Women’s share in deposits loans growing: RBI study

The share of women in total credit and aggregate deposits of individuals increased further to 20.4 per cent and 32.8 per cent, respectively, in March 2018 from 19.3 per cent and 32.0 per cent a year ago, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said.

“In March 2018, there were nearly 0.20 billion loan accounts and 1.91 billion deposit accounts, of which, 0.24 billion were in term deposits,” the RBI said in data released.

Metropolitan areas, which had less than 20 per cent of branches, accounted for nearly 52 per cent of total deposits and 64 per cent of bank credit, it said.

Industrial credit growth picked up during 2017-18 after witnessing decline during the previous two years, whereas personal loans segment continued to record strong growth.

“Private sector banks recorded healthy growth in loan portfolio and their share in total bank credit improved significantly,” the RBI said. The share of savings deposit in total deposits has gone up further during the year, on top of high growth during 2016-17 when demonetisation generated a sudden jump in the share of savings deposits.

The share of term deposits has been declining gradually during the last five years, it Reserve Bank report said. Nearly 45 per cent of term deposits in March 2018 accrued in the original maturity bucket of ‘one year and above but less than two years.