The Hindu Business Line : `Bank deposit, credit growth higher in Q2'

BANKS have reported higher growth rates in both deposits and credit for the quarter ended September 2005, said the Reserve Bank of India in its quarterly statistics released on Tuesday.

The top 100 `banked' centres reported higher growth rate in deposits at 24.2 per cent, against 19.6 per cent in 2004. The growth rate of gross bank credit was also higher at 37.8 per cent (including the impact of IDBI, against 24.9 per cent last year.

During this quarter, 28 regional rural banks (RRBs) were merged into nine, thereby reducing the total number from 196 to 177, said the RBI.

Of the aggregate deposits of scheduled commercial banks, nationalised banks accounted for 49 per cent, the State Bank of India and its associates 24.6 per cent, foreign banks 4.9 per cent, RRBs 3.3 per cent and other scheduled commercial banks 17.7 per cent.

Of the total bank credit, nationalised banks accounted for 47.8 per cent, SBI and its associates 23.8 per cent, other scheduled commercial banks 18.9 per cent, foreign banks 6.7 and RRBs 2.8 per cent.

The credit-deposit ratio of all scheduled commercial banks stood at 68.1 per cent. Foreign banks had a ratio of 93.1 per cent, other scheduled commercial banks 72.9 per cent, nationalised banks 65.7 per cent, RRBs 57 per cent, SBI and its associates 65.9 per cent.