Indian banks are facing a rise in defaults of home and other consumer credit, but the Reserve Bank feels the situation is nowhere near the US sub-prime crisis that saw many mortgage lenders shut down or go bankrupt after customers stopped repaying loans.
"Though there are reports of accelerated emergence of non-performing assets in regard to consumer credit, housing and real estate in a few banks, our preliminary assessment is that these do not have systemic implications either in terms of solvency or liquidity," RBI Governor Y V Reddy said at a banking conference in Mumbai.
He also
said the regulator has seen simultaneous volatility in money, credit, and currency markets, asset prices and food items, adding, "RBI is on a major extraordinary vigilance" to face these issues.
"The current phenomenon of simultaneous volatility should be viewed in the context of possible repositioning of the world's dominant reserve currency," Reddy said.
He also expressed confidence on the policy actions taken by the Reserve Bank to address the evolving monetary, credit and inflation environment in the country and said: "There will be a more detailed account of our regulatory focus on liquidity."