Mumbai: Third largest private sector lender Axis Bank is seeing newer risks emerging in the economy and has therefore decided to be "cautious" with lending, a top official said Thursday.
The comments come even as the banking system is coming out of the bad loan mess which has afflicted it for over the past five years, resulting in a slowdown in credit offtake as capital went more into writing off or providing for stressed assets than fresh asset creation.
"We are cautious given whatever is happening in the economy as some new signs of stress are emerging in the system," MD and CEO Amitabh Chaudhry said.
Meanwhile, Chaudhry said some borrowers are defaulting or there are reports of stress being felt by lenders and specifically cited real estate and non-banking lenders as the two segments which are of bother for the bank, but was quick to add that many of them are in good shape.
