Regional rural banks see healthy growth in saving bank deposits

A. J. Vinayak Updated - November 14, 2011 at 09:45 PM.

People in rural areas put more money in savings bank (SB) deposits than in term deposits. (file photo)

It looks like people in rural areas put more money in savings bank (SB) deposits than in term deposits. This was visible in 82 regional rural banks (RRBs), which saw SB deposits rise by nearly Rs 15,000 crore and term deposits by around Rs 4,800 crore in 2010-11. Also, current account deposits were up by around Rs 1,100 crore.

These figures were released by the RBI in its Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India 2010-11 on Monday.

The CASA (current account savings account) deposits constituted almost 60 per cent of the total deposits. The vast rural presence and small-ticket deposits helped boost CASA.

While agriculture credit constituted nearly 55 per cent of the total credit. The crop loan alone was around 40 per cent of the total credit. In all, priority sector lending was 82.4 per cent to the total credit.

The credit-deposit ratio, which was 57.1 per cent in 2009-10, increased to 59.69 per cent during 2010-11.

PROFIT GROWTH

The RRBs in the country recorded a net profit of Rs 1,988 crore (Rs 1,884 crore), a growth of 5.5 per cent. The growth in net profit was mainly because of a nearly 30 per cent decline in provisions and contingencies during the period. The provisions and contingencies decreased to Rs 705 crore (Rs 1,029 crore) during the period.

On the income side, the interest income stood at Rs 15,225 crore (Rs 12,945 crore), recording a growth of 17.6 per cent.

On the expenditure side, the wage bill saw a jump of 42.9 per cent — from Rs 2,676 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 3,825 crore in 2010-11.

The migration of banking operations to core banking solution (CBS) gained pace, and 65 of the 82 RRBs implemented them by the end of September 30.

Published on November 14, 2011 14:54