Mumbai, September 5, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
ICICI Bank and foreign lenders have emerged among the biggest beneficiaries of India's recent push to attract Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Bank), or FCNR(B), deposits, with banks offering competitive interest rates and leveraging overseas balance sheets securing a significant share of the inflows.
Brokerage reports from Macquarie, Jefferies, Motilal Oswal Financial Services (MOSL) and BofA Securities indicate that banks mobilized a substantial portion of the $136.4 billion, or around Rs 12.96 lakh crore, that flowed into FCNR(B) deposits. The mobilisation, however, was not necessarily linked to the size of a bank's domestic deposit franchise.
Among large private sector lenders, ICICI Bank emerged as a standout performer. Macquarie estimates that the bank mobilized $17.88 billion, or about Rs 1.70 lakh crore, giving it an estimated 18 per cent share of the market. MOSL puts the bank's share at around 14 per cent, still nearly twice its normal deposit-market footprint.
The mobilization was significantly supported by ICICI Bank's international balance sheet. Macquarie estimates that more than 70 per cent of the mobilization leverage came from the bank's own balance sheet, including nearly $9 billion in loans from international branches and $3.6 billion in standby letters of credit issued to other banks.
RBL Bank also mobilized substantially more than its domestic deposit-market share would suggest. MOSL estimates that the private lender raised around $3.4 billion, or nearly Rs 32,000 crore, accounting for about 2.7 per cent of total FCNR(B) deposits, compared with its normal deposit-market share of around 0.5 per cent.
Foreign banks recorded the sharpest relative gains. Jefferies said their share of FCNR(B) deposits rose from around 1-2 per cent in early June to 15-30 per cent of incremental flows by the end of July.
HSBC was among the major beneficiaries, with MOSL estimating that it had captured around 22 per cent of total inflows, mobilizing $6.1 billion, or roughly Rs 58,000 crore, as of July 30. Jefferies' bank-wise data put HSBC's incremental deposits at about $6.14 billion by the end of August. Standard Chartered accounted for around 7 per cent of incremental flows.