Mumbai : Credit demand from consumers is increasing again especially in sectors such as auto and home loans though banks had reduced unsecured loan exposures, said K.V. Kamath, Chairman of ICICI Bank.

At the sidelines of a banking seminar, Kamath said, "So far as mortgages are concerned, I think they are back from where they were a year ago. The tension between buyer, builder, and the lender is now more or less off. Auto sector financing is also back." The chairman of the country's largest private sector bank felt 80 per cent of the consumer loans were back, the remaining 20 per cent mostly unsecured loans had taken a back seat.

He stated, "Unsecured consumer credit is certainly hit. Banks are not lending unsecured loans. We at ICICI Bank have significantly slowed down unsecured loans since one year. We only give unsecured loans to few existing clients, which have deposits and a good track record with us." He added that ICICI Bank took the lead in slowing down unsecured loans. Though home loans have picked up, commercial real estate loan demand is still slack due to excess capacity creation.

The growth of retail credit demand was not reflected in the overall credit growth numbers as a slowdown in working capital demand dragged down the overall numbers, felt Kamath. While adding that credit growth for 2009-10 was likely to be 29 per cent except the working capital loan, Kamath said, "It's not reflected in the numbers because lack of working capital. This loan is distorting the numbers. If we keep the working capital loan aside, lending rate will be healthy by the end of the year."