Party treasurer Ajay Maken has claimed that "democracy will be over if the action of probe agencies goes unchecked" and said the Congress has full faith in the judiciary.
Fundraising through qualified institutional placement (QIP) has revived this year, led by commercial banks, after a lacklustre 2022. According to data compiled by Prime Database, Indian companies have raised Rs 53,070 crore in 2023 so far, of which seven banks - Union Bank of India, Indian Bank, Bank of India, Federal Bank, IDFC First Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, and J&K Bank - account for Rs 21,290 crore, or about 40 per cent. If other financial institutions are included, the figure surges to Rs 26,690 crore.
>It's not easy to predict the market. But there are at least two positive factors to back the PSU banks, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Polycab India, Power Finance Corporation, Shriram Finance, and Union Bank of India appear poised to transition from the mid-cap to the large-cap category within the domestic mutual fund industry. Their market capitalisation (m-cap) now ranks among the top 100, which is the threshold for the large-cap universe defined by the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
Capital markets regulator Sebi has kept in 'abeyance' the proposed initial share sale of securities depository NSDL. However, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) did not clarify further. The National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) filed its preliminary papers with the capital markets regulator on July 7.
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.
Jefferies, IIFL, and JM Financial - none of which were in the top five last year - have now claimed the top spots in the league tables for equity capital markets (ECM) during the first nine months of calendar year 2023 (CY23), a period characterised by small- and mid-sized transactions. This shift marks a significant change, with these firms outperforming the bulge-bracket investment banks. According to data provided by Refinitiv, Jefferies leads the domestic ECM market, having handled share sales worth $2.3 billion, representing 12.4 per cent of the total volume of $18.4 billion for ECM transactions.
The Reserve Bank is planning to extend wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) for transactions for interbank borrowing or call money market, sources said on Tuesday. The pilot in the wholesale segment, known as the Digital Rupee -Wholesale (e-W), was launched on November 1, 2022, with the use case being limited to the settlement of secondary market transactions in government securities. "RBI is now planning to go into the interbank borrowing market.
The rally in PSBs, analysts feel, was more a knee-jerk reaction to the development, and the actual benefits will start to accrue once the addition takes place in 2024. "The actual benefit for banks from the inclusion in JP Morgan's EM Index will accrue from June 2024 onwards. "Until then, the larger fundamentals of the market will dictate the moves. "Once the initial euphoria subsides, bond markets will look to global cues which may trigger fresh selling," said Siddharth Khemka, head of retail research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.
Real estate developer Supertech on Friday was declared bankrupt by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), a move that could have a bearing on 25,000 home buyers of the firm's ongoing projects in the Delhi and NCR region. Acting on a petition filed by the Union Bank of India for non-payment of around Rs 432 crore worth dues, the bankruptcy court ordered the initiation of insolvency proceedings against real estate firm Supertech Ltd, one of the companies of Supertech group. The NCLT said "there has been a default in payment of the financial debt" and appointed Hitesh Goyal as the Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) superseding the board of Supertech Ltd.
Public sector banks' cumulative profit crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore-mark in the financial year ended March 2023, with market leader State Bank of India (SBI) accounting for nearly half of the total earnings. From posting a total net loss of Rs 85,390 crore in 2017-18, the Public Sector Banks (PSBs) have come a long way as their profit touched Rs 1,04,649 crore in 2022-23, according to an analysis of their financial results. These 12 PSBs witnessed 57 per cent increase in total profit compared to Rs 66,539.98 crore earned in 2021-22.
The CBI has been carrying out searches at various locations for the past few days to locate assets acquired from the proceeds of the scam, officials said.
According to the Central Bureau of Investigation, Gutte is one of the directors of Gangakhed Sugar and Energy Limited.
India's first digital rupee pilot project will commence on Tuesday with nine banks, including SBI, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, issuing the virtual currency for transactions in government securities. "...the first pilot in the digital rupee - Wholesale segment shall commence on November 1, 2022," the RBI said in a statement on 'Operationalisation of Central Bank Digital Currency-Wholesale (e?-W) Pilot'. It also announced that the first pilot in digital rupee - Retail segment is planned for launch within a month in select locations in closed user groups comprising customers and merchants.
Unlike any other business, banking is a turf where the captain's role is the most critical. Often a bank is defined by the personality of the CEO who runs it. Both HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank are the creation of their CEOs, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Since March 31, 2022, the PSBs' market cap has risen 43.7 per cent, from Rs. 7.29 trillion to Rs. 10.47 trillion. It's time for the government, the majority owner of public sector banks, to reap the benefit of the rally in bank stocks, recommends Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Four state-owned banks on Friday said the government has extended tenures of their top officials, including managing director and chief executive officers (MD and CEOs) of Punjab National Bank and Bank of Maharashtra. Besides, the government has extended the tenures of executive directors of Punjab National Bank (PNB), Union Bank of India and Central Bank of India. The government sent notifications to these banks on Thursday, informing them about the extensions given to the top-level officials.
