Almost all public sector and private banks have performed well and reported huge net profits running into crores of rupees during the financial year 2020-21 as well as in the first quarter of financial year 2021-22, despite the pandemic and the economic slowdown in the country. On the other hand, interest rates on Fixed Deposits (FDs) in all these banks during this period, have shown a steady downslide on some pretext or the other. FD rates at present in most public sector banks keep hovering around 4%- 5.5%, even for senior citizens, which puts them on par with savings bank interest rates of some private banks. A few co-operative society banks that were offering attractive FD rates have now been either liquidated or put under moratorium by the RBI for fraudulent transactions and cheating, leaving lakhs of their depositors in financial distress. Depositors are therefore left with no option but to park their hard earned savings in public sector banks as a safer bet. It is now a Hobson’s choice for the hapless depositors when it comes to investing in public sector banks.
