Today, the Reserve Bank released the results of 33rd round of its quarterly Bank Lending Survey (BLS)¹, which captures qualitative assessment and expectations of major scheduled commercial banks on credit parameters (viz., loan demand as well as terms and conditions of loans) for major economic sectors². The latest round of the survey, which was conducted during Q2:2025-26, collected senior loan officers’ assessment of credit parameters for Q2:2025-26 and their expectations for Q3, Q4 of 2025-26 and Q1 of 2026-27.

Highlights: 

A. Assessment for Q2:2025-26

• Bankers assessed an improvement in loan demand across major sectors during Q2:2025-26 (Chart 1 and Table 1).
• Majority of the responding bankers indicated “no change” in loan terms and conditions (Table 2).

B. Expectations for Q3:2025-26

• Bankers remained optimistic about overall loan demand in Q3:2025-26, driven by higher loan demand expected from agriculture, mining & quarrying, manufacturing, infrastructure, and services sectors (Table 1).
• Overall, easy terms and conditions for loans are expected to prevail during the quarter (Table 2).

C. Expectations for Q4:2025-26 and Q1:2026-27

• Bankers remain upbeat on loan demand during Q4:2025-26 and Q1:2026-27 (Table 3) and they continue to anticipate easy loan terms and conditions in Q4:2025-26 and Q1:2026-27.

Note: Please see the attached excel file for detailed time series data.

¹ The results of 32nd round of the BLS with reference period as April-June 2025 were released on the RBI website on August 06, 2025. The survey results reflect the views of the respondents, which are not necessarily shared by the Reserve Bank.

² The survey questionnaire is canvassed among major 30 SCBs, which together account for over 90 per cent of credit by SCBs in India.

³ Net Response (NR) is computed as the difference of percentage of banks reporting increase/optimism and those reporting decrease/pessimism in respective parameter. The weights of +1.0, 0.5, 0, -0.5 and -1.0 are assigned for computing NR from aggregate per cent responses on 5-point scale, i.e., substantial increase/ considerable easing, moderate increase/ somewhat easing, no change, moderate decrease/ somewhat tightening, substantial decrease/ considerable tightening for loan demand/loan terms and conditions parameters respectively. NR ranges between -100 to 100. Any value greater than zero indicates expansion/optimism and any value less than zero indicates contraction/pessimism. Increase in loan demand is considered optimism (Table 1), while for loan terms and conditions, a positive value of net response indicates easy terms and conditions (Table 2).