Thiruvananthapuram: The bank deposits by non-resident Indians (NRI) in Kerala stood at 62,708 crore till December 2012, bankers said.

There are now around three million Keralites who work in foreign countries, close to 90 per cent of them in the Middle East countries.

The deposits at the end of corresponding period in 2011 totalled 45,937 crore. These figures were made public at the 109th meeting of the State Level Bankers Committee.

Maximum deposits were done in the State Bank group, which attracted 40.58 percent or 25,445 crore of the total deposits. The private sector banks aggregated a total NRI deposit of 23.395 crore.

The semi-urban areas of Kerala accounted for 62.85 percent of the deposits followed by 31.34 per cent in the urban areas with the rural diaspora accounting for a mere 5.81 percent of share in the deposits.

Within the State Bank group, Kerala's own State Bank of Travancore led with 17,258 crore of NRI deposits.

Kerala headquartered Federal Bank stood first among the private sector banks with 11,032 crore deposits and they accounted for close to 50 per cent of all the NRI deposits in the private sector bank category.

The diaspora through its deposits into Kerala banks has been the mainstay of the state's economy.

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