HDFC Bank opened this round of fundraising with a $750 million issue, while Bank of Baroda's latest transaction brought in $700 million across two instruments. The lenders are seeking overseas money to reinforce their financial position and fund expansion. Citi India helped arrange the transactions.

ICICI Bank collected $1 billion, marking the biggest senior US-dollar bond sale by a private Indian lender in close to 14 years. Axis Bank secured $800 million using two note categories. These included perpetual Additional Tier-1 notes, which have no scheduled maturity and support regulatory capital needs.

SBI issued a five-year bond on August 11 to raise $500 million. Its spread was 88 basis points, or 0.88 percentage points, above the US Treasury benchmark. That represented the most favourable pricing achieved by an Indian bank in almost a year.

Investor orders substantially exceeded the amounts sought: HDFC Bank attracted $2.1 billion of interest, and SBI's order book reached $2.4 billion. This competition allowed lenders to narrow their pricing from initial expectations, reducing borrowing costs.

The fundraising followed RBI measures announced in June to encourage foreign-currency inflows amid rupee weakness. Certain deposit-related schemes have expired, but some incentives for overseas fundraising remain available until December. The report expects additional global bond deals as lenders pursue growth.