Equitas Small Finance Bank (SFB) Managing Director and CEO P N Vasudevan stated, "We may end up applying within a year" for a universal banking licence, while also targeting a nearly threefold increase in advances to Rs 1.2 trillion over the next five years.
L&T Finance reported a robust Q1FY27 with net profit growing 29% year-on-year to 900 crore, driven by strong asset growth and strategic initiatives including accelerating cross-selling, improving productivity, and fostering a technology-first, AI-led culture, alongside significant expansion in gold loans.
'As the team builds, each of them will bring in a different perspective, new thinking.'
'The brand, the team, and the people have to make the transition from playing league matches to Test matches.'
Bank credit growth is expected to moderate this financial year after a robust 16 per cent estimated for last financial year, driven by strong economic activity and retail credit demand. There are three reasons for this: a statistical high-base effect given the strong growth seen last financial year, revision in risk weights by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and relatively slower economic activity.
'Bank has a robust capital adequacy base. Along with balance sheet preparation, the bank is focusing on strengthening risk management for the new regime.'
The sharp pullback in mid and smallcap stocks signals a cooling-off period in segments that previously attracted considerable investor interest.
Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) reported a 25 per cent rise in net profit attributable to the owners of the company for the January-March quarter of 2024-25, owing to higher revenues and an exceptional gain. For the quarter under review, L&T posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 5,497.3 crore, while revenue rose 10.9 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 74,392.28 crore.
'We have seen something do very well when the times are good but maybe not as well when the times are bad.'
Bandhan Bank is expecting that a little less than 50 per cent of its portfolio will be dominated by affordable housing loans in the next three to five years.
A strong business update for the April-June quarter of the 2023-24 financial year Q1FY24 has led to a big jump of over 7 per cent in the share price of Bajaj Finance on Tuesday (July 4). The non-banking financial company's (NBFC's) new loan book grew 34 per cent with 9.9 million new loans booked in Q1FY24 from 7.2 million loans booked in Q1FY23. The company's total customer franchise rose to 72.98 million (as on June 30, 2023), compared to 60.30 million year-on-year (YoY) with the highest-ever quarterly increase of 3.84 million in Q1FY24. Assets under management (AUM) grew by 32 per cent to about Rs. 270,050 crore in Q1FY24 from Rs. 204,018 crore in Q1FY23.
Microfinance portfolio of SFBs saw a muted growth of about 3% last year
'India has formed tremendous resilience and still a strong growth.'
India's equity markets are on a roller-coaster ride, after delivering spectacular returns for two consecutive years - in 2020 and 2021. The benchmark National Stock Exchange's (NSE's) Nifty50 is down 1.5 per cent in the first nine months of the current calendar year 2022 (CY22) as foreign portfolio investors sold Indian stocks due to rising bond yields in the US and across global markets, including India. The sell-off in the Indian equity markets has, however, not been broad-based and largely limited to sectors facing earnings headwinds from rising interest rates, lower commodity and energy prices, and likely economic recession in advanced economies.
A well-run non-banking company has better margins than a bank, but the objective of setting up Ujjivan was to provide comprehensive financial inclusion, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank MD & CEO Samit Ghosh tells Anup Roy in an interview.
To further strengthen the supervision on non-banking entities (NBFCs), the Reserve Bank on Tuesday issued revised guidelines on a Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework for such companies, excluding government-owned ones, effective from October 1, 2022, on the lines of what it had introduced for banks in 2002. The RBI came up with stricter supervisory norms under the PCA framework for banks after their bad loans mounted and balance-sheets bled badly. This involved restricting them from fresh lending, brand opening and, hiring, among others. The RBI said the revised PCA framework is also applicable to all deposit-taking non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), all non-deposit taking NBFCs in the middle, upper and top layers, including investment and credit companies, core investment companies, infrastructure debt funds, infrastructure finance companies and microfinance institutions.
C S Ghosh, founder of Bandhan Bank, believes his unique business model is not comparable to any financial institution in India -- neither small finance banks, nor big private sector banks -- and hence the valuations are justified.
India and Pakistan must reform their institutions of governance to accelerate economic growth on a sustained basis for poverty reduction, lawmakers and experts from both the countries attending a meeting in Dubai said notwithstanding the chill in bilateral ties.
Enthused by India's financial inclusion drive, US-based Accion, one of the biggest micro finance organisations in the world, has renewed its focus in India. Michael Schlein, bottom, left, chief executive officer of Accicon, tells Namrata Acharya in an email interview the Wall Street and Silicon Valley are eager to participate in opportunities presented by the issuance of the small finance and payment bank licences, the expanded banking correspondent opportunities, and the Jan-Dhan Yojna.
Unlike in the past, when old private banks compromised upon underwriting standards to take on the bulk, they've now realised that scaling up at the cost of quality isn't worth the while. These banks have also readjusted growth targets when required, and rebalanced books to preserve capital and asset quality.
The Sensex closed higher by 170 points at 26,128 and the Nifty rose 59 points to end at 7,943.
'Indians are great savers, but they are lousy investors.'
