More Indians now invest in equities as financialization of household savings rises: SBI

New Delhi: The financialization of household savings in India has gained significant momentum as equities as percentage of household savings in the country has increased from 2.5 per cent in FY20 to 5.1 per cent in FY24, an SBI Research report said on Monday.

The Indian credit market is witnessing some structural shifts with headline bank credit growth. Thus, arithmetic average possibly hiding more things than it reveals, the report mentioned.

In future, sources of credit origination through bank deposits (primarily household savings in bank deposits) needs to be keenly watched, it added.

According to the report, public sector Banks/PSBs show stable growth of 12.2 per cent in FY25 compared to FY24 growth of 13.6 per cent.

However, the share in incremental credit of PSBs has increased to 56.9 per cent in FY25 from 20 per cent in FY18.

“The government’s 4R’s strategy of recognition, resolution, recapitalisation and reforms have reaped rich dividends. The asset quality in the banking system is now at a record low of 2.6 per cent in H1 FY25 from 11.5 per cent in FY18,” the report explained.

Now, PSBs share in outstanding credit has improved to 52.3 per cent in outstanding credit in FY25, after 14-years of decline to 51.8 per cent in FY24 from 75.1 per cent in FY10.

The sectoral credit growth indicates credit growth to various sectors of the economy has softened driven by a moderation in growth of credit to services sector and agriculture and allied activities.

Personal loans share in incremental credit growth has declined in FY25 to 37 per cent from 43 per cent in FY24, while industry share has increased to 17 per cent in FY25 from 11 per cent in FY24.

“The X factor in credit growth is credit to MSME sector, rising by 17.8 per cent (year-on-year),” said Dr Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Advisor, State Bank of India.

“Interestingly, the MSMEs depend greatly on large corporates through backward integration (and at times, forward integration) and hence, the MSMEs activity level could be a gauge of corporate activities (with all channels of financing options (banks/non-banks) embedded holistically),” he noted.

Moreover, private credit deals totalled Rs 774 billion in FY24, growing 7 per cent over CY23, satiating the growing needs of varied strata of India Inc. through tailored financing solutions primarily via Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) while issuances of NCDs remains in practice.

–IANS