The share of State Bank of India and its associates in aggregate deposits and gross bank credit stood reduced to 24.8 per cent and 29 per cent from 25.4 per cent and 29.7 per cent respectively.

These declines become evident on a comparison of the Reserve Bank of India's ``Banking statistics: Quarterly handouts'' for the last Fridays of March 1998 and March 1997. The Reserve Bank handouts provide data on aggregate bank deposits and gross bank credit. The primary data is culled from commercial banks and presented according to the top hundred centres, population groups, districts and bank groups. On the last Friday of March 1998, the all-India credit-deposit (CD) ratio stood at 55.7 per cent (57.3 per cent). The SBI and itsassociates' CD ratio stood at 65 per cent (67.2 per cent).

The share of regional rural banks (RRBs) and other scheduled commercial banks in aggregate deposits improved to 3.8 per cent (3.4 per cent) and 9.8 per cent (8.8 per cent) respectively while that of foreign banks stood reduced to 7 per cent (7.2 per cent). On the credit side, the share of RRBs and other scheduled commercial banks improved to 10.5 per cent (9.3 per cent) and 3.2 per cent (3.0 per cent) respectively while that of foreign banks fell to 9 per cent (10 per cent). Maharashtra's share of aggregate deposits stood at 19.9 per cent (20.7 per cent).