Private sector banks hold equity capital in excess of the regulatory requirement (400 basis points more from 2006 to 2017). The impact of excess capital in banks is examined through a partial adjustment approach with unbalanced panel data for listed Indian banks from 2006 to 2017. Findings reveal that banks hold excess capital ratios, and private sector banks actively manage higher capital ratios than the public sector banks. The speed of adjustment for private banks is much higher than for public sector ones, and an inverse relationship between non-performing assets and change in equity capital is found.