Even as the Reserve Bank of India announced extension of the moratorium on term loans by another three months till August 31, industry data reveal that auto and home loans are the major segments where retail borrowers have been availing the facility.

Credit card loans

Data with leading banks and non-banking finance companies show that retail borrowers and small businesses have also been availing the facility for farm and consumer loans as well as outstanding credit card loans.

Data with Bajaj Finance revealed that as much as 70 per cent of its assets under management in the auto finance business was under moratorium as on April 30. This was followed by 30 per cent each of the AUM under rural business to business and SME business under moratorium.

Significantly, its consumer B2C business, which has the largest AUM of ₹30,500 crore, had 29 per cent of the funds under moratorium.

L&T Financial Services reported that 32 per cent of its borrowers who had taken consumer loans had availed the moratorium as on March 31, followed by 31 per cent of borrowers who had taken a farm loan. As much as 29 per cent of the borrowers who had taken a two-wheeler loan also availed the moratorium.

Ramesh Iyer, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services Ltd, said that other than farm and local small traders, about 75 per cent of its total customers had taken the moratorium.

“The moratorium has not been allowed to certain delinquent customers. It was available for customers in 0, 1 and 2 buckets, of which, about 70 per cent to 75 per cent have taken the moratorium,” he told BusinessLine.

Cash flows

Bankers have reported that many retail customers opted for the moratorium out of caution to conserve cash flows in segments such as housing loan and even credit cards.

Published on May 25, 2020

A letter from the Editor


Dear Readers,

The coronavirus crisis has changed the world completely in the last few months. All of us have been locked into our homes, economic activity has come to a near standstill. Everyone has been impacted.

Including your favourite business and financial newspaper. Our printing and distribution chains have been severely disrupted across the country, leaving readers without access to newspapers. Newspaper delivery agents have also been unable to service their customers because of multiple restrictions.

In these difficult times, we, at BusinessLine have been working continuously every day so that you are informed about all the developments – whether on the pandemic, on policy responses, or the impact on the world of business and finance. Our team has been working round the clock to keep track of developments so that you – the reader – gets accurate information and actionable insights so that you can protect your jobs, businesses, finances and investments.

We are trying our best to ensure the newspaper reaches your hands every day. We have also ensured that even if your paper is not delivered, you can access BusinessLine in the e-paper format – just as it appears in print. Our website and apps too, are updated every minute, so that you can access the information you want anywhere, anytime.

But all this comes at a heavy cost. As you are aware, the lockdowns have wiped out almost all our entire revenue stream. Sustaining our quality journalism has become extremely challenging. That we have managed so far is thanks to your support. I thank all our subscribers – print and digital – for your support.

I appeal to all or readers to help us navigate these challenging times and help sustain one of the truly independent and credible voices in the world of Indian journalism. Doing so is easy. You can help us enormously simply by subscribing to our digital or e-paper editions. We offer several affordable subscription plans for our website, which includes Portfolio, our investment advisory section that offers rich investment advice from our highly qualified, in-house Research Bureau, the only such team in the Indian newspaper industry.

A little help from you can make a huge difference to the cause of quality journalism!

Sincerely,

Support Quality Journalism