Banks taking efforts to spruce up deposits

In view of sluggish growth in deposit, banks are aggressively selling deposits during the last fortnight of the financial year 2012-13.

Banks collectively raised about Rs 1 lakh crore in the fortnight ending March 8. To be specific, aggregate deposits, including demand and term deposits, rose Rs 99,124 crore, taking the outstanding deposits to 66.6 lakh crore.

Term deposits alone increased by Rs 1.12 lakh crore during the fortnight. Loans on the other hand expanded Rs 54,796 crore to 51.8 lakh crore.

Deposit growth stood at 13.15 percent in the fortnight ending March 8 on a year-on-year basis, short of the RBI’s projected 15 percent for the whole year. But, lending growth was a shade better at 15.4 percent, but still short of RBI’s comfort level of 16 percent.