The move comes against the backdrop of rising instances of people getting duped by illicit money pooling activities
To ensure more transparency, the new regulations require investment advisers -- banks, non-banking financial companies and corporates -- would have to segregate their investment advisory services from other activities.
Partha Pratim Sengupta, who will be taking charge as the MD & CEO of Bandhan Bank in early November, has his task cut out. The Kolkata-based lender, which converted itself from a microfinance institution to a universal bank, is in its 10th year of operation. The bank was able to cut down the share of the micro loan book over these years.
Non-banking financial companies, that used to comprise at least 70 per cent of the issuance in the corporate bond market, are witnessing a credit freeze as investors shun bond issued by lower-rated firms.
However, financial flows to the economy remained constrained because of decline in the amount of equity finance raised from the capital markets and stress in the NBFC sector, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman pointed out.
The Reserve Bank, in Annual Monetary Policy Statement, has also asked banks to set up internal exposure limits for those non-banking financial companies who have gold loans portfolio of more than 50 per cent of the total financial assets.
The first wave of COVID-19 last year impacted households as their financial savings moderated to 8.2 per cent of GDP in December quarter from 10.4 per cent in the previous three-month period, revealed an RBI data released on Wednesday. The preliminary estimate of household financial savings is placed at 8.2 per cent of GDP in October-December 2020-21, exhibiting a sequential moderation for the second consecutive quarter after having spiked in the pandemic-hit June quarter, RBI said in a release. "The moderation was driven by a significant weakening in the flow of household financial assets, which more than offset the moderation in the flow of household financial liabilities," it said.
German luxury car maker BMW on Tuesday launched its financing arm in India with an investment of $50 million (about Rs 230 crore) to serve the credit needs of retail customers, fleet owners and dealers.
The German luxury carmarker on Tuesday said it will invest $50 million (about Rs 230 crore) to set up a financial services subsidiary to better serve its customers besides industry as a whole.
Tech M's priorities include retaining current customers, winning back business lost as a result of the crisis, retaining key associates, winning new businesses and exploring the best ways to realise operational and structural synergies between the two companies. On the possibility of layoffs and cost-cutting, Vineet Nayyar, Tech Mahindra's vice-chairman and MD, said, "I can't say anything. The company has to be viable and we will work at it. Layoffs will be the last option."
Most major corporate houses, such as the Tata group, Birla group and Reliance Industries, besides non-banking financial companies like L&T Finance, M&M Financial Services and the Shriram group, are said to be interested in setting up new banks.
In the backdrop of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherji offering banking licences to NBFCs (Non-Banking Financial Companies), rediff.com spoke to T T Srinivasaraghavan, managing director, Sundaram Finance Ltd, the oldest NBFC in the country (founded in 1954).
Back in March this year, when the Reserve Bank of India stepped in with a cap of 60 per cent on the loan-to-value ratio for gold loan non-banking financial companies, it said it was acting to pre-empt systemic risks and to safeguard public funds.
He believes that it leads to conflict of interest.
Non-banking entities such as fintech firms will have to tap into use cases beyond peer-to-peer (P2P) and peer-to-merchant (P2M) transactions to scale up the presence of the retail version of the central bank digital currency (CBDC), which is also known as the e, said industry players. These use cases will enable programmable transactions across domains, including the government's direct benefit transfer (DBT) schemes, with subsidies restricted to specific purposes such as food coupons, hospital bills, fertilisers, pesticides, and cross-border remittances.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad has no immovable assets but Rabri Devi, his wife who is also former Bihar chief minister, has over Rs 1.41 crore in terms of landed property.
Payouts to key management personnel in non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) are under the banking regulator's scrutiny. Top industry officials said this is a follow-through on the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) circular of April 29, 2022, which asked NBFCs in the "middle" and "upper" layer of its four-tiered scale-based regulatory (SBR) framework to put in place a board-approved compensation policy.
The discussion on new banking licences will be posted on the website of the central bank for public comments, RBI governor D Subbarao said while unveiling the monetary policy for 2010-11.
