Loans to agriculture, small businesses, retail to become concern for banks in FY21: Ind-Ra

31 Jan 2020 Evaluate

India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its latest report has said that after a prolonged period of troubles with big-ticket exposures, it will be the loans to agriculture, micro, small and medium enterprises and unsecured retail debt which will become a concern for banks in 2020-21. It noted the size of the corporate stressed asset book, arrived at after an analysis of over 30,000 companies, is lower than the year-ago period and the incremental corporate slippages will slow down in the new fiscal.

According to the report, last two years have seen banks focusing more on the unsecured loans by growing credit cards and personal loans at a faster clip. It said retail product asset quality is deteriorating and pointed out that all major segments like auto, education, and personal loans and credit cards have seen a faster accretion in NPAs. It also flagged potential concerns awaiting lenders on this front, pointing out that job and wage growth in the economy has lagged retail loan growth.

On the corporate side, the agency said 17.9 percent of the total bank credit or Rs 18.5 lakh crore in advances to large value segment as of September 2019 can be classified as stressed, which is down from 19.3 percent in the year-ago period. It said 3.9 percent of the advances, which are now classified as standard stressed assets, are at the highest risk of slipping into NPAs, and these come majorly from the power, real estate and construction sectors.

© 2026 The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. MoneyWorks4Me ® is a registered trademark of The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd.

×