Lenders in India, comprising banks and finance companies, anticipate robust growth in retail credit during the upcoming festival season, stretching from September to December 2023. This expectation is based on resilient demand, government initiatives, and elections in key states.
'He's at best a holding-CEO. Not one who will re-imagine the bank,' a senior banker and former colleague tells Raghu Mohan about HDFC Bank CEO & MD Sashidhar Jagdishan.
Addressing the 74th Annual General Meeting of the Indian Banks' Association (IBA), she said the industry needs to imagine how Indian banking has to be in the immediate and long-term future. As far as the long-term future is concerned, she said it is going to be largely driven by digitised processes and there is a need for seamless and interconnected digital systems for a sustainable future for the Indian banking industry.
CEOs of leading banks say third straight rate hike by RBI inevitable, though not desirable.
A post in Humans of Bombay's Facebook page from a manager of a bank will give you an insight of what the bankers are going through and will urge you to cooperate with them.
Bankers said the outlook of M&As in India in 2024, especially in the second half after the Lok Sabha election, seems relatively better.
Unlike any other business, banking is a turf where the captain's role is the most critical. Often a bank is defined by the personality of the CEO who runs it. Both HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank are the creation of their CEOs, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Bankers were optimistic about the Reserve Bank's annual credit policy, which left all key rates unchanged, but feared that there could be tightening measures in the near future if it had to contain inflation around five per cent.
Sixteen merchant banks are in the fray to act as book running lead managers (BRLM) for the initial public offering of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). These merchant banks will have to make a presentation before the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) on August 24-25. The shortlisted banks are BNP Paribas, Citigroup Global Markets India, BofA Securities, Goldman Sachs (India) Securities, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets(India), J.P. Morgan India, Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India), Axis Capital, DAM Capital Advisors, HDFC Bank, ICICI Securities, IIFL Securities, JM Financial, Kotak Mahindra Capital, SBI Capital Market, and Yes Securities India.
Since December 2018, monetary policy has been eased substantially by RBI with policy rates being cut by 75 bps and policy outlook being changed to 'accommodative'.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram is slated to meet bankers on November 18, to review performance of PSU banks and discuss ways of augmenting their capital by Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion) in the next 5-6 years.
The Supreme Court's decision to allow borrowers a chance to be heard before their accounts are flagged as fraudulent by lenders is expected to result in several cases being reopened where the borrower is aggrieved because of such classification, bankers said. Still, the reopening of cases would not be automatic. A borrower who is aggrieved by the 'fraud' classification will have to approach the bank and consequently, the bank will take the necessary steps so that the apex court's order is followed in letter and spirit, they said.
With credit demand picking up and liquidity crunch yet to ease, bankers are expecting a cut in key policy ratio - Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) - by one per cent in the mid-term monetary policy review by RBI, a top bank official said.
'What's sad today is that there are so many people who cannot find work, not because the country is devoid of that opportunity, but because we are not doing enough in the country.'
Bankers, who spoke to PTI, point to the above indicators and aver the Reserve Bank of India is unlikely to hike reverse repo and repo rates this month.
Select bankers will meet RBI Deputy Governor Subir Gokarn, who is in-charge of the monetary policy department, and other central bank officials on July 12.
Bankers said India's structural story from medium to long term was intact and they were optimistic about the future.
Growing up in the Mumbai of 1970s, Uday Kotak aspired to be a cricketer and trained under legendary coach Ramakant Aachrekar. However, it was an on-field injury which resulted in a shift to finance. He started off with bill discounting, turned to lending and successfully applied to start a universal bank in the first decade of the millennium, as India was warming up to private play in banking.
A cut in the CRR will help banks release their funds stuck with the RBI on which they do not get any interest from the regulator.
Indian banks, which are increasingly getting worried due to asset-liability mismatch, have sought the government's approval to float tax-free bonds.
Bad loans of PSBs are at Rs 20 trillion. Most of it is, I sense, due to corruption and behest lending. Nobody pays a price for this charade. Not the promoters, the bankers, RBI officials, finance ministry bureaucrats or politicians, points out Debashis Basu.
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Relaxation in KYC guidelines has helped meet the target but this could lead to money laundering and financial malfeasance, it is feared.
Aspirants banking on experience and domain knowledge of veterans
'The main worry is lots of new investors coming into the markets in order to make a quick buck/easy money.' 'Those things are happening again and have happened in the past as well.' 'All that has led to problems.' 'We are not there yet, but will get there eventually.'
Bankers are expecting a further fall in interest rates, due to ample liquidity in the banking system.
With a view to protect prudent commercial decision of bankers, the government has taken a slew of decisions, including doing away with personal responsibilities of MD and CEO of PSBs for compliance in dealing with large value frauds committed by bank officials.
The Softbank-backed company has set a price band of Rs 72 to Rs 76 per share for the maiden share sale and is expected to test the appetite for new-age loss-making companies.
Although such alerts are not compulsory for the banks, this may become the norm now if payments are missed even for a day.
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.
The meeting was also attended by State Bank of India Chairman O P Bhatt and Indian Banks Association and Bank of India Chairman T S Narayanaswami.
Car sales dipped by 2.55 per cent in October, as the festival season demand for auto remained in slow lane.
Vodafone Idea board on Tuesday approved a fund-raise of up to Rs 20,000 crore through a combination of equity and equity-linked instruments, the crisis-ridden telco said, adding promoters will also participate in the proposed equity raise. Overall, Vodafone Idea plans to raise around Rs 45,000 crore through a mix of equity and debt, the company said. The company has been fighting a desperate battle for survival -- it has a debt of Rs 2.1 lakh crore and is reporting quarterly losses, amid massive subscriber churn.
As many as seven firms, including JM Financial, Ernst and Young and Deloitte, have bid for managing the strategic sale of IDBI Bank. These firms would make a virtual presentation before the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management, which is handling the sale process, on August 10, according to a notice by DIPAM. The firms that have bid for acting as transaction advisor are Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP, Ernst and Young LLP, ICICI Securities, JM Financial Ltd, KPMG, RBSA Capital Advisors LLP and SBI Capital Markets.
Bankers are likely to urge the Reserve Bank not to hike its key-rates and mandatory cash requirement in its April-policy, as they fear that this would affect their liquidity, resulting in a sharp surge in lending rates.
Let's take a look at the best and worst central bankers.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram will meet bankers on June 3 to review operations of banks, firm up next generation banking reforms and set targets for credit flow to sustain 7 per cent growth in economy.
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