'In this age of competition, we will not survive long if we do not provide quality service to our consumers'
Private-sector lender Federal Bank on Friday announced that New York-based Blackstone will invest Rs 6,196.51 crore in the bank through its affiliate Asia II Topco XIII Pte Ltd via a preferential issue on a private placement basis.
'We deposited money just yesterday, but they did not say anything...'
India's forex reserves dropped $5.62 billion to $689.73 billion for the week ended October 31, the Reserve Bank of India said on Friday. The overall reserves had declined by $6.92 billion to $695.35 billion.
But selectively, with regulatory scrutiny and special approval, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) $10 billion US dollar-rupee buy-sell swap auction for three years received bids worth $16.23 billion on Friday, reflecting robust demand amid persistent liquidity deficit in the banking system. This was the second swap auction by the central bank after it infused $5 billion via six month-swap on January 31.
India's forex reserves fell by $276 million to $699.96 billion during the week ended October 3, according to RBI data. In the previous reporting week, India's forex reserves had dropped by $2.33 billion to $700.24 billion.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved IndusInd Bank's request to form an executive committee to discharge the duties and responsibilities of the chief executive officer (CEO) for a period of maximum three months or till a new CEO takes charge, whichever is earlier.
The Supreme Court has directed the CBI to conduct a pan-India investigation into digital arrest scams and questioned the RBI about its lack of AI usage in detecting and freezing accounts used by cybercriminals.
The RBI has changed the way it approached supervision in the past. Having seen a couple of collapses in the NBFC sector and the near-collapse of a few banks, it is focusing on regular drills to prevent a fire from breaking out, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'If it doesn't, it will continue with measures to infuse liquidity, signalling a new cycle,' predicts Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'Corporates now have multiple funding sources beyond banks, and many are sitting on large cash reserves.'
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday met the long-standing demand of banks by allowing them to finance acquisitions by Indian companies, a move that also expands banks' capital market lending in the country.
Banking credit in the economy grew by 11.1 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in the fortnight ended March 7, while deposits grew at 10.2 per cent during the same period, which is a gap of around 90 basis points (bps), according to the latest data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The rupee plunged 26 paise to an all-time low of 90.75 against the US dollar in intra-day trade on Monday, weighed down by uncertainty over an India-US trade deal and persistent foreign fund outflows.
The Indian government has expressed its disagreement with the IMF staff's 'baseline' assumption that the 50 per cent US tariffs on its goods exports 'would remain in place indefinitely', based on which the staff pegged the country's GDP growth at 6.6 per cent this year, and pared its 2026-27 projection by 20 basis points to 6.2 per cent.
'The central bank has highlighted that the slowdown in growth has been limited to a few sectors and overall growth is expected to pick up in the second half of the year.'
RBI cuts GDP growth projection to 6.6 per cent for current financial year, from earlier forecast of 7.2 per cent.
'Just like oral hygiene, cyber hygiene must become a daily habit,' says Beena Vaheed, executive director, Bank of Baroda. 'It is not enough to rely only on banks, companies, or the government. Each of us must play our part.'
India's forex reserves dropped by $2.334 billion to $700.236 billion during the week ended September 26, according to the RBI data on Friday.
While UIDAI has given a nod for face authentication, banks need to join the process.
The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) draft guidelines on gold loans, if implemented in their current form, are expected to impact non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and mid-tier banks in the near term, more significantly than larger banks, according to analysts.
Escalating trade tensions amid a tariff war after Donald Trump took over as President of the United States (US) could adversely impact global growth and fuel inflation, an article on the "State of the Economy" in the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) monthly bulletin said.
Moody's Ratings on Tuesday said tax cuts in the current fiscal has dented India's revenue growth, leaving less scope for fiscal policy support for the economy.
Among Sensex firms, ITC, Bharti Airtel, Trent, Bajaj Finserv, Titan and Reliance Industries were the major laggards. However, UltraTech Cement, Adani Ports, Tata Motors, Bharat Electronics, Bajaj Finance and Hindustan Unilever were among the major gainers.
Digital payments across the country registered an 11.11 per cent year-on-year rise as on September 2024, according to RBI's index that measures the adoption of online transactions. RBI's Digital Payments Index (RBI-DPI) for September 2024 stands at 465.33 as against 445.5 for March 2024, the Reserve Bank said in a statement on Wednesday.
From the Sensex pack, Eternal, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Trent, Axis Bank, State Bank of India, Bajaj Finance, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Asian Paints, Adani Ports, Hindustan Unilever, Reliance Industries, ITC, PowerGrid, Tata Motors Ltd's Commercial Vehicles business, and Bajaj Finserv were the gainers. Infosys, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, Tech Mahindra, Titan, UltraTech Cement, Maruti Suzuki India, and Larsen & Toubro were the laggards.
After effecting two back-to-back 25 basis points rate cuts, Reserve Bank Governor Sanjay Malhotra on Wednesday hinted at another reduction in key policy rate by changing the central bank's monetary stance to 'accomodative' from 'neutral', which may further lower EMIs for consumers.
'Bank has a robust capital adequacy base. Along with balance sheet preparation, the bank is focusing on strengthening risk management for the new regime.'
India's forex reserves dropped by $396 million to $703 billion for the week ended September 19, according to the RBI data. In the previous reporting week, the overall reserves had jumped by $4.7 billion to $703 billion.
As deposit growth lags credit expansion, Indian banks face shrinking low-cost Casa inflows, rising funding costs, and structural shifts driven by UPI, e-Kuber, and digital savings trends, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'Previously, contributing only 25 per cent of material costs, states now face burdens of 40 per cent to 100 per cent of total costs, ensuring poorer states will curb project approvals, directly stifling work demand.'
While participants in the domestic financial market are expecting a 25 basis-point policy repo rate cut in the December meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), economists remain torn between a reduction in rate cut and a pause.
Stock markets will be driven by RBI's interest rate decision, tariff-related developments, global trends and trading activity of foreign investors in this holiday-shortened week, analysts said.
The Reserve Bank should focus on making liquidity easier rather than cutting rates if the intent is to drive growth, Axis Bank's chief economist Neelkanth Mishra said on Tuesday. Mishra, who is also a part-time member of the Economic Advisory Council to the PM, said the rate cut announced earlier this month or even the subsequent ones if they were to come will not end up increasing borrowings as the scarce liquidity will hamper transmission.
The Indian banking sector could be due for a rise in profitability after several quarters of net interest margin (NIM) compression. The Q2FY26 results suggest NIMs have bottomed out.
Asset quality within the non-banking financial sector (NBFCs) deteriorated with the share of stressed assets rising to 5.9 per cent in March 2025 from 3.9 per cent in September 2024, according to the Reserve Bank of India's Financial Stability Report (FSR). Slippage ratios among upper layer NBFCs have been rising, along with an upward trend in loan write-offs.
Deloitte India on Thursday projected India's economy to grow 6.7-6.9 per cent in the current fiscal amid buoyant demand and policy reforms. Indian economy grew 7.8 per cent in the April-June quarter of current fiscal.
With deposit growth remaining sluggish and the credit - deposit ratio of commercial banks crossing 80 per cent, banks have ramped up their borrowing in the certificate of deposit (CD) market. In the fortnight ended November 14, CD issuances climbed to nearly Rs 55,000 crore - double the borrowings of the preceding two fortnights and the highest since the September 19 fortnight.
'Growth, liquidity and deposit mobilisation are likely to be discussed during the interaction.'
