Public Sector Banks Surpass Private Banks in Loan Disbursals

In India, government banks have recovered significantly. Public sector banks (PSBs) have provided more loans than private banks for the first time in fifteen years. This represents a significant shift in the nation's banking industry. In the personal loan market, where government banks are currently lending more quickly than private banks, the expansion has been particularly robust. This change demonstrates how actively and competitively government banks are responding to consumer demands. For the first time in more than ten years, public sector banks have surpassed private banks in terms of overall loan distribution, making this accomplishment a significant turning point. Customers' increasing faith in government banks and their better performance in recent years are reflected in it.

Reason behind this

According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and other financial reports, one of the main reasons of increase in loan disbursals of government banks is that private banks like HDFC Bank and Axis Bank have slowed down their lending. In recent years, private banks usually led in giving loans, but now they are lending less compared to public sector banks.

The fact that government banks are more active in managing loan programs started by the federal and state governments could be another factor. These include programs that give small workers and merchants financial support, such as the PM Vishwakarma Yojana and the PM Svanidhi Yojana. Public sector banks have supplied the majority of the loans under these schemes, with private banks participating in very little of them. This may be a major factor in the fact that public banks are currently lending more money than private ones.

How Much Have Public Sector Banks Grown?

By December 2024, public sector banks recorded a strong 17% growth in personal loan disbursals, while private banks managed only 10% growth in the same category. This clearly shows that public banks are stepping up and winning borrower trust in the retail loan space. Public sector banks aren’t just leading in personal loans—they’re also ahead in industrial and service sector loans.

• Industrial loans: Public banks provided 60% of the total ₹37.9 lakh crore
• Service sector loans: They contributed 56% of ₹49.9 lakh crore
• Personal loans: Public sector banks disbursed 52% of ₹51.1 lakh crore

This wide lead proves that PSBs are playing a much larger role in supporting India’s economy across sectors.

Credit Growth vs Deposits

Interestingly, for the fourth year in a row, banks have given out more loans than the money they have received through deposits.This kind of trend is very rare and has happened only two times in the last 50 years. Most of the money banks received as deposits came from Fixed Deposits (FDs), which made up 86% of the total increase in deposits. As of December 2024, half of all the money kept in banks is now in the form of term deposits like FDs.

Home Loans

Government banks are also doing very well in giving home loans, especially in smaller cities (Tier-3) and rural areas. In the financial year 2024–25, public sector banks gave out 46.4% of all home loans, up from 45.1% the year before.Meanwhile, private banks saw a small drop in their share of home loans—from 54.9% to 53.6%. During this period, public banks gave out ₹2.1 lakh crore in new home loans, which makes up 56.1% of all home loans given that year.

Non-Resident Indians (NRIs)

Deposits by Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) grew well in the financial year 2024–25. Their total deposits increased by 10%, reaching ₹14.16 lakh crore by March 2025. About half of these deposits are in fixed deposits (FDs), which shows that NRIs still have strong trust in India’s public banks for saving their money for the long term.