew by 13.1% y-o-y for the fortnight (including the merger impact) and reached 199.8 lakh crore as on January 12, 2024. Excluding merger impact, growth stood at 12.4%. Sequentially we saw a drop of 0.5%, driven by a drop in demand deposits. Deposit growth is expected to improve in FY24 compared to earlier periods as banks look to shore up their liability franchise and ensure that deposit growth does not constrain the credit offtake.
The Short-term Weighted Average Call Rate (WACR) stood at 6.76% as of January 19, 2024, compared to 6.19% on January 20, 2023, due to pressure on short-term rates.
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