Move fuels fears of consolidation among unions of some small banks; won't force unification, clarifies finance ministry.
Moody's Investors Service on Thursday said second wave of Covid infections has increased asset risks for Indian banks, but a severe deterioration is unlikely. It said that the second wave of coronavirus infections in India has exacerbated stress among individuals and small businesses that were hit the hardest by the initial outbreak. Still, a number of factors will prevent sharp increases in problem loans, and banks have sufficient buffers to absorb anticipated loan losses.
The finance ministry has finalised the top-level reshuffle in public sector banks.
RRBs, which cater to the rural sector, are sponsored by major public sector banks, and Centre and State governments also hold stake in them. Earlier, the bankers told Chidambaram that they were facing liquidity crunch due to delay in the relief package, and were unable to provide credit to farmers.
A team from CBI's bank securities & fraud cell in Delhi visited SBI's offices in Mumbai and Delhi and held discussions with senior officials of the bank. The CBI office, however, said no 'search' operations have been conducted so far.
A proposal discussed by the RBI brass with key finance ministry functionaries in Delhi last week has favoured merger of large public sector banks with small state-run entities and private players, sources close to the development told Business Standard. It has also identified the potential partners for a merger based on the RBI's inspection report for the last two-three years, they added.
Simplifying GST rates, removing exemptions, easing disputes, and speeding up refunds can boost investment in India and offer the best reply to Trump's tariffs, observes V S Krishnan, former member, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs.
The nation-wide strike call has been given by United Forum of Bank Unions, consisting of nine national level unions, including AIBEA, NCBE, BEFI, INBEF, NOBW and AIBOC.
Bank unions on Monday requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to allow resumption of large scale recruitments in public sector banks and disallow outsourcing in the sector as it would affect job opportunities.
Banking on better credit growth prospects alone may not be the right strategy as far as investing in bank stocks are concerned.
Conversion of debt of the stressed telecom player Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) into equity could be an option to emerge out of the crisis, lenders led by State Bank of India (SBI) have suggested to Department of Telecommunications (DoT). DoT had called senior bank officials on Friday to discuss the stress in the telecom sector arising out of the Supreme Court order last month on the adjusted gross revenue (AGR)-related dues payable by telecom majors, including Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, sources said. The top court has given a time period of 10 years to telecom service providers struggling to pay Rs 93,520 crore of AGR-related dues to clear their outstanding amount to the government.
Bank credit growth declined to 8.5 per cent in January from 13.5 per cent in the year-ago period.
'RBI was focusing on public sector banks perhaps thinking that private sector banks are managed efficiently while PSU banks are not.' 'Now, RBI has to focus on private sector banks too.'
Some of the services like cash deposit and withdrawal at the counter and cheque clearances have been impacted due to the strike by banking staff.
