Share of industrial loans in bank credit on decline, personal loans up: RBI

The share of industrial loans in total credit has been gradually declining over the last decade while that of personal loans is on the rise, the Reserve Bank said on Wednesday.

Both industrial and personal loans had nearly 27 per cent credit share each in March 2022, as per the 'Basic Statistical Return on Credit by Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) in India ? March 2022' released by the RBI.

Meanwhile, loans to the industrial sector recorded 4.7 per cent growth in 2021-22 after witnessing a decline in the previous year.

Earlier this month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman nudged the corporate sector to increase investment in the manufacturing sector.

The RBI further said as credit demand from the retail segment has become more distinct in recent years, the portion of small-sized loans is also going up steadily.

The share of loans up to Rs one crore has surged to nearly 48 per cent in March 2022 from around 39 per cent five years ago, whereas the share of loans above Rs 10 crore fell to nearly 40 per cent from around 49 per cent over the same period, notwithstanding the price effect on loan-size over time.

The share of loans bearing less than 7 per cent interest rate rose to 23.6 per cent in March 2022 compared to 15.1 per cent a year ago.

It further said the declining share of public sector banks (PSBs) to total bank credit has continued.

PSBs' share in total credit by SCBs stood at 54.8 per cent in March 2022 compared to 65.8 per cent five years ago and 74.2 per cent ten years ago.

On the other hand, the share of private sector banks nearly doubled to 36.9 per cent over the last ten years.

Bank branches in urban, semi-urban, and rural areas maintained double-digit annual growth in credit in March 2022, whereas credit growth for metropolitan branches increased significantly to 9.2 per cent from 1.4 per cent in the previous year.

Maharashtra (26.2 per cent), the National capital territory (NCT) of Delhi (11.3 per cent), Tamil Nadu (9.2 per cent) and Karnataka (6.8 per cent) together accounted for over half of the credit extended by banks.