The Reserve Bank of India's latest order prohibiting Bajaj Finance from sanctioning and disbursing loans under its 'eCOM' and 'Insta EMI Card' products may not have serious implications on the non-banking finance company's profitability, provided the ban is lifted within six to eight weeks, analysts said. "In a surprise move, the RBI has asked Bajaj Finance to stop sanction and disbursal under two of its digital lending products. "While the move is negative, the speed of correction will be key to reinstate products," global brokerage Jefferies said in a report.
Fintech companies believe that the impact of Reserve Bank of India's order last week on unsecured loans will be visible in six to 12 months and prompt them to diversify and strengthen their secured portfolio. Fintechs which source funds through banks or non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) are looking at quickly building their secured portfolio options to at least 40 per cent of their total portfolio. "Over the medium to long term, as part of our product strategy, we are evaluating secured products which can be enabled over a digital platform" said Yogi Sadana, the founder of Zype, a lending-focussed fintech.
Between March 2022 and September 2023, HDFC Bank added 56,310 employees.
The central bank's move comes against the backdrop of the government efforts to crackdown on entities, that are illegally raising large amounts of money from the public.
Diversified business conglomerate Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) has picked up a 3.53 per cent stake in private sector lender RBL Bank for Rs. 417 crore. "We may consider further investment, subject to pricing, regulatory approvals, and required procedures. However, in no circumstance will it exceed 9.9 per cent," M&M said in an exchange notification on Wednesday. Shares of RBL Bank jumped 7.1 per cent to settle at Rs. 238.8 apiece on the BSE on Wednesday, close to their 52-week high of Rs. 242.1.
India's biggest non-bank finance company, Bajaj Finance (BAF), is set to raise capital after a gap of four years. On October 5, the board of directors will meet to approve the fund raise by way of preferential issue and/or qualified institutional placement (QIP) subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals. The move, analysts said, comes ahead of expectations, and could be in the wake of simmering competition in the consumer lending space, especially with the launch of Jio Financial Services (Jio Fin). "While we still do not have finer details on the game-plan of Jio Financial, it has plans to initially foray into consumer and merchant lending.
Fitch Ratings on Wednesday said the recent search by the enforcement directorate at gold-backed lender Manappuram Finance highlights corporate governance challenges that can arise in emerging markets like India. "Such searches need not lead to further regulatory action, but investigations raise reputational risk that could tarnish a lender's business prospects and constrict funding access due to reduced market confidence - potentially affecting an issuer's credit profile - even if no wrongdoing is identified," Fitch added. The rating agency said Manappuram Finance Ltd has disclosed that the Enforcement Directorate's search at its premises pertained to legacy non-compliant activities at its branches up until 2012.
"We will raise Rs 300 crore via bonds of two-, three- and five-year tenures. This will be our maiden bond issuance and is part of our effort to widen funding sources," says Vimal Bhandari, executive vice-chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), Arka Fincap. The firm, a subsidiary of Kirloskar Oil, is only five years old and small (assets of around Rs 5,000 crore with an "AA" rating), but the response to this float will be closely watched: It would be the first by a non-banking finance company (NBFC) after Mint Road upped the risk weights on bank exposures to them by 25 percentage points. The move by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has caught NBFCs off guard even though the issue had been flagged by Governor Shaktikanta Das with their corner-room occupants (and that of banks) in July and August 2023 - on consumer credit and the dependency on bank borrowings.
In August, the Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das held a meeting with chief executive officers/ managing directors (CEOs/ MDs) of large non-banking financial corporations (NBFCs). The discussions included diversifying borrowing sources for NBFCs and housing finance companies (HFCs) to contain increasing reliance on bank borrowing, risks associated with high credit growth in retail segment in unsecured loans, prioritising IT upgrades and cyber-security, improving provisioning, monitoring of stressed exposures and slippages, ensuring robust liquidity and asset-liability management, ensuring transparency in pricing, creating robust grievance redress mechanisms.
Nobody is held accountable for lapses, no matter how badly it affects the person or business whose accounts are frozen. Nor is there compensation for losses. Most people get to know their accounts are blocked only when a cheque bounces, points out Debashis Basu.
