According to provisional data released by the RBI , outstanding loans to companies and individuals stood at Rs87.49 lakh crore on September 14, almost flat compared to Rs 87.31 lakh crore on August 31.

The increase in non-food bank credit, at 13.61% year-on-year in the fortnight to September 14, was the highest in 51 months. This suggests companies and individuals are borrowing more as they are more confident about the economy.

To be sure companies have been increasingly approaching the bond markets for their credit needs though issuances in the June quarter were modest.

The last time that non-food credit grew at a similar rate was in June, 2014 when it registered a growth of 13.7%. In the fortnight to August 31, loans to companies and individuals had increased at 13.59% y-o-y.

According to provisional data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), outstanding loans to companies and individuals stood at Rs87.49 lakh crore on September 14, almost flat compared to Rs 87.31 lakh crore on August 31. A year ago, the outstandings were of the order of Rs 77.01 lakh crore. Worrying the pace of growth of deposits has moderated slightly.

Deposits with the banking system grew at 8.58% y-o-y to Rs 115.70 lakh crore as on September 14, against an 8.87% growth for the fortnight that ended August 31.

Non-food credit growth has been increasing gradually in recent fortnights even as the base effect of demonetisation has worn off. Since January 2018, fortnightly non-food credit growth has moved between the 10-13.6% range. Rajkiran Rai G, MD & CEO, Union Bank of India, while announcing the bank’s Q1 FY19 results earlier, had highlighted that the bank has seen an increased flow of customers because of a few other banks that are under the prompt corrective action (PCA). “The large corporates are shifting to banks that are taking decisions, our bank is one such bank. The corporate demand is good but we are selective,” Rai had said.

The public lender’s total domestic advances grew 12.5% y-o-y to Rs 2.65 lakh crore in Q1 FY19 while the total deposits with the bank grew 7.4% y-o-y to Rs 4.05 lakh crore. Kotak institutional equity (KIE) in a report highlighted that the number of live accounts crossed 100 million for the first time. The retail loans grew 27% y-o-y, led by 26% growth in live accounts. Overall loans grew at around 45% y-o-y led by 28% y-o-y volume growth and 112% y-o-y growth in average ticket size (`2 lakh). A flattish average ticket size is attributed to a change in the loan mix towards short duration consumer loans like credit cards, personal loans and consumer durable loans. Personal loans is the fastest growing segment. The report further highlighted that Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka account for 40% of the outstanding loans.