EconomyMoney and credit
Who is borrowing, and can deposits keep up?
Bank credit grew 19.4% in the year to Sept 2026, against 10.4% a year earlier. By sector, services grew fastest, 24.3%; personal loans are the largest, 35% of the total. Deposits grew 17.8%, so banks are lending 81% of what they hold.
Written for anyone who wants to know where India's bank lending is going, and whether it can last. Sector data to Aug 2026.
By sector
Growth on a year earlier in Aug 2026, and a year before that. Agriculture grew 17.2%, industry 18.2%, services 24.3% and personal loans 16.9%. Within services, loans to NBFCs grew 37.5%, against 3.7% a year earlier.
Bank credit growth by sector
Growth on a year earlier, from selected banks' returns (about 95% of bank credit). The first four rows are the broad sectors; the rest are parts of them.
How to read it. Gold loans and loans to NBFCs swing most from year to year. Personal loans include home loans; services include loans to NBFCs.
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Over time
The four broad sectors' growth on a year earlier, month by month. Credit to industry barely grew in the second half of the 2010s, as banks worked through bad loans to large firms; personal loans grew fastest for most of that time.
Bank credit growth by broad sector
Growth on a year earlier, last statement in each month, selected banks.
How to read it. Growth from July 2023 to June 2024 is lifted by HDFC's merger into HDFC Bank, which moved its loans onto a bank's books; the jump is not new lending.
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Personal loans
Loans to individuals are 35% of bank credit to the four broad sectors. Housing is 47% of them. In Aug 2026, gold loans grew fastest, 83.2%; credit-card balances grew 3.6%.
Personal loans by kind
Growth on a year earlier, selected banks, from 2019. Gold loans, which have grown far faster, are left out so the others can be read.
How to read it. 'Other personal loans' are mostly unsecured. The RBI raised the capital banks must hold against them and against credit cards in November 2023, and both slowed afterwards.
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Firms by size
Credit to industry by the size of the borrower. Micro and small firms' credit grew 23.0%, medium firms' 31.8% and large firms' 14.9%. Large firms still take 67% of bank credit to industry.
Bank credit to industry, by size of firm
Growth on a year earlier, selected banks.
How to read it. Size classes follow the government's MSME definitions, which were widened in 2020 and again in 2025; firms that moved into a class lift its growth without any new lending.
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Through NBFCs
Banks lend to non-bank finance companies, which lend on to households and small firms. Bank loans to NBFCs are 34% of services credit. Counting every source, banks provided 68% of the credit to India's commercial sector in Jan 2026; NBFCs, bond and commercial-paper markets, and lenders abroad the rest.
Bank loans to NBFCs
Growth on a year earlier, selected banks.
How to read it. Bank loans to NBFCs swing with NBFCs' other funding: when bond markets are cheap, NBFCs borrow there and bank loans to them slow.
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Where the commercial sector's credit comes from
Outstanding credit to the commercial sector by source, ₹ lakh crore. NBFC and HFC credit is net of their borrowing from banks.
How to read it. Banks are the largest source by far. Each loan is counted once: what NBFCs lend with money borrowed from banks sits in the banks' bar.
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Against deposits
Banks lent 81% of their deposits in Sept 2026, against a median of 74% since 2001; the highest, 82.7%, was in May 2026. Of the deposits added over the year, 87% went out again as new credit.
Bank credit and deposit growth
All scheduled commercial banks, last reading in each month. RBI's ex-merger figures from July 2023 to June 2024.
How to read it. Credit running ahead of deposits for long pushes banks to raise deposit rates or borrow elsewhere, and their lending rates follow.
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How much of their deposits banks lend
Credit as % of deposits, and the year's added credit as % of the year's added deposits.
How to read it. The grey line above 100 means banks lent more over the year than they raised in deposits, drawing on bonds they held or other borrowing.
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Broad money
Broad money (M3), currency plus every bank deposit, grew 16.0% in the year to Oct 2026, against a median of 12.5% since 2002. It grows with deposits, so it tells much the same story as the deposit line above.
Broad money growth
M3, growth on a year earlier, fortnightly.
How to read it. The HDFC merger lifted M3 growth from July 2023 to June 2024, as HDFC's borrowings became bank deposits.
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The workings
The question
Data
Every chart has a table view, a CSV download and a link to its published JSON. Bundles are listed in data status.