'This segment has performed very well for us and this is reflected in our bounce rate which is about three to four per cent.'
Your awareness about the effect of the home loan tenure and EMI on your loan empowers you to take better decisions, explains Gaurav Mohta.
The companies on the list are from sectors including trading, finance, packaging, textile, realty, and others. Trading and finance companies account for half-a-dozen companies each.
Excerpted from Sahara: The Untold Story by Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh on Monday said harmonisation of rules between banks and non-banks which reduces the regulatory arbitrage was one of the key factors which influenced the decision for merger between the largest home financier and HDFC Bank. Parekh, who said the merger discussions have happened over the last three weeks, noted that requirements like non performing asset recognition being at par and size-based regulations for non-bank finance companies are among the changes in landscape. Addressing a press conference after the surprise announcement earlier in the day, Parekh said the last three years have seen harmonisation in the regulations which reduce the "regulatory arbitrage" of running a separate home finance company.
Housing finance company (HFC) PNB Housing is planning to focus on reducing delinquencies in 2023-24.
Shelar demanded that Desai's death should not be treated just as a case of accidental death, but must be dealt with from a larger perspective.
The ED carried out searches against two former auditor firms of IL&FS -- BSR and Associates and Deloitte Haskins and Sells -- on Wednesday in connection with its money-laundering probe into alleged financial irregularities at the infrastructure development and finance company, official sources said. The premises linked to the two auditors in Mumbai were searched under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they added. The action came a week after the Supreme Court set aside a Bombay High Court verdict that quashed an SFIO probe against the two companies, both former auditors of IL&FS Financial Services, paving the way for action against them under the Companies Act and allowing the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to take forward its enquiry against them.
Lenders and shareholders of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) will meet on May 2 to demerge the firm's financial services business. This is expected to create a big player in segments including the NBFC (non-banking financial company) space with net worth of Rs 25,851 crore as of March 2022. According to the plan, RIL shareholders will get a share in the demerged entity for each one held in the company.
The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has named Ravneet Kaur, a Punjab cadre IAS officer of 1988 batch, as chairperson of the Competition Commission of India (CCI). Kaur will hold the post for five years or until attaining the age of 65. She is the second woman to serve in an 'economic regulator' role after Madhabi Puri Buch, who was appointed chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India last year and the first woman to head the country's chief national competition regulator.
While weather forecasters remain divided on how the monsoons will play out in India over the next few months, analysts believe the news at the current juncture - at best - can trigger a knee-jerk reaction in the markets. They believe it is too early to say whether the sub-par monsoon on account of El Nino can seriously dent the market sentiment in the short-to-medium term. "These are just initial forecasts and we will have another round / status update from the weather forecasters a month down the line.
Mortgage lender HDFC Ltd on Friday hiked its lending rate by 50 basis points hours after the Reserve Bank raised the benchmark interest rate to tame inflation. The move would increase EMIs for housing loans by the firm. "HDFC increases its Retail Prime Lending Rate (RPLR) on Housing loans, on which its Adjustable Rate Home Loans (ARHL) are benchmarked, by 50 basis points, with effect from October 1, 2022," the country's biggest housing finance company said in a statement.
Polarisation in the performance of Indian banks will persist as many large public sector banks are still saddled with weak assets, high credit costs, and poor earnings, S&P Global Ratings said on Thursday. It said State Bank of India and leading private sector banks have largely addressed their asset quality challenges, and their profitability is improving more sharply than the banking system. In its Global Banking Outlook-2023 report, S&P said economic recovery is driving credit costs to cyclical low levels and stronger balance sheets and higher demand should boost bank loan growth, but deposit growth will lag.
The global turmoil in the banking sector has made analysts cautious, who advise that investors stay away from stocks of this sector till the overall sentiment improves. The recent trouble for the banking sector started with the collapse of US-based Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Silvergate Capital and Signature Bank. On its part, Moody's Investors Service has also cut its outlook for the US banking system to 'negative' from 'stable', citing the run on deposits at these three banks that led to the collapse of these banking majors in less than a week.
'The market has picked up for commercial vehicles. We are very close to pre-pandemic levels.'