Fundraising activity in the debt market is gaining momentum ahead of the festival season. Several non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) are planning to raise at least Rs 5,560 crore in the next two days by issuing bonds, with a greenshoe size of Rs 6,370 crore. Ajay Malglunia, managing director and head of investment grade group at JM Financial, said, "The market likes certainty, the market will gain clarity after the US Federal Reserve's (Fed's) policy.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Thursday demanded a CBI probe into the multi-crore chit fund scam in West Bengal and asked the state government to confiscate all properties of Saradha Group to pay off thousands of small investors left in the lurch.
In FY24, loans given out by such firms had topped a whopping Rs 146,517 crore, up by 49 per cent year-on-year and spread over 10.19 million accounts (up 35 per cent).
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's Budget speech on Friday brought closer to reality, billionaire industrialist Anil Ambani's dream of entering the banking sector.
Last month, Competition Commission of India, apex body that operates to sustain and promote competition, sent notices to atleast 15 banks, non-banking financial companies and Indian Banks' Association seeking explanation on why they penalise borrowers who choose to foreclose loans.
The finance ministry's plan to offer basic banking licences may find few takers because of doubts over the commercial viability of the proposed business model.
The new regulations by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on microfinance have prompted MFIs to go for a makeover, in order to cope with the new limitations imposed on them.
The pros and cons of investing in gold coins and bars, jewellery, gold ETFs and gold mining stocks.
Stocks in the automotive, financial, cement, metal, and hotel sectors are likely to benefit if the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) comes back to power for a third time. The key investment themes have been identified after analysing the Sankalp Patra - the party's manifesto for the next five years - released on Sunday.
"SIICL, which is one of the group companies belonging to Sahara group, as such cannot transact the business of non- banking financial institutions," RBI said on Friday.
The power sector lender is mulling the coupon it would be offered in a falling interest rate scenario.
The Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday banned chartered accountant firm Haribhakti & Co LLP from undertaking any type of audit assignments for regulated entities for a period of two years starting April 1, 2022.
Making life easier for people, the Reserve Bank on Thursday allowed holders of pre-paid payment cards, to deposits school and college fees and pay taxes in addition to buying rail and air tickets within the prescribed limit of Rs 10,000.
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development is launching a non-banking financial company targetting the microcredit space in the country.
The exit of the big movers has meant more opportunities for local players such as Nambiar Finance, which is just one of the 1,465 non-deposit-taking NBFCs registered with the Mumbai office of the Reserve Bank of India.
Highly-rated finance firms and housing finance companies are expected to benefit from the absence of Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC) from the bond market once it merges with the HDFC Bank in early FY24. Post merger, the bond market is expected to become less crowded, which will ease fund raising conditions for other players in the field. It may perhaps also compress the spread for debt instruments floated by housing finance companies (HFCs) over 10-year government bonds, subject to demand and supply conditions.
Real estate investment trusts (Reits) are in talks with regulatory bodies - the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) - to seek changes in regulations that will allow easier access to capital. The Indian Reits Association (IRA) said it has approached the market regulator seeking to get classified as an 'equity' asset, which will open the path for their inclusion in equity indices and also make investment by mutual funds (MFs) easier. The association is also in active discussions with the RBI to allow banks to lend to a Reit.
The pace of lending to the infrastructure sector, including power and roads, fell sharply to 1.8 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in May, 2023 compared to 9.8 per cent in May, 2022. Within the segment, the growth in loans to the power sector was at 0.3 per cent YoY in May 2023, down from 9.3 per cent in May 2022. The RBI data showed that outstanding credit to power sector stood at Rs 6.17 trillion in May.
The Income-tax department has conducted searches at multiple premises of Chinese telecom company Huawei in the country as part of a tax evasion investigation, official sources said on Wednesday. The raids were launched at the company's premises in Delhi, Gurugram (Haryana) and Bengaluru in Karnataka on Tuesday. Sources said the officials looked at financial documents, account books and company records as part of a tax evasion investigation against the company, its Indian businesses and overseas transactions.
With the difference between lending rates of banks and NBFCs narrowing, base your choice on urgency of requirement.
