Banking liquidity surplus shrinks to Rs 541 crore as cash crunch increases

Mumbai: Liquidity surplus in the banking system narrowed to ₹541 crore as of October 21, as banks parked additional funds to meet the daily cash reserve requirement of 99%. Consequently, the weighted average call rate (WACR) stood at 5.65% Thursday, 15 bps higher than the repo rate, CCIL data showed.

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The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) variable rate repo (VRRR) operations to infuse ₹50,000 crore liquidity garnered bids of ₹1.62 lakh crore amid a cash crunch in the system. The RBI will conduct another 3-day VRR on Friday. That is in sharp contrast against a peak surplus of ₹11 lakh crore mid-September, after the RBI called time on an incentives-laden forex-inflow program.


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