Reliance Industries plans to raise as much as ₹12,500 crore through bonds with a five-year tenure. Larsen & Toubro has raised ₹500 crore, while Muthoot Fincorp is seeking ₹700 crore. Public sector borrower REC is also approaching the bond market.

Banking-system surplus liquidity stood at ₹10.49 lakh crore on September 8. The report links this to an RBI rule concerning FCNR(B) deposits, which are foreign-currency deposits held by NRIs. Banks exchanged about $127.23 billion of these deposits with the RBI for rupees, adding substantial cash to the system.

Much of that money is currently deployed overnight, earning around 4–5%. Corporate bonds offer banks a chance to earn better returns, encouraging them to put surplus funds into company debt rather than leave them in short-term placements. This availability of money is helping keep corporate borrowing costs relatively steady.

Five-year borrowing rates for AAA-rated companies are around 7.47%, compared with 7.00% six months earlier. Experts cited in the report believe higher global oil prices would have lifted rates further without the liquidity cushion. An RBI response to inflation could shrink that cushion and increase borrowing costs, though no timing for a rate increase has been stated.