mumbai bank deposits have risen by over rs 28 lakh crore in three fortnights of the lockdown till may 8 while bank credit during the period dipped by rs 12 lakh crore according to data released by the reserve bank of india this has added nearly rs 4 lakh crore to the liquidity in the banking system resulting in a surge in investments by banksa few days into the lockdown on march 27 bank deposits stood at rs 1357 lakh crore a fortnight later on april 10 outstanding deposits surged to rs 1371 lakh crore in another two fortnights by may 8 the deposits rose to rs 1385 lakh crore a rise of rs 28 lakh crore in the six weeks since march 27 these three fortnights also saw bank credit decline from rs 1037 lakh crore on march 27 to rs 1025 lakh crore on may 8 a drop of rs 12 lakh crore in six weeksbanks have grown outstanding deposits by over 2 in six weeks while the whole of fy20 up to march 27 bank deposits had gone up by only 79 the numbers indicate a big shift to bank deposits during the lockdown most of the money went into fixed deposits where the outstanding amount rose to rs 1239 lakh crore on may 8 an increase of rs 44 lakh crore over march 27 current and savings deposit balances declined by rs 16 lakh crore to rs 146 lakh crore while a decline in bank credit in april is not unusual what accentuates this years decline is that the yearend surge in march which leads to a pullback in april was missing as a result fy20 credit growth was only 61 less than half of the 13 growth in fy19finance minister nirmala sitharaman in her meeting with banks on friday will take up the progress of covidrelated credit and the extent of preapproved loans that have been sanctioned the fm has also called for details on the loan offers accepted and disbursement effected the new schemes announced by the government under the atma nirbhar bharat scheme will also be discussedlast week sbi chairman rajnish kumar had said that in april 2020 the public sector lender had seen a bank deposit growth of rs 125 lakh crore attributing it to a flight to safety he added that credit growth was negative during april leading to surplus liquidity in the banking system speaking to toi the sbi chairman said that toprated corporates were raising funds from the money markets the amount outstanding under commercial papers jumped to rs 417 lakh crore as on april 30 2020 up from rs 381 lakh crore as on april 15 with rs 77889 crore of paper being issued during the fortnight banks also say that small businesses are not availing of additional limits as they have been waiting for the loans that will be subsidised because of the government credit guarantee which have recently been notifiedpeoples savings are