Retail inflation declined to a five-year low of 3.54 per cent in July mainly on account of subdued prices of food items, and base effect, according to official data released on Monday. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based retail inflation was 5.08 per cent in June 2024 and 7.44 per cent in July 2023.
Privatisation or consolidation into half a dozen large banks might not rescue public sector banks from the crisis they find themselves in.
Bandhan Bank is the first bank to be launched in eastern India post Independence.
Banks have reported that banknotes worth Rs 592,613 crore have been issued to the public.
Credit-to-deposit (CD) ratio of major public sector and private sector banks during the October-December quarter of FY24 inched up as compared to the previous quarter though government-owned lenders reported a lower rate than their private peers. CD ratio is the ratio of the funds that banks lend as compared to the funds raised in the form of deposits. The CD ratio of top public sector banks (PSBs) - State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank - was lower than their private counterparts.
Some measures announced in Indradhanush -- a 7-point Modi plan to revamp State-owned banks but not completed -- may be taken up again.
Still the Reserve Bank of India will operate as usual and can provide funds via its overnight repo window, traders also said.
The government has changed the criteria for infusion of capital.
The birth anniversary of Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, whose political influence has surged with the passage of time, on Monday was marked by bitter trading of charges between the ruling BJP and opposition parties as they fought for his legacy.
In a bid to help people who have unclaimed deposits lying with banks, the Reserve Bank of India on Monday directed banks to prominently display such account holders' names on the websites and provide them with a "Find" option to locate the information easily.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has identified "climate shocks" as a risk to food inflation rates and overall price rise while stating that the outlook for the country's economic growth remains bright. In its Annual Report for 2023-24, released on Thursday, the central bank said easing supply-chain pressures, broad-based softening in core inflation, and early indications of an above-normal southwest monsoon meant well for the inflation outlook in 2024-25. "The increasing incidence of climate shocks, however, imparts considerable uncertainty to the food inflation and overall inflation outlook," said the RBI while noting headline inflation moderated by 1.3 percentage points on an annual average basis to 5.4 per cent in 2023-24.
Corporation Bank has posted a 21.16 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 530.83 crore (Rs 5.31 billion) for the financial year ended March 31, 2004 as against Rs 438.11 crore (Rs 4.38 billion) in the previous financial year.
'I find the RBI edict to the Kotak Mahindra Bank to reduce Uday Kotak's shareholding very unreasonable,' says Sudhir Bisht.
The meeting is expected to chart a road map for cleaning up their balance sheets and boost credit flows, reports Somesh Jha.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recognised the Fintech Association for Consumer Empowerment (FACE) as a self-regulatory organisation (SRO) in the fintech sector, the central bank announced on Wednesday. The banking regulator received three applications for fintech SRO. Of the remaining two applications, one has been returned by the RBI with a provision for resubmission after meeting specific requirements, while the third application is still under examination, said Governor Shaktikanta Das at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai.
Lending rates have to be sensitive to the policy rate, says RBI.
Lenders in India, comprising banks and finance companies, anticipate robust growth in retail credit during the upcoming festival season, stretching from September to December 2023. This expectation is based on resilient demand, government initiatives, and elections in key states.
As a fallout of the dissolution of the administrative board of Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank by the Reserve Bank of India, the Nationalist Congress Party is eager to teach its ally, Congress, a lesson.
"The people are completely frustrated with this government. Now, people are raising their voice, they are saying that everyone (political parties) will have to come together under Congress' leadership to fight against them (BJP)," he added.
In fact, some private sector lenders have decided to skip advertising these altogether.
Private sector lenders have been communicating to their customers about their strong capital positions but it has not put depositors at ease.
While HDFC Bank has vowed to recoup its lost market share in the credit card segment in three to four quarters by aggressively sourcing new cards, brokerages believe it is a little hard to come by, given how competitive the landscape has become, with other players in the market becoming equally aggressive to gain market share. Kotak Institutional Equities in its report on Monday said, "We would like to believe that the recovery in market share is likely to be gradual, if any. "All the key players, including Axis Bank, are now willing to expand their credit card portfolios as they have tested quite well against Covid-19."
IBA has commissioned a study to evaluate the pros and cons of keeping banks shut on Saturdays.
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At the retreat, PSBs had suggested the government cut its stake in these entities to less than 51 per cent over a period of time and empower the boards of individual banks.
Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram has asked public sector banks to go slow on disbursals of home and other consumption loans to help fight inflation.
Even under the RTI response, all public sectors banks have washed their hands of any responsibility.
Mired in corruption, politics and with a history of suicides by its hapless depositors, PMC Bank's revival is a challenge very different from Yes Bank and LVB, both for the regulator and the rescuer, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The department of investment and public asset management is racing against time to launch the LIC IPO, which could become the largest-ever listing on the Indian bourses. This would lead to some delay in the strategic divestment of IDBI Bank.
The posts of Chairman and MD in the private sector are held separately.
The deportation of Indians from the United States, deaths in the Maha Kumbh stampede and the joint Parliamentary committee report on the Waqf bill were among the issues that led to heated exchanges and some disruptions in an otherwise smooth first part of the Budget session that ended on Thursday.
At a time when retrenchment has almost become synonymous with financial companies, state-run Union Bank of India is looking to hire 5,000 people at different levels to support its branch expansion plans.
India has decided to authorise the country's biggest lender SBI to promote rupee trade with Russia and soon Moscow will name its bank to operationalise the mechanism, exporters' body FIEO said on Wednesday. The RBI in July issued a detailed circular asking banks to put in place additional arrangements for export and import transactions in Indian rupees in view of increasing interest of the global trading community in the domestic currency. Currently, a large part of bilateral trade between India and Russia is getting settled in rupee due to sanctions imposed by the US and Europe following Moscow's attack on Ukraine.
The Arun Jaitley-led finance ministry reiterated banks should act tough on wilful defaulters.
'We may bite the bullet and draw up plans for privatisation.' 'If that is done now, the sale of the government stake will fetch money; a delay will see erosion in whatever value is left in these banks,' says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Since January this year, RBI has cut the repo rate - at which it lends to commercial banks -- to a gross of 1.25 per cent.
Systemically important banks are subjected to higher levels of supervision to prevent disruption to financial services in the event of any failure.
Like everything else, the structure of banks may change, and banks may depend more on digital technologies and artificial intelligence for dealing with both their customers and employees.
The central bank has not set a deadline for banks to conclude the stress-test exercise, but senior bankers opine that some were already looking at this, and will now fast-track it by September-end, when they will have a better picture of their books after the moratorium on the servicing of loans and a 180-day view on the performance of borrowers' accounts.
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