"We currently manage collections for over 98 million retail and small-business loan accounts, covering a loan book of about $250 billion," says Rishabh Goel, cofounder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Credgenics, a software-as-a-service platform for debt collection. With more than 700 million smartphone users and over 450 million UPI users, digital access is everywhere.
RBI had last week announced a 0.5 per cent increase in cash reserve ratio to 5.5 per cent in two phases to absorb excess liquidity from the economy and check rising prices.
Banks have asked for an exemption of statutory requirements such as the cash reserve ratio (CRR) and the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) for lending to the infrastructure sector. While the CRR is a tool where banks have to set aside liquidity with RBI in proportion of the deposits mobilised by them, the SLR requires banks to invest 25 per cent of their liabilities in government securities to generate instant liquidity.
RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao on Tuesday defended the bank's decision to keep the key policy rate unchanged saying inflation could rise to above 8 per cent in the near-term.
He said despite liquidity injection by RBI, borrowers should not expect reduction in interest rates for short- and medium-term loans. He, however, added that the measures announced by the government and RBI have starting yielding results.
The Reserve Bank of India has launched an assault on inflation by increasing the cash reserve ratio (CRR) 75 basis points to 5.75 per cent. While sounding upbeat on economic growth, the central bank has kept the door open for an increase in interest rates even before the annual policy statement in April.
The goverment has found serious irregularities in the functioning of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said in the Rajya Sabha Tuesday.
"You may probably see some more liquidity controls like the CRR being altered again...if oil prices go beyond tolerable levels..," J&K Bank's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Haseeb A Drabu, told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar in Mumbai.
For nearly two decades, Nitish Kumar has cultivated women as a distinct constituency. 'To create a broader vote base, he thought it would be better to bring women to electoral politics.'
The RBI is likely to raise CRR, the portion of funds that banks have to keep with the regulator, by 50 basis points in its forthcoming monetary review next week and signal tight monetary measures, says Moody's.
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.
IT majors and Maruti Suzuki down 8% were the top losers among Sensex-30.
In the mid-year monetary policy review on Tuesday, RBI, left the key interest rate unchanged but reduced cash reserve ratio by 0.25 per cent to infuse additional liquidity of up to Rs 17,500 crore (Rs 175 billion) into the system.
Former Reserve Bank Deputy Governor S S Tarapore on Thursday said that the apex bank should not lower its repo and cash reserve ratio rates in its forthcoming monetary policy review.
The country's largest public sector lender State Bank of India on Thursday said that it does not expect the interest rates to go up in the short term.
The main culprit is the lack of transparency that your lending bank of housing finance institute employs in determining home loan rates.
The Reserve Bank on Friday eased money supply further by cutting key policy rates and ratios - decisions that would among other things infuse Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion) into the banking system.
Hike in CRR to suck out Rs 12,500 crore from the banking system.
The central bank has also left the Bank Rate and the Cash Reserve Ratio unchanged at 6 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively, in the annual policy announcement 2007 released on Tuesday.
The government is likely to announce early next week a series of measures to boost economic activity in the country.
The rate cuts are expected to infuse Rs 80,000 crore into the banking system.
Led by an unprecedented boom in domestic consumption, the country achieved an average GDP growth of 8.6 per cent over the past three years. For 2006-07, growth is forecast at 9.2 per cent, the fastest in 18 years.
In January, the RBI hiked its cash reserve ratio or the amount banks keep with the central bank by 0.75 per cent to 5.75 per cent.
In its quarterly monetary policy review, RBI had last month retained the CRR at 4.75 per cent and reduced the statutory liquidity ratio -- the amount of deposits banks park in government bonds -- by 1 per cent to 23 per cent, effective August 11.
According to Corporation Bank executive director Asit Pal, there would not be any change in prime lending rate as there is sufficient liquidity in the system and credit offtake is also muted at this point of time.
Inflation is likely to peak at 8.7 per cent by end-March and the Reserve Bank is likely to begin tightening its monetary policy from its January policy review itself, a report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML) has said.
The central bank may hike CRR by 50 bps; some economists expect a rise in policy rates too.
The recent hike in the rates will hurt your finances further. Time to do some stock-taking.
Reserve Bank of India said on Thursday it is looking at liquidity, inflation and credit growth to see if it will have to take more steps to tighten monetary conditions.
A day after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised the benchmark repo rate and cash reserve ratio (CRR), leading property developers said they are mulling hiking prices of apartments and focusing on the affordable housing segment to counter the impact of a high interest rate regime.
As if any proof was needed, the spate of Cash Reserve Ratio hikes clearly underlines the Reserve Bank of India's intention to clamp down on inflation before the situation deteriorates any further.
In addition, bankers also told Business Standard that they did not expect the central bank to hike policy rates or the cash reserve ratio in the third quarter review scheduled for October 27 as inflation was not rising fast though inflationary expectations were there.
The last four years, the best for corporate profits in a long time, have not been as impressive for corporate capital expenditure. The combined net profits of India's top listed companies excluding banks, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) increased at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32.4 per cent since FY20, a sharp jump from the 7.4 per cent in corporate earnings between FY14 and FY19.
"The economy is going through a very difficult patch and business confidence has plummeted. New investments have slowed down," Assocham President Rajkumar Dhoot said during his interaction with RBI Governor D Subbarao ahead of the central bank's monetary policy review scheduled on April 17.
India grew at 6.7 per cent in 2008-09. For the current fiscal 2009-10, the Economic Survey projected a 7 per cent growth rate plus/minus 0.75 per cent.
The RBI's assessment of the economy, presented as a prelude to the policy announcement, was relatively downbeat. Conceding the persistence of a hostile global environment and domestic weakness, the RBI expects GDP growth during 2009-10 to be 6 per cent. This is slightly higher than the 5.7 per cent that reflects the median of its external forecasters' survey.
Mirroring weak cues from the overseas markets, the Sensex opened with a negative gap of 215 points at 10,765. The index thereafter tried to recover but slipped to lower levels after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced its annual credit policy.
