The festive demand helped the bank credit surge 19.5% year-on-year at the end of October, making it the new two-year high, Reserve Bank of India latest data showed. The credit growth improved from 18.2% seen a fortnight back while credit expanded at 19.4% pace till September. The outstanding bank credit stood at Rs 231.8 lakh crore at the end of October. Bank credit growth is being driven by three themes: higher lending to non-banking financial companies, small business units and lending against gold jewellery, CareEdge Ratings said earlier this month.