Last fortnight, State Bank of India Chairman C S Setty lifted the veil on a subject long spoken of in corporate corridors: Why can't our banks finance mergers and acquisitions (M&As)? Change is in the air: Indian Banks' Association (of which Setty is the chairman) is to "make a formal request" to Mint Road to make way for it. Thus far the exclusive turf of foreign banks even though its funding remains offshore - as in, it's not on these entities rupee-book (and a few select shadow banks) - a most lucrative segment in the investment banking suite, M&As, will be homeward-bound.
The move is to align affordable housing finance flows to the increase in property costs and inflation, says Raghu Mohan.
'This helps the consumers secure more favourable terms from CIs.'
'Unless banks focus on the Rs 10-15 lakh loan segment, growing affordable housing will remain a challenge.'
'With a very stable technology with limited functionalities, a large network has spanned out.'
'Banks may find small ticket size lending economically unviable due to the cost of branch operations.'
'One of the aspects for transparency and fair governance is to give the industry being represented the chance of lobbying with the regulator.'
Life Saver -- that's the name of the app -- is a bit of an ugly duckling, that later became a swan, says Raghu Mohan.
'We need to be far more careful given the fact that while this is group lending, it's essentially unsecured.'
Terming it as misconceived, the Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a PIL seeking CBI inquiry into the circumstances in which Finance Minister P Chidambaram's wife Nalini was engaged as a counsel in tax cases involving huge revenue.
The stage is set for the loading of cash into automated teller machines (ATMs) through the cassette-swap mode with an initial four-phased roll-out across 30 cities from June 1. The lockable cassette-swap will do away with the current practice of open-cash replenishment into ATMs. Cash-in-transit (CIT) firm personnel, tasked with loading cash into ATMs, will not have to touch it anymore. Cash-handling will be done by CITs at the cash centre, and the task of taking into account the amount of cash remaining from the last cassette-load will also be made simpler.
Telugu actor Mohan Babu completed 40 years in film industry, and he celebrated with a grand event at the Indira Priyadarshini grounds in Visakhapatnam city, Andhra Pradesh.
'ESG is actually a concept which cannot be applied effectively in the very short run.'
'We are working with a few housing finance companies to drive affordable lending because that's where we believe our sweet spot is.'
'This segment has performed very well for us and this is reflected in our bounce rate which is about three to four per cent.'
'The digital trust level has drastically gone up due to Covid, not only in tier-I and II cities, but also in tier-III, IV and V geographies,'
While Gupta, 60, can rightfully bask in the glory he has achieved for his bank in the subcontinent, his peers in foreign banks will have to revisit their India play, especially the local incorporation model, says Raghu Mohan.
While 39 members of the all-important panel are general members, it has 32 permanent invitees, including some in-charges of state and 13 special invitees.
Given the pressure from India Inc and the banking fraternity, it is surmised that the portfolio rejig will take place before April.
'Facilitating conversion of well-run NBFCs into banks is urgently needed.'
Puri gave up the comforts of Citibank to set up a new-age bank from a rat-infested room in the Kamala Mills Compound in Worli, Mumbai and build a marquee brand. A look at his 26-year stint as HDFC Bank's boss.
'He's at best a holding-CEO. Not one who will re-imagine the bank,' a senior banker and former colleague tells Raghu Mohan about HDFC Bank CEO & MD Sashidhar Jagdishan.
'If you give your ID and password to somebody else, how can anybody blame the technology for that problem?'
Banks now ride on what is defined as a "banking outlet". This is a fixed-point service unit, manned by either the bank's staff or its business correspondent (BC), where all kinds of services - acceptance of deposits, encashment of cheques, cash withdrawal or lending of money - are provided for a minimum of four hours per day, for at least five days a week. Banks are now turning to reposition the manner in which they acquire customers, report Abhijit Lele and Raghu Mohan.
Private equity (PE) is set to play a bigger role in banks. Of 21 recommendations accepted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) out of 31 made by its Internal Working Group (IWG), its stance on non-promoter holdings in private banks is seen with excitement, though it doesn't refer to PEs explicitly. On non-promoter holdings in these banks, the RBI said this will be capped at 10 per cent of the paid-up voting equity share capital in the case "of natural persons and non-financial institutions and entities"; and "at 15 per cent for all categories of financial institutions, entities, supranational institutions, public sector undertaking, or the government." While this is a modification of the IWG's stance for the non-promoter holding in banks at up to 15 per cent, it does open up a huge window for PEs, all the same. This is because, while the RBI has remained silent on the eligibility of industrial houses for bank licences, fresh high-quality capital in large amounts can only come from PEs.
In a bid to gain a bigger share of the customer's wallet, banks are ramping up their cross-selling initiatives.
Use of blockchain technology will ensure that banks will not be blindsided like in the case of the Nirav Modi-Mehul Choksi blowout at PNB, says Raghu Mohan.
Is the worst over for Indian banks? The past two years saw them ride on treasury trades as deposits soared and credit growth dipped sharply. Gross and net non-performing assets (NPAs) moved south, and the provision coverage ratio (PCR), capital buffers, and profitability indicators are back at pre-pandemic levels. So, what's the plot ahead?
Foreign banks set the template in consumer banking in its infancy, but have almost vacated this booming space.
Telugu movie doyens mourn a legend.
Business is down to such an extent that last year these firms could not even meet RBI's capital norm of Rs 50 million for partnerships and Rs 100 million for public and private firms in this line of business.
The Punjabi single is called Mitti Di Khushboo.
An action film, Dictator will release in January.
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.
A look at Telugu releases this Christmas!
Senior bankers are trying to impress upon the central bank that the shift to external benchmark-linked lending be postponed to April 1, 2020.
The PNB fiasco falls into a family line that involves non-fund limits - read contingent liabilities which are off-books. Harshad Mehta did it with bankers' receipts in 1992. Ketan Parekh exploited the ignorance of bankers who did not know the difference between a cheque and a pay-order. And the RBI blinked when it failed to insist the SWIFT platform be linked to the core banking solution. Raghu Mohan & Abhijit Lele trace the banking mess that was just waiting to happen.
'What made him different was that he was not a banker at all by temperament.' 'He was a businessman, a typical lalaji at that.' 'He had to win at any cost.'
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