As there has been increasing bad loans and lower credit off-take in the corporate segment, most of the banks are trying to step up their retail advances portfolio.

Rate could get more competitive for home, car and personal loans in the coming time.

Mr. B A Prabhakar, Chairman and Managing Director of Andhra Bank said that the present strategy for his bank is to focus on both the retail and priority sectors.

Mr. Prabhakar said, "The demand for retail loans is strong and the increased lending to retail will help diversifying the loan book. That's why many banks are focusing on this segment".

Mr. Bhagavantha Rao, Managing Director of State Bank of Hyderabad also said that the home loan growth has shown signs of some pick up unlike that in the corporate segment. According to him, the non-performing asset level is not worrisome in retails.

Many other lenders such as Syndicate bank, Corporation Bank, Bank of Baroda, United Bank of India are planning to boost up their retail lending. Private banks will however will be pushing its personal loans.

In fact, the increased focus on retail lending is clearly visible in many a bank's balance-sheet last fiscal.

For instance, State Bank of India's retail advances last financial year had increased by 15 per cent to Rs 1-lakh crore.