The country's second largest private lender, ICICI Bank is optimistic about achieving steady growth in the auto loans segment despite a slowdown in vehicle sales volumes.
"Growth (in sales volumes) is low but financing penetration is increasing. For instance, our vehicle loan growth is around 18 percent, which is much higher than the general growth, because of financing penetration," said Anup Bagchi, Executive Director, ICICI Bank, adding, the growth is likely to continue at similar pace going ahead.
As on December 31, 2018, the bank had an outstanding auto loan book of Rs 53,000 crore.
The lender, on April 17, allowed online final sanction letters to obtain a car and two-wheeler loans for a select set of pre-approved customers.
"The first service, called ‘Insta Auto Loan’, enables over two million pre-approved customers to avail the final sanction letter of a car loan instantly and digitally up to Rs 20 lakh for a tenure of up to seven years. The second initiative, named ‘Insta Two-Wheeler Loan’, offers over 12 million pre-approved customers the facility to get an instant sanction of loan up to Rs 2 lakh for a tenure of up to three years," the bank said.
According to data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) last week, domestic passenger vehicles sales grew only 2.7 percent in 2018-19. Car sales in March this year declined 6.87 percent to 177,949 units during the month from 191,082 in March 2018. Total two-wheeler sales also declined 17.31 percent to 1,440,663 units in March 2019 from 1,742,307 units in the same month a year ago.
Growth in vehicle loans has slowed down on an industry level. As per the latest data released by the Reserve Bank of India, vehicle loans grew 7.8 percent year-on-year in February 2019 and 9.9 percent in February 2018.
Last month, ICICI Bank had offered instant sanction letters for home loans up to Rs 1 crore for a tenure of 30 years. However, ICICI Bank said it will not be offering any differential rate of interest on home as well as auto loans availed online.
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