Deposits, advances of PSBs rose in 2022-23

The growth of deposits and advances of public sector banks (PSBs) has improved from 8.2 per cent and 9.8 per cent in 2021-22 to 9.3 per cent and 15.8 per cent in 2022-23, respectively. This was stated by Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

The Minister stated that as per the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970 and 1980, and the State Bank of India Act, 1955, the general superintendence, direction, and management of the affairs and business of PSBs vest in their boards.

As per inputs received from PSBs, several steps have been taken by them to address the rising competition in the deposits segment, enhance their ability to generate high-yield advances and strengthen their CASA acquisition, increase coverage of early warning signals and identify high-risk borrowers, and improve operational efficiency and customer experience, the Minister said.

The steps include:

Continuous product innovation and segment specific product offerings using analytics to drive customer retention;

Smooth and seamless onboarding of customers by leveraging technology, like use of video KYC, digital KYC verification;

Strategic approach for retention of existing deposits and new deposit acquisition and digitally-enabled customer offerings;

Enhancement of access to mobile and internet banking through increase in average number of services offered, customer-friendly features, and regional languages available on the customer interface;

Thrust on customer-need-driven, analytics-based credit offers by large PSBs and enablement of digital retail loan request initiation through digital channels;

Instituting comprehensive and automated Early Warning Systems (EWS), with around 80 EWS triggers and use of third-party data for time-bound remedial actions;

Use of prediction models to identify potential non-performing assets or NPAs.