Banks That Skirted India’s Bad Loans Can’t Escape Lockdown
- Central bank infuses $6.5 billion more for small borrowers
- Virus lockdown causes growth, debt concerns for private banks
A security guard exits a HDFC bank branch in Mumbai, India in 2019.
Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The final bastion in India’s $1.6 trillion banking sector faces a test of its resilience as private lenders brace for an erosion in loan growth and quality due to the coronavirus.
The nation’s strongest private banks -- HDFC Bank Ltd., Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. and ICICI Bank Ltd. -- had skirted the shockwaves that struck the state-owned banks and the shadow lenders in recent years, and which have left those sectors struggling under mountains of bad debt.