If Sebi and RBI remain quiet about this brazenly illegal activity, will someone in the finance ministry or the NITI Aayog take a closer look, asks Debashis Basu.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
New-generation private sector banks such as ICICI, HDFC, Axis, Kotak etcetera owe their existence to the recommendations of the first Narasimham Committee.
Chinese banks -- China Development Bank, China Exim Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) -- will get a lion share of 30 per cent or Rs 7,000 crore in RCOM/RTL/RITL resolution plan, with the DoT getting nothing if the proposed plan goes ahead.
All banks are eligible for privatisation. A committee of secretaries will decide which banks will be privatised, says Financial Services Secretary Debasish Panda.
'It could tempt investors to pick stocks that are not fundamentally sound.'
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
'Those who come from outside are surprised at the relatively small strength of the RBI supervisory cadre, relative to the needs of the country and the needs of the financial sector.'
Among other demands, the unions are also seeking immediate introduction of five-day week in full and reduction of cash transaction hours and regulated working hours.
US-based Oaktree on Monday pipped Piramal Enterprises and Adani Group to emerge as the highest bidder for DHFL after fresh bids were invited under the insolvency process, according to sources. The committee of creditors had fixed December 14 as the last for submission of revised bids. According to the sources, Oaktree raised the bid to Rs 36,646 crore, including Rs 1,000 crore for insurance and Rs 3,000 crore of interest earned, while Piramal Enterprises offered Rs 35,550 crore, including Rs 300 for insurance and Rs 3,000 of interest earned.
Why doesn't anybody ask the PSU State Bank of India under RTI on how much they are spending on legal fees trying to recover money from me in the UK when I have offered 100 per cent payback in India, asked Mallya.
It is nearly after 13 years that a foreign brokerage has resumed holistic coverage on stocks of public sector banks (PSBs). To that extent, Morgan Stanley's report dated March 3, where the analysts have listed their order of preference for PSB stocks, is an indication that the state-owned banks may once again be attracting some interest, thanks to three back-to-back quarters of good results in FY21 so far. "State-owned banks' balance sheets have improved, and bad loans formation should moderate going forward," the analysts note and this is the key reason for them to relook at their stance on PSBs. While State Bank of India (SBI) remains their preferred pick, stocks of Bank of Baroda (BOB) and Punjab National Bank (PNB) have been upgraded from 'underweight' to 'equal-weight'. The brokerage maintains its underweight recommendation on Bank of India and Canara Bank.
This is part of the first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2020-21 moved by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has approved the resolution plan of Twin Star Technologies -- a promoter entity of the Vedanta Resources group -- for the Videocon group. But it has pointed out that the successful resolution applicant is "paying almost nothing" as the amount offered is only 4.15 per cent of total outstanding claim. It noted the hair cut for all the creditors is 95.85 per cent and suggested to both committee of creditors (CoC) and the successful applicant an increase in the payout.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
Public sector banks, including the country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI), have come out with a templated approach for restructuring retail and small business loans of up to Rs 25 crore under the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Covid restructuring package 2.0. They have also come out with standardised products to make funds available to business entities for improving healthcare infrastructure and to individuals for meeting Covid treatment expenses. Business loans have been divided into three categories.
Over 8.5 lakh employees, majorly from public sector banks (PSBs), will get a 15 per cent hike in pay, with the conclusion of the 11th Bipartite Wage Negotiations on Wednesday. After three years of intense negotiations, the UFBU, which represents four bank officer associations and five workman unions, and the IBA on July 22 entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for an annual wage hike of 15 per cent.
The move will increase working capital requirement for brokers, raise the work load on the system and will leave little room for contingencies.
Blackstone, KKR, and Bain Capital, among others, are in the race for its general insurance arm, and Bandhan Bank, Bain, and Dabur Investments have shown interest for RCap's 51 per cent stake in the life insurance business.
I kept insisting that Rs 100 notes were in short supply and there was an urgent need to augment the supply of 100 rupee notes while also rapidly bringing into circulation the proposed new Rs 500 notes. But this was easier said than done because all the note printing machines of the RBI were programmed for printing Rs 2,000 notes and required at least three weeks before the machines could print the new Rs 500 currency notes. The availability of currency paper posed another major bottleneck, and it had to be imported. It was decided to immediately start printing the Rs 500 notes. It was only when the supply of the new Rs 500 notes started improving and the process of change of cassettes at the ATMs gathered momentum that the situation began limping back to normal. A fascinating excerpt from former SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar's The Custodian of Trust: A Banker's Memoir, five years after demonetisation, November 8.
While a DFI will help banks derisk their loan portfolios, creation of a bad bank will clean up their balance sheets.
Judge Andrew Henshaw refused to overturn a worldwide order freezing Mallya's assets and upheld an Indian court's ruling that a consortium of 13 Indian banks were entitled to recover funds amounting to nearly $1.55 billion.
A day after the RBI put in public domain a draft scheme of merger of Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) with subsidiary of Singapore-based DBS, public sector banks' officer union AIBOC on Wednesday said the amalgamation is not in the national interest and demanded the consolidation with any PSB. The proposed amalgamation of the cash-strapped LVB with DBS Bank India seems to be a ploy to provide entry of foreign banks into the country in a big way, All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC) president Sunil Kumar said. The Indian banking sector provides huge opportunity for growth, so the foreign banks have been looking at inorganic route to expand their presence for long, he said.
The hit to economic activity will be mostly confined to the first quarter. And a third wave, if it materialises, is unlikely to be hugely disruptive for the economy, predicts T T Ram Mohan.
The meeting will review annual financial performance of public sector banks, credit offtake in the economy, priority sector lending and progress made under various social sector schemes, including Atal Pension Yojana (APY) and Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana.
Choksi is wanted in India by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, which are probing the PNB fraud, the biggest banking scam in the country. India continues to pursue Choksi's return with the government of Antigua through diplomatic and legal channels.
Apart from easing the NPA pressure on domestic banks, the RBI's move can allow companies to raise cheap, long-term loans easily now.
The decision, the Reserve Bank of India said, "is expected to revolutionise the retail payments system of the country".
'We may bite the bullet and draw up plans for privatisation.' 'If that is done now, the sale of the government stake will fetch money; a delay will see erosion in whatever value is left in these banks,' says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'When bankers are hounded by investigative agencies for credit decisions going wrong and defaulters are treated like outcasts, who will borrow money and who will lend?' asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'We are very watchful about inflation and growth. But the main challenge is economic revival and growth.'
The CBI recently approached the special court in Mumbai for issuance of LoR to conduct a probe to ascertain utilisation of funds received in the US-based bank accounts of Mallya and now defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
'The snakes and ladders game will continue till the consolidation process is complete simply because we don't know how bad the scene is, with some of the banks being merged,' says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Vipul Chitalia was apprehended at Mumbai airport and brought to the CBI office at the Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai for questioning, he said, but did not divulge any other details about Chitalia's alleged role in the PNB fraud.
The only feasible way to have a healthy banking sector could be making it mostly private, along with two or three large, better-run government banks, suggests T N Ninan.
The Indian regulatory framework forced Citi to hibernate -- contrary to the claim that it never sleeps!
Unions claimed that about 10 lakh staff and officers of public sector banks and some private sector banks are participating in the strike.
With the 115 bps reduction in repo rate beginning February, banks have already transmitted 72 bps to the customers on fresh loans and some large banks have transmitted as much as 85 basis points.
'A strong foreign exchange reserve is the best safety net against global spillovers.'
'Allocate some parts of one's surplus income towards cryptocurrencies, considering the immense growth potential of this emerging asset class.'
