The plan was to expand further, add more branches and also eventually become the third bank in India to start a wholly owned subsidiary after Singapore's DBS Bank and State Bank of Mauritius, but those plans never materialised due to lack of scale and rising non-performing assets in the country.
The case pertains to a bank guarantee of Rs 68.2 crore submitted to the Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI) on behalf of Reliance NU BESS Limited, a subsidiary of Reliance Power, a listed company, which was found to be "fake".
FirstRand chief executive officer Sizwe Nxasana told Business Day that although it was still 'early days', he saw the possibility of FirstRand's operating units, such as First National Bank and Wesbank, benefiting from opening up of the Indian banking sector.
Citibank on Wednesday joined the list of foreign banks that have exited retail banking business in India. Mumbai-based Axis Bank completed acquisition of Citigroup's consumer business for Rs 11,603 crore. Under the deal, Axis acquired consumer banking businesses of Citibank India, which includes credit cards, retail banking, wealth management and consumer loans.
In India, it is not easy to fight it out with the large banks which are nimble-footed and technology-savvy and are continuously innovating on the retail turf with newer products for customer acquisition.
For people at the bottom of the pyramid, which I would rather address as mass market or emerging class; the primary challenge in accessing banking services are not just affordability but applicability and accessibility of services.
The Indian regulatory framework forced Citi to hibernate -- contrary to the claim that it never sleeps!
India's five leading wilful defaulters are Winsome Diamonds & Jewellery Ltd and associate Forever Precious Jewellery & Diamonds, Zoom Developers, Kingfisher Airlines, Beta Naphthol and Raza Textiles
The government planned to borrow 10-15 per cent of the total borrowing offshore. That works out to at least Rs 71,000 crore, or about $10.4 billion at Friday's exchange rate.
Weakness in other currencies against the dollar overseas, after US Fed indicating interest rates could rise earlier than expected as the jobs market picking up, also put pressure on the local unit, forex dealers said.
While the FPI limit on most bond issues would not be raised above 6 per cent, there would be some in which there would be no limits, reports Arup Roychoudhury.
The Rupee is expected to weaken further against the dollar.
The immediate concern for the rupee is the sharp spike in oil prices
The RBI had in the past expressed its concerns about allowing foreign investors in short-term paper, because it attracted hot money.
Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan is widely expected to hold the key rates citing high inflation at the fourth bi-monthly monetary policy announcement on Tuesday, even though the pro-growth lobby has been wishing for a rate cut.
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