. 81 77. 0 0. 74 sep'19 mar'20 sep'20 percentage mar'21 sep'21 provision coverage ratio ( write - off adj ) ( % ) mar'22 slippage ratio ( annualized ) source : rbi supervisory returns ; data for mar - 22 is provisional. 17. the banks have also facilitated timely credit offtake to catalyse the economic recovery. needless to mention the eclgs scheme rolled out by the government too effectively dovetailed with the overall efforts in mitigating the risk aversion amongst the lending institutions. chart - 3 : capital position has improved along with growth in advances 15. 33 percentage 16. 16 16. 22 16. 25 15. 1 sep'19 mar'20 rs. lakh crore 17. 02 sep'20 mar'21 gross loans and advances sep'21 mar'22 capital ratio ( crar ) source : rbi supervisory returns ; data for mar - 22 is provisional. 18. these efforts have also found favour amongst the investors and the markets too have supported banks in their capital augmentation measures. today, most of the banks have a comfortable capital position which should position them well to support economic recovery ( chart - 3 ). these data points do give us a degree of comfort at this juncture. however, we may also have to wait a bit longer to see how the impact completely plays out. while we have attempted to combat the effects of pandemic on the financial system, the task is only half done, we have to ensure that the financial system escapes unscathed as we exit from the pandemic driven regulatory forbearances. 19. the pandemic also saw financial sector enjoying a favourable momentum with increase in liquidity, flow of credit and government spending on relief programs. it is increasingly getting debated in global forums as to whether the pandemic induced measures have led to build up of leverage and debt over - hang in non - financial sectors. prudence, therefore, has to be exhibited by banks to ascertain whether the current levels of asset quality being exhibited is on account of improvement in fundamentals of business on account of deleveraging and efficiency gains or on account of support extended by the authorities through the measures elucidated above. we expect banks and other financial institutions to pro - actively undertake stress testing of their loan books subjecting them to various levels of stress including extreme scenarios to estimate the loss absorption limits available at disposal and take

well as other charges to ensure outreach of such accounts to vast sections of the population. as there are many regional languages in india, banks are required to make available all printed material used by retail customers in the concerned regional language. second, banks have also been permitted to utilise the services of non - governmental organizations / self help groups ( ngos / shgs ), micro - finance institutions and other civil society organizations as intermediaries in providing financial and banking services through the use of business facilitator and business correspondent ( bc ) models. third, banks are also entering into agreements with indian postal authorities for using the large and well spread network of post offices as business correspondents, thereby increasing their outreach and leveraging on the postman ’ s intimate knowledge of the local population and trust reposed in him. similarly, banks in association with insurance companies, are providing innovative insurance policies at affordable cost, covering life disability and health cover. fourth, the reserve bank has been encouraging the use of ict solutions by banks for enhancing their outreach with the help of their business correspondents ( bcs ). a multilingual website in 13 indian languages on all matters concerning banking and the common person has been launched by the reserve bank on 18 june 2007. several initiatives were also undertaken by the reserve bank to improve the delivery of customer services by banks. first, the recommendations of the standing committee on procedures and performance audit on public services set up in november 2003 covering an individual customer's dealing with a bank in the areas of foreign exchange, currency and government transactions, including pension, besides the main relationship as an account holder are being implemented. second, in order to bring together all activities relating to customer service in banks and the reserve bank of india in a single department, the reserve bank of india constituted a new department called “ customer service department ” on july 1, 2006. the new department has facilitated a sharper focus to customer service issues. third, the banking ombudsman scheme, which was introduced in 1995 to provide an expeditious and inexpensive forum to bank customers for resolution of their complaints relating to deficiency in banking services, was last revised in 2006. the scheme has an enlarged scope now and is applicable to all commercial banks, regional rural banks and scheduled primary cooperative banks. the complainants can file their complaints in any form, including online. fourth, recognising an institutional gap in measuring the performance of the banks against codes and standards based on established best practices, rbi