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.
While a DFI will help banks derisk their loan portfolios, creation of a bad bank will clean up their balance sheets.
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.
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.
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.
'We are very watchful about inflation and growth. But the main challenge is economic revival and growth.'
Apart from easing the NPA pressure on domestic banks, the RBI's move can allow companies to raise cheap, long-term loans easily now.
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.
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.
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.
'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.
The decision, the Reserve Bank of India said, "is expected to revolutionise the retail payments system of the country".
'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.
The Indian regulatory framework forced Citi to hibernate -- contrary to the claim that it never sleeps!
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.
'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.'
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
'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.
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.
The sale will be quicker if an Indian private bank buys it; it will take longer for regulatory clearances if a foreign bank or an NBFC buys it, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
This is one of the many such cases that helped to create an acute fear psychosis among public sector bankers, reveals Tamal Bandyopadhyay in his fascinating new book Pandemonium: The Great Indian Banking Tragedy.
Unions claimed that about 10 lakh staff and officers of public sector banks and some private sector banks are participating in the strike.
A media report in the run up to the board meet had mentioned the names of Sashidhar Jagdishan, Kaizad Bharucha and Sunil Garg as the ones who had made the cut. Jagdishan and Bharucha are internal candidates, while Garg is working with American banking major Citigroup.
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.
A direction by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde, Justice B R Gavai, and Justice Surya Kant to the Karnataka high court asked the latter to expeditiously settle the matter of assets deposited before it by Mallya for liquidation, and thereby payment to creditors 'preferably not later than three months'. It will be interesting to see the view of the London high court, if the settlement of his dues to Indian creditors is imminent, reports Ashis Ray.
The finance minister has emphasised on the quick disbursal of additional loans to MSMEs, to simplify process, formats and documentation.
'The PSBs ended up recording Rs 7,709 crore losses in the March quarter compared to the Rs 11,688 crore profits of their private peers,' reveals Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Many are testing hybrid models including getting small batches to work, rotating staff every week, introducing shifts and allowing certain functions to operate from office in small numbers.
Tata Sons stake in the group's listed companies is now worth Rs 9.28 trillion, up 34.4 per cent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis. In comparison, the Government of India's stake in listed central public sector undertakings (PSUs) is currently valued at Rs 9.24 trillion
'It seems PM Modi is running a bank fraudsters settlement company for the likes of Nirav Modi'
The current wage revision for PSBs, as well as some private lenders, is due from November 2017 for five years - up to October 2022.
'Clearly, the depositors of cooperative banks need the maximum protection.'
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
Bank unions - officers and workmen - had buried their differences and sat across the table on August 29 to work out a fresh deal with the IBA involving a 20 per cent wage hike.
A paper authored by Rajan said, state-linked banks can be a first step in altering the ownership structure of some PSBs, where the government brings down its stakes to below 50 per cent, creating distance from operations of banks, and improving governance along the way.
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