The delinquency rate among the loan portfolios of the banks are on rise due to the economic slowdown. Default among the healthy consumers is also becoming common in the current phase.

Recently Vijaya Bank has reported about its delinquency in home loans.

Chairman and Managing Director of Vijaya Bank, Albert Tauro said: "The delinquency has mainly been in home loans. These are not bad loans only that the incremental EMIs due to the current economic scenario had led to these borrowers defaulting on payments."

The bank has started taking moves to control the default rate which amounted to nearly Rs 145 crore this quarter. This rate is expected to fall after the situation eases.

Vijaya's retail loans exposure grew by 13.16% year-on-year to Rs 9,069 crore out of which nearly Rs 4,000 crore were home loans. Bank's retail loans comprised 24.70% of its total credit.

Asking about the bank's home loan exposure, Tauro said, "We do not intend to go slow on home loans. We will aggressively market it, but now we have set up 11 cells to process the applications."

These cells would select borrowers after a thorough due diligence, he said.

Vijaya Bank non-performing assets (NPAs) increased during this fiscal. The second quarter of the fiscal noted NPAs at Rs 268 crore as compared to Rs 116 crore in the same quarter during the last fiscal.

Vijaya Bank was established on 23rd October 1931 and grew steadily by merging nine smaller banks into it between 1963 and 1968. The bank was nationalized on 15 April 1980. As of 2008, the bank has a network of 1053 branches, 47 extension counters, 296 ATMs.