Public sector banks dominate banking system, says RBI

Government-owned lenders remain dominant players in the banking system accounting for over 73 per cent of loans extended to borrowers and deposits made by business entities and individuals, according to the latest Reserve Bank of India report.

It shows that the State Bank of India (SBI) Group alone accounted for about a quarter of the market share in the banking sector.

Public sector banks (PSBs) had a 73.2-per cent and 73.9-per cent market share in credits and deposits respectively as of March-end 2014, according to the report.

According to 'Basic statistical returns of commercial banks' (BSR) report, as of March 2014, gross outstanding credit of the system rose 13.7 per cent to Rs 62,82,082.43 crore in 2013-14.

In the previous fiscal, it had registered an increase of 15 per cent.

The deposits stood at Rs 79,55,721.22 crore, up 13.4 per cent in 2014 as against 15.4 per cent in 2013.

The BSR report said that the SBI Group's credit share stood at 22.1 per cent of the total at Rs 13,90,569.58 crore while their deposit share stood at Rs 17,11,690.86 crore, or 25.9 per cent, as of March 2014.

"The share of credit market of other public sector banks as a whole stood at 51.1 per cent at Rs 32,07,506.54 crore and that of deposits at Rs 61,31,037.72 crore, or 50 per cent", the report showed.

Against this, private sector lenders' credit market share stood at 19.4 per cent at Rs 12,21,334.14 crore while the deposits at Rs 14,96,793.90 crore, or 18.8 per cent.

This shows that over a dozen private sector lenders together are smaller than the SBI Group on both the credit and deposit fronts.

In contrast, 96 foreign banks, most of which are one branch setups with no retail presence, had credit share of 4.8 per cent of the system at Rs 3,03,790.29 crore and deposits pie at lower 4.3 per cent, or Rs 3,66,127.2 crore.

The regional rural banks had a credit share of 2.5 per cent at Rs 1,58,881.88 crore and that of deposits at 2.9 per cent at Rs 2,33,272.34 crore, the report showed.