Credit card usage up, so are NPAs

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The gross non-performing assets of public sector banks from the credit card segment have doubled to 18% at the end of FY23. The NPAs were at 9% for the year ending March 31, 2022 and rose 15% by Septemebr 22022. These figures were by the Reserve Bank of Inida in its biannual Financial Stability Report (FSR).

The data release comes amid news reports stating that the RBI has been cautioning banks about the risks on unsecured books, which includes credit cards, personal loans, and microfinance. The total outstanding against credit cards stood at over Rs 2 lakh crore at the end of FY23. The FSR said at an overall level, there was a marginal uptick in the NPAs in the credit card receivables category for the banking system in FY23 at 2 per cent. Even as the state-run lenders showed heightened stress, private sector banks’ GNPAs from credit card receivables remained broadly flat at 1.9 per cent, while the same was 1.8 per cent for foreign banks. Fin cos regulations RBI governor Shaktikanta Das in his report said the central bank will stick to tighter rules for finance companies to make them stable. He said seeds of vulnerability are often sown during good times when risks tend to be overlooked.

Banks well capitalised The report furthe said that the banks in India are well capitalised and are capable of absorbing any macroeconomic shocks. These are also the findings of the stress tests that have been conducted on banking system. At an overall level, the banking system’s GNPAs fell to a 10-year-low of 3.9 per cent at the end of FY23, and are expected to improve further to 3.6 per cent by the end of FY24 under the baseline scenario, RBI said.

Crypto regulation The central bank said one of its priorities is to create a framework for global regulation , including a ban on unbacked crypto assets. It would consider all macroeconomic and regulatory perspectives  to address the full range of risks posed by crypto assets.