Fearing a deterioration in asset quality and to fire up credit demand, top bankers

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today appealed to the Reserve Bank to pause its interest rate hike cycle that has already seen 12 hikes in the past 19 months.

"Bankers want a pause (to rate hikes). It goes without saying ... (and) for a longer period of time," chief executive of Indian Banks Association, the umbrella body of banks, K Ramakrishnan, told reporters here.

The Reserve Bank is scheduled to unveil the second quarter monetary policy on October 25.

Bankers are concerned because there is no pick up in credit and the actual disbursements happening at present are the proposals sanctioned earlier, he said after the customary bankers' pre-policy meeting with the RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao and the deputy governors.

"Frankly speaking, credit growth is muted. The credit growth has not been to the expectations, Capex (by companies) is virtually at a standstill, investment is not really happening," Ramakrishnan said.

However, as of September 9, non-food credit growth logged in 20.1 percent or by Rs 31,490 crore, according to the RBI data. But this was mostly due to the disbursals of outstanding credit orders by the petroleum, coal and nuclear sectors.

Bank of Baroda Chairman and Managing Director MD Mallya, who also chairs the IBA, said demand for credit has been "muted" and is likely to stay so for "some more time."