New Delhi, Dec. 31 -- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has underlined rising stress in the unsecured lending portfolios of private sector banks, noting that while overall asset quality appears stable, fresh slippages and write-offs remain high, according to the central bank's Financial Stability Report (FSR) for December 2025.

This has come as unsecured retail lending, which boosted bank credit growth in the years following the covid pandemic, has slowed sharply after RBI tightened risk norms in November 2023.

"Even as asset quality in aggregate remains stable - GNPA (gross non-performing assets) ratio at 1.8% vis-a-vis 1.1% for retail advances-slippages in unsecured retail loans constituted 53.1% of the total retail loan slippages of SC...