That we are a financially illiterate nation is given. But even with this disclaimer I am sometimes amazed at how lackadaisical people are when it comes to their money.

Take the case of two public sector banks: a) Indian Overseas Bank b) UCO Bank. Recently, both the banks declared results for the three-month period ending 30 June 2016. As of 30 June, the bad loans of Indian Overseas Bank amounted to 20.48 percent. And that of UCO Bank were at 17.19 percent .

This basically means that close to one-fifth of the loans given by these banks have not been repaid. The question is how do these banks or for that matter any bank, give loans? A bank raises deposits and then gives out those deposits as loans.

Of course, if the loans of a bank are not being repaid, its chances of returning deposits are also low. At least, that is how things should work in theory. But that is not the case primarily because everyone knows that a government is not going to let a public sector bank go bust. (Actually, the government won’t let even a private sector bank go bust, but that is a story we will leave for another day).

And this explains why people still have their money deposited with these banks. Take the case of Indian Overseas Bank. As on 30 June 2016, the total deposits with the bank stood at Rs 2.18 lakh crore, in comparison to Rs 2.32 lakh crore a year earlier. Now that is a fall of 5.85 percent.

This drop is extremely marginal when one takes into account the fact that the bad loans of the bank have more than doubled during the same period. As on 30 June 2015, the bad loans of the bank had stood at 9.40 percent of its total advances. What this clearly tells us is that the smart money has started to move out of the bank. But the bulk of the lot continue to hold on to their deposits in the bank.

How do things look for UCO Bank? I couldn’t find the deposits of the bank as on 30 June 2016, and hence, have worked with 31 March 2016, numbers, which are good enough to make the point I am trying to make.

As of 31 March 2016, the total deposits of UCO Bank were at Rs 2.07 lakh crore, down from Rs 2.14 lakh crore from a year earlier. This is a meagre fall of 3.4 percent. During the same period, the bad loans of the bank have jumped from 6.76 percent to 15.43 percent.

While the investors in the stocks of these banks have realised the true situation that these banks are in, the same cannot be said about the depositors. The explanation for this is fairly straightforward. Most depositors do not keep track of the state of the bank they have deposited their money in, especially if it happens to be a public sector bank.