At the heart of Paytm's slide lies the abject failure of its Super App strategy, notes Indrajit Gupta.
'The no-rate cut policy and preference to wait for the Budget and clarity on the fiscal front demonstrate RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das is maturing in his new role,' notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Payments banks are niche banks which will be allowed to function with several restrictions.
'We are most bullish on all aspects of the financial sector -- private sector banks, even one state-owned bank, insurance, mortgage finance, broking, wealth management, gold finance, etc.'
The NPAs of banks stood at over Rs 3 lakh crore as on December 2014.
A merchant using the bank's merchant App, QR code, PoS or Payment gateways, across all segments, including electronics, apparel, grocery, stand to win assured cashback and prizes on volume build-up, EMI or digital transactions.
For the time being, digital lending remains a grey area, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
US nominee for World Bank president, Ajay Banga, has tested positive for COVID-19 following which the meetings scheduled during his two-day visit to India have been cancelled. According to a Finance Ministry statement, Banga's meeting with Nirmala Sitharaman would not happen as he is in quarantine. "During routine testing, Ajay Banga tested positive for COVID-19 but remains asymptomatic.
'We can't have the best of both worlds -- large, efficient, world class government-owned banks, doing social banking and making profits. 'Why not set them free from the shackles of such obligations and run them as business units?' says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
In June, Sensex went up 6.6% and Nifty 6.9%, their best monthly gains since December 2023.
Companies in the banking, finance sector and insurance (BFSI) sector have underperformed on the bourses despite leading the earnings growth charts in the post-pandemic period. This has created a dichotomy between their earnings and share prices. BFSI companies have never been less expensive than the rest of the equity market.
C S Ghosh, founder of Bandhan Bank, believes his unique business model is not comparable to any financial institution in India -- neither small finance banks, nor big private sector banks -- and hence the valuations are justified.
India SME Forum, an organisation for small and medium businesses, has called for creating a dedicated fund of Rs 5000 crore for the export capacity development, promotion, and marketing of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in its Budget recommendation. The forum for MSMEs with over 98,000 members said that to enhance India's global competitiveness and increase its market share in global exports, it was "crucial to increase the number of active exporters and enable at least 3-4 lakh first-time micro, small, and medium exporters while supporting them in promoting Indian products globally."
'One by one we are seeing these private banks taking people's money and mismanaging it.' 'In the last 30 years, 30 private banks have collapsed.' 'Nationalise all banks so that people's money is safe.'
The World Bank has approved loans totalling $1.75 billion (about Rs 13,834.54 crore) to fund India's PM Ayushman Bharat scheme and private investment to boost the economic growth. Of the total loan, $1 billion will go towards the health sector, while the rest $750 million will be in the form of development policy loan (DPL) to fill the financing gaps through private sector investment in the economy. The World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved two complementary loans of $500 million each to support and enhance India's health sector.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, research, Religare Broking, answers your stockmarket queries.
Vatsal Ramaiya draws wisdom from the Bhagvad Gita and correlates it to how you can build a decent corpus to achieve a peaceful retirement.
Nearly 665 million Indians or 45 per cent of the rural population did not have access to the internet as of 2023. Difficulty in understanding internet procedures, insufficient awareness of its benefits, and a lack of interest have emerged as the top reasons for a gap in internet penetration in rural India, according to a joint report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Kantar. "The proficiency of English in rural India is very low. While we have content in Hindi, the internet is English-heavy.
The government on Tuesday announced setting up of hubs to promote exports through e-commerce medium in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode and initially 10-15 hubs will be established. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that these hubs, under a seamless regulatory and logistic framework, will facilitate trade and export-related services under one roof. "To enable MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) and traditional artisans to sell their products in international markets, e-commerce export hubs will be set up in PPP mode," she said.
So far this year, bankers have earned Rs 1,226 crore for handling 45 IPOs, which together mobilised Rs 48,363 crore.
