Investors opting for fixed deposits always look for financial institution offering high interest rate. However is your hard earned money safe in all the banks or non-banking financial corporations or others offering fixed deposit schemes? How will you know, whether or not the company is good or bad? The answer is CRISIL rating of fixed deposits. Similar to what lenders do before approving any type of credit (loan or credit card) to an applicant they check CIBIL score. In the same manner, depositors should check CRISIL grading of fixed deposit scheme. So if you want to know whether the company you’re investing money is credible or not, then check CRISIL rating.

What is CRISIL:

CRISIL is a company that provides ratings for various financial products offered by various companies based on various factors. Note that rating process by CRISIL is very rigorous. In this article, we’ll check the CRISIL rating for fixed deposits offered by various financial institutions in India (banks, housing finance companies etc.). Listed in the below table are the CRISIL rating for FD.

Financial Institution	CRISIL Rating
ICICI Bank	AAA
Bank of Baroda	AAA
Union Bank	AAA
ICICI Housing Finance Limited	AAA
State Bank of Hyderabad	AAA
National Housing	AAA
State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur	AAA
Punjab National Bank	AAA
HDFC Bank	AAA
Axis Bank	AAA
State Bank of Mysore	AAA
Indian Bank	AAA
State Bank of Travancore	AAA
Canara Bank	AAA
Dhanlaxmi Bank	FAAA
Kotak Bank	FAAA
Oriental Bank of Commerce	FAAA
State Bank of India	FAAA
Shriram Finance	FAAA
Bank of India	AA+
Sundaram Finance	AA+
Andhra Bank	AA+
PNB Housing Finance	AA+
Punjab & Sind Bank	AA
IDBI Bank	AA
Allahabad Bank	AA
Corporation Bank	AA
Indian Overseas Bank	AA
Federal Bank	A1+
Tamilnad Mercantile Bank	A1+
South Indian Bank	A1+
Karur Vysya Bank	A1+
Deutsche Bank	A1+
City Union	A1+
DBS Bank	A1+
IndusInd	A1+
Central Bank of India	AA-
United Bank	AA-
Dena Bank	AA-
Syndicate Bank	AA-
Jammu & Kashmir Bank	FAA
Indian Overseas Bank	FAA

Significance & meaning of each rating symbol:

• AAA: Highest safety
• AA: High safery
• A: Moderate/adequate safety
• BBB: Moderate credit risk but timely fulfillment of financial obligations
• BB: Moderate risk but timely fulfillment of financial obligations
• B: High risk of defaulting/inadequate safety
• C: Very high risk of defaulting
• D: Possibility of default in the future
• NM: Not meaningful

+/- indicates position of the respective financial institution within the rating category. Note that, poor grading does not necessarily mean default is ought to happen. It actually indicates that the risk associated with the financial product is high.

What should FD investors make of these ratings?

Depositors should always choose financial institution with a good credit rating from CRISIL. If FD interest rate is high but rating is poor, then stay away from these institutions. Check out NRI fixed deposit with maturity value of 21 Lacs.

Should we choose banks or non-banking financial corporations?

FDs from banks always guarantee safety which is not the case with NBFCs. So a detailed research should be done before putting money in NBFC. Read more on FDs offering highest interest rate.

How often these ratings are re-evaluated by CRISIL?

According to CRISIL, grading is done on the basis of debt obligation and is valid until the debt obligation is fully paid.

Author Bio:

Hi, I am Nikesh Mehta owner and writer of this site.

I’m an analytics professional and also love writing on finance and related industry. I’ve done online course in Financial Markets and Investment Strategy from Indian School of Business.

I can be reached at nikeshmehta@allonmoney.com. You may also visit my LinkedIn profile.