New Delhi: The youth community is getting disillusioned with the deposits in bank accounts. A report of SBI shows that 47 percent of the total deposits in banks belong to the elderly. The youth are attracted towards other investment options like stock market and mutual funds for better returns and this attraction is likely to remain the same. According to the report, the average age of stock market investors is only 32 years. 40 percent of the investors are less than 30 years old.

Looking for other options for better returns

The total amount invested in mutual funds in March 2014 was Rs 3.95 lakh crore, which has increased to Rs 19.10 lakh crore in the year 2024. Investors will largely go where they get better returns. In the financial year 2023, the interest on bank deposit schemes (for a period of three years) was 5.45 percent while the overall return on all mutual funds in the country was 46.37 percent, the rate of return on investing directly in the stock market was only 0.72 percent but in the year 2024 this return (stock market) increased to 24.85 percent. Investors got a return of 40.16 percent on mutual funds. Whereas this year, a return of 6.56 percent was received on three-year bank fixed deposit schemes.

Loan disbursement speeds up

The report has also dismissed the concerns of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and RBI Governor Dr Shaktikanta Das that the growth rate of deposits in the banking sector is slowing down, while the pace of loan disbursal is fast.

The team of economists of State Bank has said that the growth rate of deposits and loans achieved by the banks during the financial year 2023 is the highest since the year 1951-52. During this period, the total deposit amount has increased by Rs 15.7 lakh crore while the loan amount has expanded by Rs 17.8 lakh crore. In the financial year 2023-24, the deposit amount has increased by Rs 23.4 lakh crore while the loan amount has increased by Rs 27.5 lakh crore.

The difference between loan and deposit has already been seen

Since the financial year 2022, the total deposits in public sector banks have increased by Rs 61 lakh crore while the loan disbursement amount has increased by Rs 59 lakh crore. If we talk about a decade, the deposit amount has increased by 2.75 times and the loan amount has increased by 2.8 times. This situation has not happened for the first time. Earlier also such a difference in loans and deposits has been seen for two or four years.

This is a cycle. The current cycle is expected to end by June-October, 2025. In such a situation, the report says that the rate at which deposits are being accepted and the rate at which loans are being given is important in the banking industry and not the pace at which the amount of deposits and loans is increasing.