'One way of doing this could be offering credit guarantee to the banks, say 10 per cent, for fresh loans given to micro, small and medium enterprises,' observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The Reserve Bank on Friday accepted most of the recommendations of its working group on corporate ownership of private sector banks, by allowing unrestrained promoter shareholding in the first five years of operations and hiking the same to 26 per cent after 15 years from the extant 15 per cent and also the new capital requirements. The move will benefit leading banks like Kotak Mahindra Bank and IndusInd Bank, among others, which have been seeking more time from the regulator to divest their stakes for many years now. Accepting 21 of the 33 recommendations of the internal working group, the central bank said the remaining suggestions are under its consideration.
Some banks are camouflaging their lending to small, unknown real estate developers to skirt stringent capital adequacy and provisioning requirements.
What will be its impact on the banks's balance sheets? Since banks need to provide for 10 per cent of the loans restructured, they would need Rs 50,000 crores to Rs 80,000 crore for this purpose, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'Banks will continue to increase FD rates to attract more deposits and meet the increasing demand for credit.'
'We now understand things that we have to correct.'
IDFC First Bank delivered good results in the first quarter of this financial year (Q1FY24), but some analysts are concerned the bank is fully-valued. So, there has been profit-booking after a price rise. Growth went side-by-side with a focus on cutting interest costs and exposure to high non-performing infrastructure loans. The mortgage book is 28 per cent, of which 24 per cent is home loans and loans against property.
The issue price for Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme 2021-22, which will open for subscription for five days from November 29, has been fixed at Rs 4,791 per gram of gold, the Reserve Bank of India said on Friday. The Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme 2021-22 - Series VIII will be open for subscription from November 29 - December 03, 2021. "The nominal value of the bond...works out to Rs 4,791 per gram of gold," the RBI said.
Scheduled commercial banks have written off loans amounting to over Rs 10.09 lakh crore in the last five financial years and the process of recovery of dues from the borrowers continues, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman informed the Lok Sabha on Monday.
We must stop stigmatising business failures. Particularly when startups are mushrooming all around, the financial system, backed by the RBI and the government, can explore ways of extending support to restart the journey of a failed entrepreneur by finance as well as counselling, recommends Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Ayan Pramanik reports on former Infosys CFO V Balakrishnan's fintech firm, which aims to make borrowing easy for small firms and individuals.
The origin of the challenge is the so-called "fresh start" process. Many in the MFI industry apprehend that such a law in India will encourage small unsecured borrowers to default and destroy the credit culture. So, while'Fresh start' is a welcome step as it will free up the debtors from the archaic laws of the colonial era, debtors need handholding and counselling to prevent any misuse, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Short-term lending rate unchanged at 7.75 pc.
It is difficult to say if the banking sector will see the worst behind it by March 2020, warns Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Every political party loves to use the bait of loan waiver to woo the electorate. If their hearts bleed for the poor, they can always use the party funds to pay off the lenders, suggests Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'Clearly, the depositors of cooperative banks need the maximum protection.'
'Banks are being encouraged to lend instead of parking their resources with the RBI and earn risk-free interest income,' points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The RBI has set up a panel to review ATM charges, and fees levied by banks.
Reserve Bank on Wednesday announced a slew of measures including loan restructuring for individual and small businesses hit hard by fresh COVID-19 wave. To augment supply of goods for COVID care, the central bank opened Rs 50,000 crore on-tap window to ease access to emergency health services to boost provision of immediate liquidity for ramping up COVID-19 related healthcare infrastructure and services in the country. This liquidity window is being opened till March 31, 2022, he said, adding that under the scheme, banks can provide fresh lending support to a wide ranging of entities including vaccine manufacturers, importers and suppliers of vaccine and medical devices, hospitals and dispensaries and suppliers of oxygen and ventilators importers and also patients for treatment.
The success of recent IPOs and the stability in the secondary market are propelling many firms and investment bankers to remove their IPO plans.