Rs 7 lakh crore in a fortnight: Indian banks post sharp deposit surge in Q1FY27

Aggregate deposits with Indian banks rose to Rs 265.4 lakh crore as on June 30, 2026, with the system recording a sharp fortnightly increase of about Rs 7 lakh crore, or 2.7%, driven by a balanced rise across both demand and time deposits.

The last-fortnight surge has taken year-on-year deposit growth for the first quarter of FY27 to 13.3%, significantly higher than the 10.1% growth recorded a year earlier.

The jump follows a weaker start to the quarter. Deposit growth in the first three months stood at just 1.2%, or Rs 3.1 lakh crore, lower than the fortnightly growth alone, because earlier fortnights had actually seen deposits shrink from end-March 2026 levels. Until the fortnight ended June 15, 2026, bank deposits were down Rs 3.9 lakh crore, or 1.5%, from end-March 2026 levels.

Despite the surge, deposit growth continued to lag credit growth. Bank credit stood at Rs 219.3 lakh crore as on June 30, 2026, after increasing by Rs 3.8 lakh crore during the fortnight, a growth of 1.8%. On a year-on-year basis, credit growth accelerated sharply to 18.6%, nearly double the 9.5% growth recorded in June 2025.

Soumya Kanti Ghosh, chief economist at SBI, said in a report that netting out quarter-end deposit mobilisation, the surge also reflects a potential jump in capital flows through channels such as FCNR(B), ECB and the Overseas Foreign Currency Borrowing route.

With credit growth continuing to outstrip deposit growth, banks have been going slow on investments, which are largely in government securities. Bank investments stood at Rs 70.9 lakh crore at the end of the first quarter, with year-on-year investment growth moderating to 5.8%, compared with 8.7% growth in the preceding year.