Manish Khera, chief executive officer, Fino, tells Shriya Bubna that the smart card technology platform of Fino can help banks cut operational costs by one-third and MFIs, but connectivity remains an issue.
The country's most valuable lender HDFC Bank can perhaps no longer claim to be a favourite of foreign portfolio investors (FPIs). Two data indicators, both somewhat interconnected, point to this - the diminishing premium of HDFC Bank's American depositary receipts (ADRs) compared to local shares, and the ample investment opportunities available to FPIs in the domestic market. The ADR premium has shrunk to below 5 per cent, down from over 30 per cent in March 2021, and even lower than recent levels.
Private lenders have also been expanding their branch and automate teller machine networks aggressively.
Bharti Airtel is expected to see its highest revenue growth, and subscriber addition during the third quarter (October-December) of FY25 among telcos, said analysts. The telco's top line in Q3 may see the fastest sequential growth at 5 per cent compared to 3 per cent for Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea (Vi). Airtel's annual mobile revenue growth would rise to 16 per cent, IIFL Capital said in an analyst note.
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.
After the finance minister directed public sector banks to join the account aggregator (AA) ecosystem, 5-6 major ones, including State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of Baroda are expected to go live by July-end. Sahmati, an industry alliance for the AA ecosystem, has been working with PSU banks to get them onboarded for quite some time now. So far, Union Bank of India and Punjab National Bank (PNB) have gone live on the AA ecosystem. While Union Bank has been live for a while, PNB went live earlier this month.
Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has launched top up (recharge) facility of Metro Smart Cards through approximately 800 such ICICI Bank Business Correspondent Network (Outlets), located across the national capital and NCR region.
ICICI bank waives ATM charges.
USAID looks forward to working with each to make financial inclusion a long-lasting and sustainable reality in India.
'The deal pipeline across products is robust for 2024.'
Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Ltd, a little-known entity through which the Adani Group has launched a hostile bid for NDTV Ltd, had an annual turnover of just Rs 60,000 few years back but it gave Rs 400 crore of interest-free loans to the broadcaster in 2009, as per Sebi orders.
Nearly two million e-mandates for recurring payments have been registered with banks and card networks after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) made it mandatory from October 1 to take prior consent of a customer before debiting her account, sources in know of the matter said. Industry estimates peg the recurring transactions at approximately 2.5 per cent of the total volume of transactions, and about 1.5 per cent in terms of value. Of these, around 75 per cent of domestic recurring transactions, and about 85 per cent international recurring payments are below Rs 5,000.
Banks say they themselves red-flagged the transactions to RBI. It must be noted that these transactions are not outright evidence of fraud or proof of nefarious activities.
Consumers are unlikely to disconnect their mobile connections and will most likely absorb the up to 22 per cent tariff hike imposed last week by Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi), according to analysts. The last major tariff hike in 2021 was followed by a 4-5 per cent SIM consolidation, with people leaving mobile operators with more expensive plans for their peers offering comparatively affordable options.
A company statement said the couple is facing a case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation for the last two years, and sought to link the action with muzzling of free speech and freedom of the press.
S&P Global Ratings on Monday expressed scepticism over allowing corporate ownership in banks given India's weak corporate governance amid large corporate defaults over the past few years. It also said that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will face challenges in supervising non-financial sector entities at a time when the health of financial sector is weak. Last week, a RBI panel had proposed that large corporate may be permitted to promote banks, as well as raising the cap on promoters' stake in private sector banks to 26 per cent, from15 per cent at present.
Mumbai resident Sumesh Pillai tells us how he panicked when the ATM didn't dispense cash and what happened later.
Microsoft has become the first global Big Tech company to join the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), an Indian government initiative for developing a first-of-its-kind open network for digital commerce. The world's second-largest technology firm intends to introduce social e-commerce via its app in the Indian market later this year. ONDC is expected to open to the public in Bengaluru over the next fortnight as it enters into the next phase of the pilot for further fine-tuning before rollouts in other cities, according to a source in the know.
A Europe-like cyber security defence alliance is the need of the hour, say banking technology experts.
The suspected security breach happened through a malware in the systems of Hitachi Payments Services, which serves ATM network of Yes Bank
Some of the public banks showed improvement; much more still needs to be done
Puri gave up the comforts of Citibank to set up a new-age bank from a rat-infested room in the Kamala Mills Compound in Worli, Mumbai and build a marquee brand. A look at his 26-year stint as HDFC Bank's boss.
Since its launch in April, helpline 155260 has been able to prevent more than Rs 18.5 million of defrauded money from reaching the hands of fraudsters.
In the first such collaboration for India, the country's flagship payments platform, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), and Singapore's PayNow payment system have launched a real-time cross-border payment linkage system. The linkage, which was launched by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi and Singapore's PM Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday, was kicked off by a live cross-border transaction between Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das and Monetary Authority of Singapore managing director Ravi Menon, using mobile phones.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Chairman Rahul Khullar said insurance companies have asked for 4-6 weeks to deal with unsolicited commercial call or SMS.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
The preference for digital banking now cuts across all customer segments.
Branch additions for most major banks in the current financial year do not correspond to the number of the past two years.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
US-based Citigroup attracted the attention of hundreds of people within minutes of it posting messages on social networking platforms, Twitter and Facebook, last night about banking services on Facebook.
There would be no retrenchment of employees and that their services conditions would also not be affected post merger.
In addition to the problem of long queues at automated teller machines, there would be the problem of guiding new cardholders, especially in rural and semi-urban areas, on how to use those cards, some bankers told Business Standard.
While some are relatively new in this business, Vodafone, which has 1.8 million touch points in the country, has been offering basic banking and payment services through its pre-paid mobile digital semi-closed wallet called M-Pesa since 2012.
The government of India holds 24.5 per cent stake in GSTN while states together hold another 24.5 per cent
Report holds Hitachi responsible for debit card data theft. When the data theft came to light, Hitachi had denied that its systems were compromised.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
