India’s Credit Landscape in a Post-pandemic World

Abstract

In this paper we study the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the financial sector of the Indian economy, specifically on the banking sector, the non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) and the bond market, for the period March 2020 to March 2022. In order to set the context, we first summarise the conditions of the financial sector in the pre-pandemic period. We highlight the long-term structural trends and their underlying drivers that were conspicuous in this sector even before the pandemic. These issues have direct consequences for the manner in which the pandemic impacted the financial sector which is what we discuss next. Finally, we describe the way forward for the Indian credit landscape in terms of the major opportunities and challenges. Abstract In this paper we study the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the financial sector of the Indian economy, specifically on the banking sector, the non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) and the bond market, for the period March 2020 to March 2022. In order to set the context, we first summarise the conditions of the financial sector in the pre-pandemic period. We highlight the long-term structural trends and their underlying drivers that were conspicuous in this sector even before the pandemic. These issues have direct consequences for the manner in which the pandemic impacted the financial sector which is what we discuss next. Finally, we describe the way forward for the Indian credit landscape in terms of the major opportunities and challenges.