An Indian lender has sold a housing loan portfolio of about Rs 60 billion ($717 million), seeking to further lighten its credit load amid regulatory pressures on the industry. The portfolio was sold to about half a dozen state-controlled banks through private deals, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified as the information is not yet public.

The Mumbai-based bank also unloaded another pool of car loans worth about Rs 90.6 billion, securitized in a fixed-income product called pass-through certificates, the people said. The lender had previously been in talks to offload the pool to about a dozen local asset management companies.

In June, the bank also sold a Rs 50 billion loan portfolio. Its credit-deposit ratio stood at 104% at the end of March, higher than the 85% to 88% rate in the previous three fiscal years, according to a domestic ratings agency.

The central bank has warned that deposit growth lagging behind credit growth “may potentially expose the banking system to structural liquidity issues.”

For its upcoming earnings report for the quarter ended September, the lender is expected to show deposit growth of 13% year-on-year, compared with an 8% increase in loans, according to a senior financial services analyst at a global research firm.

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