Weathering the Covid-19 pandemic better-than-expected, nursing their balance sheets, and gaining meaningful market share, large private banks and financial institutions are likely to enter a ‘golden age’ in 2021, analysts say. Private lenders strengthened their capital, built excess provisions, improved liquidity positions, and increased digital adoption to come out strong from the Covid-19 crisis. A combination of these factors, analysts at Morgan Stanley say, will help them gain rapid market share and materially lower cost to income ratios over the next few years. The macro recovery trends have sustained, and collection efficiency in stressed segments is also improving. The extension of government credit guarantee scheme will further help reduce asset quality stress. Consequently, we lower credit cost estimates at these banks and expect credit costs to normalize in H2-F22/F23, Sumeet Kariwala, equity analyst at Morgan Stanley, said in a recent note co-authored with Su