'Banking sector's growth to remain high'

'Banking sector's growth to remain high'

The assessment made by Standard & Poor (a popular international credit rating agency) about the working and prospects of the Indian banking industry is laudable. This comes much before our own regulator Reserve Bank of India, coming out today and tomorrow about the review of monetary policy and / or claiming the robustness of the industry. Credit also goes to our policy makers, regulators, participants (the banks) who are meticulous compliant with the set guidelines.

S&P expects that despite rising inflation, the credit growth would be around 20 per cent during this year, which is much needed and desirable. The observation that the Indian banking system withstood the onslaught of the global meltdown in last two years is commendable too. Non Performance Loans are very much within under control at a respectable percentage of 2.2 to 2.5 per cent is assuring that the quality of assets is well maintained.