'The biggest risk to the Indian markets from a 12-18-month view is that the current government does not get re-elected, or loses in a way that is not represented at all in the next central government.'
Gold prices hit record high in the third week of March as fears of bank collapses and high inflation led investors to the traditional safe haven. Gold prices are often inversely correlated to dollar strength because the international price is dollar-denominated. The Federal Reserve's (Fed's) stance indicates that the dollar may appreciate further since it is prepared to keep pushing up policy rates. But demand for gold is also up - the World Gold Council claims central banks are buying in addition to private demand.
The mutual fund (MF) industry has seen a fair number of new entrants in the last 10 years but none of them have proved to be much of a challenge for the larger players. The list of top 20 fund houses, which manage over 90 per cent of the industry's total assets, continues to be dominated by players who have been in the business for more than a decade. Bajaj Finserv MF may change that, say experts.
The effect of the HDFC-HDFC?Bank merger will be for the bigger space of the Indian financial sector and not just limited to the banking sector. The large finance companies have practically no benefit of regulatory arbitrage. Earlier, such arbitrage between banks and NBFCs was normal. The logic of the merger is very clear - the cost of borrowing of banks is lower.
Superseding the boards of two non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) in the Srei group will neither create liquidity challenges for sound entities, nor build systemic crises because the markets have factored in the problems with the Kolkata-based firms. Such regulatory steps will help in making the NBFC space more robust, bankers and market experts said. The action should have begun earlier because the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had done a special audit last financial year and asked the group to make provisions for assets considered stressed, analysts said.
Listed housing finance companies (HFCs), as a group, posted a 3.7 per cent drop in second-quarter (Q2) profit year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 5,830 crore and 19 per cent sequentially on rise in interest expenses and uptick in provisions and write-offs. Operating income rose 13.7 per cent YoY to Rs 54,086 crore in Q2 of 2022-23 (FY23). Sequentially, income was up 62.3 per cent, from Rs 33,331 crore in the first quarter (Q1) of 2021-22 (FY22).
Gaurav Mohta, chief marketing officer, Home First Finance Company, answers your home loan queries.
'India has formed tremendous resilience and still a strong growth.'
An NCD's credit rating will tell you whether risk possibility is high or low. Instruments rated below AA are regarded as high-risk.
Gaurav Mohta, chief marketing officer, Home First Finance Company, answers your home loan queries.
Banks are gaining market share at the expense of non-bank lenders such as housing finance companies, retail lenders, and those giving gold loans. There has been a steady decline in the market share of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) in the credit market as banks have stepped up lending. NBFCs' share declined to a five-year low of 19.8 per cent in the first half of FY23, down from 20.3 per cent in H1FY22, and an all-time high of 23.1 per cent in H1FY19.
The Reserve Bank has revoked the deposit-taking status of Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL), the first financial services firm to go for bankruptcy proceedings, and has reclassified it as a non-deposit taking housing finance company, before approving the Piramal group's bid to take over it towards the end of the resolution process. The revelation comes in the June 7 NCLT Mumbai order that has approved the Rs 35,250-crore bid for the once second largest mortage lender by Piramal Capital & Housing Finance, forcing over 65 per cent haircut on the creditors and just Re 1 to its NCD holders to whom it owes more than Rs 45,000-crore. On the 14th page of the 86-page NCLT order by HP Chaturvedi and Ravikumar Duraisamy, it says DHFL no longer is a deposit taking NBFC but a non-deposit taking one.
Gaurav Mohta, chief marketing officer, Home First Finance Company, answers home loan queries.
Gaurav Mohta, chief marketing officer, Home First Finance Company, answers home loan queries.
In yet another move to close the regulatory gap between banks and shadow banks, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has mandated exposure limits to the non-banking finance companies, in line with commercial banks. In the large exposure framework released on Tuesday, the regulator capped aggregrate exposure of NBFCs which are in the upper layer toward one entity at 20 per cent of capital base. The limit can only be extended by another 5% with board's approval. For a particular borrower group, the cap is at 25 per cent, with additional 10 per cent if exposure is towards infrastructure.
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