The breadth of the offers is evident at HDFC Bank, which is set to launch its Festive Treats 2026 campaign on October 10 with more than 10,000 offers spanning loans, cards, accounts, and EasyEMI. Customers can also avail of savings of up to ₹70,000 on purchases across categories such as electronics, travel, home décor, and jewellery. The bank is also offering concessions across personal, car and home loans, along with benefits on savings accounts, fixed deposits (FDs), lockers, and business products.
Other lenders, including State Bank of India (SBI), Axis Bank, Yes Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Punjab National Bank (PNB), have also started rolling out festival season offers.
However, lenders this time are not going into overdrive for retail customers amid robust loan growth and expectations of a reversal in the rate cycle. A section of the industry is yet to kick off its festival campaigns, as credit and deposit growth has been particularly high in the second quarter (July-September/Q2) of 2026-27 (FY27), driven in part by foreign currency non-resident (bank), or FCNR(B), mobilisation and loans linked to these deposits.
Moreover, lenders are keeping an eye on the upcoming Reserve Bank of India (RBI) monetary policy committee meeting, which is widely expected to increase the policy repo rate by 25 basis points (bps) — the first increase in two and a half years.
“Festival season offers from banks appear to be relatively muted this year, but this is not reflective of any underlying asset quality concern,” a private banker said. “Rather, credit growth, particularly corporate credit growth, has been strong, and banks have also seen healthy deposit mobilisation in Q2FY27, including through FCNR(B) deposits, reducing the need to aggressively chase growth during the festival period,” he added.
The festival season push typically begins towards the end of Q2FY27, the banker said, adding that the only reason it has not started around the same time this year could be that Q2FY27 was “quite fulfilling”.
Banks’ Q2FY27 business updates show healthy loan growth and deposit mobilisation. According to the latest data from the RBI, credit growth stood at 18.1 per cent as of September 15, while deposit growth was 17.3 per cent. Credit growth was as high as 19.1 per cent as of August 31, while deposit growth stood at 17.8 per cent.
The country’s largest lender, SBI, is offering concessional interest rates on personal, car and gold loans, as well as loans against mutual funds. It is also waiving processing fees on loans for its customers.
HDFC Bank’s festival campaign spans a broader range of products and services. According to a bank spokesperson, its Festive Treats 2026, scheduled to be launched on October 10, will provide more than 10,000 offers on loans, cards, accounts, and EasyEMI on cards.
“There is a range of offers for customers seeking loans, locker services, FDs, credit cards, and Biz+ current accounts, among other products and services,” the spokesperson said.
The bank is also offering Xpress personal loans starting at 9.99 per cent per annum, with loans of up to ₹50 lakh and no documentation; Xpress car loans starting at 8.25 per cent, with zero foreclosure charges and a tenure of up to eight years; and home loans starting at 7.2 per cent, with expert guidance. Gold loans of more than 75 per cent of the gold value are also available at attractive rates.
Its Specialé savings account offers benefits including locker services, FDs, Taj Epicure membership, lounge access, cashback, and shopping deals. Business customers can access current accounts, overdraft facilities, business credit cards, merchant payment solutions, and business and gold loans.
PNB has launched its PNB Utsav Festivities 2026 campaign, offering a full waiver of upfront, processing and documentation charges on home loans, along with a 5-bp concession on interest rates. It is also waiving upfront and processing charges on car loans and offering existing home loan customers an additional 10-bp concession on mortgage and topup loans. The offers are valid until December 31.
A senior banker at a state-owned bank said lenders, rather than relying only on interest-rate cuts, are considering fee waivers and targeted concessions to lower the upfront cost of borrowing for prospective customers. “This will give room to push retail credit while protecting lending margins,” he said.
The country’s second-largest private-sector lender, ICICI Bank, has launched its Festive Bonanza with offers across online shopping, electronics, travel, furniture and home decor, fashion, and quick commerce, among other categories.
The bank has also partnered Flipkart for its Big Billion Days sale, scheduled to begin on October 8, under which customers can avail of a 10 per cent discount across a range of products. It is also offering instant cashback of up to ₹7,000 on the iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, and up to ₹15,000 on select Apple products.
“With this year’s Festive Bonanza, we have partnered leading brands to bring exciting offers that make our customers’ shopping experience more rewarding. Our customers can avail of these offers by using ICICI Bank’s credit and debit cards, credit card EMIs, and internet banking,” a spokesperson for ICICI Bank said.
Kotak Mahindra Bank is offering a 50 per cent waiver on processing fees for home, car, personal, business, two-wheeler, gold, commercial vehicle, and construction equipment loans. The bank is offering a range of discounts to credit card customers across electronics, travel, fashion, jewellery, and home decor.
Yes Bank is offering deals and discounts across electronics, fashion, food, grocery, and travel on its credit cards. It is offering a 50 per cent waiver on processing fees until Diwali. Through its Yes Pay Next payments app, customers can avail of cashback on transactions made using RuPay cards issued by any bank between October 10 and 22.
