Banks keen on lending

The banks are showing their eagerness to lend in a big way with scheduled commercial banks together lends credit of Rs 13,090 crore in the fortnight ended June 15. The bankers attribute this to quarter-end considerations whereby the banks bulk up their lending portfolio. However, in the preceding fortnight, the banks collectively had lent Rs 22,029 crore. On account of the government''s aggressive push to its borrowing programme, SCBs'' investment in the reporting fortnight was Rs 18,092 crore as against Rs 18,856 crore in the preceding fortnight. SCBs'' deposits in the reporting fortnight fell by Rs 4,792 crore as compared to an accretion of Rs 6,116 crore in the preceding fortnight.