Twenty years after India's insurance sector was opened up, unshackling the control of state-owned companies, as many as 50 private players have set up shop. Along with their foreign partners, private players have brought about a sea change in the product offering, distribution and underwriting processes, and services levels. Yet, India's insurance penetration needle has not moved much.
Bumper-to-bumper insurance cover for new vehicles will not be mandatory as suggested by the Madras high court in its order last month. Instead, the decision to make it mandatory or not will be left to the legislators and the parliament. On Monday, the court decided to modify its order, which had said that whenever a new vehicle is sold after 1.9.2021, it is mandatory for coverage of bumper-to-bumper insurance every year, in addition to covering the driver, passengers, and owner of the vehicle, for a period of five years.
If the court order is implemented, it will lead to an increase in the insurance outgo for car owners by a minimum Rs 50,000 for car and a minimum of Rs 7,000 for two-wheeler owners.
The payments industry is at a crossroads with the banking regulator on two pressing issues, neither of which seems headed towards an amicable solution. Depending upon which side accommodates the other, customers in India will have to choose between convenience and ironclad safety. In the end, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which regulates both banks and all payments services providers, will prevail. But the question is: will it do so by bending a little or by sticking to its firm stand? The two issues - one concerning payment facilitators storing customers' card details and the other about auto-renewal of payments - appear similar but aren't.
'Covid-related claims were almost 2.5 times the normal claims size.'
A day after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lifted its ban on HDFC Bank on issuing new credit cards, the country's largest private sector lender on Wednesday said it had resources and plans in place to "further reinforce pole position in the credit card segment" and that it would "come back with a bang". "We will aggressively go to the market, with not just our existing suite of credit cards but also new offerings in the form of co-brands and partnerships," Sashidhar Jagdishan, managing director and chief executive officer of HDFC Bank, said in a letter to his employees. The bank's management had earlier indicated that the lender had been sourcing liability customers aggressively over the past few months.
In an indication of easing financial stress among borrowers, the number of unsuccessful auto-debit requests through the National Automated Clearing House (NACH) platform declined in July, reversing a three-month trend that started with the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the NACH data, of the 86.4-million transactions initiated in July, 33.23 per cent, or 28.7 million transactions, failed, while 57.7 million were successful. Compared to June, this is a significant improvement in bounce rates.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday gave banks time till October 31 to comply with its guidelines on current account and overdraft facilities. The central bank indicated that it was in no mood to change the proposed rules, but would only allow for stretching the timeline for smoother implementation. The initial deadline had ended on July 31, leading to thousands of current accounts being closed or frozen by banks. Lenders had requested the RBI for some more time to resolve the operational issues in implementing the provisions of the August 2020 circular in letter and spirit.
Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the flagship payments platform of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), made a record in volume and value of transactions in July as digital payments rise in the pandemic. UPI processed a record 3.24 billion transactions in July up 15.7 per cent from June when it processed 2.8 billion transactions. In value terms, in July, the platform processed transactions worth Rs 6.06 trillion, up 10.76 per cent from June.
The non-life insurance industry has received over 1 million Covid-related claims in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (Q1FY22), higher than in the entire FY21, indicating the severity of the second wave of the pandemic. According to the General Insurance Council data, which is not publicly available, non-life insurers have received 1.22 million Covid-related claims so far in FY22 and have settled 944,573 of those worth Rs 9,178 crore. In comparison, they had received 986,366 Covid claims in FY21 and settled 849,034.
The country's largest private lender HDFC Bank's bad-loan write-offs doubled to Rs 3,100 crore in the April-June quarter (first quarter, or Q1) of 2021-22 (FY22), from the level of Rs 1,500 crore in the same quarter of 2020-21 (Q1FY21). It also offloaded its non-performing assets (NPAs) amounting to Rs 1,800 crore in Q1FY22 to maintain a robust asset quality profile. It had jettisoned NPAs worth Rs 1,000 crore in the last quarter. Lenders knock off stress assets from books after making full provisions. Their right to recover dues from delinquent borrowers remains intact after the write-downs.
The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) move to ban Mastercard from issuing new cards for not complying with the local data storage guidelines may hit five private banks, a non-bank lender, and a major card-issuing company. The impact is expected to be felt for a few months as these players transition to other card networks. According to Nomura Research, RBL Bank, YES Bank, and Bajaj Finserv are the ones most impacted by the ban as all their credit card schemes are allied to Mastercard. Among others, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank have 35-40 per cent of their credit card schemes tied to Mastercard, the report said.
'67 per cent of our transactions happen digitally and about 93 per cent of transactions happen outside the branch.' 'Despite that, there is ample scope for promoting banking-related activities in branches.' 'So, for some time, we will have to, probably, live with the same structure.'
Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the flagship payments platform of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), touched a record high both in terms of volume and value of transactions in June after a slump in April and May. The platform recorded 2.8 billion transactions worth Rs 5.47 trillion in June, up 10.6 per cent in volume terms and 11.56 per cent in value terms over May. This is in sync with the opening up of the economy as Covid cases gradually came down from its peak in mid-May and lockdowns were eased in various places.
After facing multiple outages that irked the regulator, the country's largest private sector lender, HDFC Bank, is revamping its technology infrastructure by making large scale investments, wherein it is bringing new talent, getting into cloud-native stacks, a shift from the traditional monolithic IT infrastructures, and working with strategic partners for better products and services. The bank management is clear that it will do whatever it takes in line with its growth path to ramp up its technology infrastructure.
'The overall death claims have gone up.'
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has approved the resolution plan of Twin Star Technologies -- a promoter entity of the Vedanta Resources group -- for the Videocon group. But it has pointed out that the successful resolution applicant is "paying almost nothing" as the amount offered is only 4.15 per cent of total outstanding claim. It noted the hair cut for all the creditors is 95.85 per cent and suggested to both committee of creditors (CoC) and the successful applicant an increase in the payout.
Auto-debit payment bounces have gone up for the second consecutive month in May, emphasising the stress building up due to a halt in economic activities as authorities lock down various parts of the country to stop the spread of the virus in the second wave. According to the National Automated Clearing House (NACH) data, in May, of the 85.7 million transactions initiated, 35.91 per cent, or 30.8 million transactions, failed.
The Mumbai Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Monday approved Piramal Group's resolution plan for the beleaguered Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), which has been reeling from the insolvency process since 2019. The plan put forward by Piramal Group, which has offered to pay Rs 37,250 crore, has been approved by the committee of creditors (CoC), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
Private equity firm Carlyle Group and associates will acquire a controlling stake of over 50 per cent in PNB Housing Finance by investing in the Rs 4,000 crore preferential issue of equity and warrants of the Delhi-based mortgage lender. After the proposed transactions, expected to be completed by January 1, 2022, Carlyle will also have the right to nominate the chairperson of PNB Housing Finance (PNB HF). This right will continue as long as it holds at least 40 per cent of the share capital on a fully diluted basis.
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