As banks' chase for customers to collect cheap deposits is not fructifying, they are forced to offer inflation-beating real interest rates on fixed deposits now, and state-run banks led by Punjab & Sind Bank tops the chart offering 8-8.50 per cent per annum deposit rate. Banks are forced to offer inflation-beating deposit rates for a tenor ranging from 200 to 800 days as credit growth has been far outpacing deposit mobilization throughout this fiscal, leading to a funding crunch.
The central government and the Reserve Bank of India have devised a country-specific plan towards implementation of overseas trade in rupee, people aware of the matter said. To start with, a small number of banks will be allowed to manage cross-border transactions in domestic currency with a particular country. "Small countries that are dollar-deficient have shown interest in doing trade in rupee.
The pilot project for central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the retail segment went live on Thursday with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issuing Rs 1.71 crore to four participating banks based on their indents. The central bank has identified four banks for the first phase of the pilot - State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and IDFC First Bank - in four cities, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar. The highest indent was received from one private sector bank.
The Reserve Bank will launch the first pilot for retail digital rupee in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar on December 1, and later expand it to nine more cities in the initial phase. This follows a month after the RBI had started a pilot in the digital rupee - wholesale segment on November 1. The Reserve Bank announces the launch of the first pilot for retail digital rupee (e?-R) on December 1, 2022, the central bank said in a statement on Tuesday.
Future Enterprises Ltd (FEL) on Tuesday said it has defaulted on payment of Rs 19.16 crore to Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank and Union Bank of India under the one-time restructuring plan. This is the second default by FEL this month. The due date for payment of Rs 19.16 crore was March 28, FEL said in a regulatory filing.
Exuding confidence in sustaining the tempo of credit growth, public sector bankers said on Wednesday that consolidation in the public sector bank (PSB) space has given them a robust base to scale. The privatisation of PSBs can be done through divestment of government stake to a wider base of investors without haste. There is nothing to worry about at this point (high credit offtake) as underwriting standards and risk management are much better.
With the rise in interest rates, bond yields have been on the rise; this will dent banks' treasury profits. Also, many retail borrowers may find it difficult to service their loans when the loan rates rise, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Reliance Industries (RIL) is likely to be the lone bidder for Mangalore-based JBF Petrochemicals, which is up for sale after defaulting on bank loans worth Rs 5,000 crore. The lenders for the second time extended the deadline for submission of bids, which had ended on August 20, as several players, including public sector companies, were redrawing their acquisition plans, said people in the know. "There were several companies which had submitted their expressions of interest (EoIs) for the company but after due diligence decided to exit the race," said a source close to the development. "The new deadline for submitting financial offers is August-end," the source said.
Public sector banks have raked in more profits in the three months ended June on the back of a persistent decline in bad loans and the trend may have a positive bearing on their balance sheets in the coming quarters. In the June quarter, Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) and State Bank of India (SBI) were in the lowest quartile as far as Gross Non Performing Assets (NPAs) and net NPAs were concerned, according to an analysis of the quarterly financial numbers published by the public sector lenders. Cumulatively, all the 12 public sector banks reported a profit of about Rs 15,306 crore in the three months ended June, registering an annual growth of 9.2 per cent. However, leading public sector lenders -- SBI and PNB -- posted lower profits in the June quarter.
The drop in net interest margin will separate the men from the boys, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
As per the mega consolidation plan, Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India will merge into Punjab National Bank (PNB); Syndicate Bank into Canara Bank; Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank into Union Bank of India; and Allahabad Bank into Indian Bank. Following this merger, PNB will become second largest after the SBI, Canara Bank fourth, Union Bank of India fifth and Indian Bank seventh biggest public sector lender.
The increasing involvement of Big Tech in the financial system could give rise to concentration risk and there are potential spillovers, which call for closer attention, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Tuesday. "...enormous amounts of consumer data is being generated and leveraged upon by a few entities (the so-called Big Tech) by virtue of their huge customer base. "Such developments raise concerns on concentration risk and potential spillovers as their level of engagement with the financial system strengthens in the years to come," Das said at the Global Fintech Fest 2022.
Collectively, the pack of 12 has posted a 50 per cent rise in profits -- Rs 25,685 crore. On a quarter-on-quarter basis (that is, September over June), the rise is 68 per cent. Public sector banks have never had such a stellar performance, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
That's the only way to convince those who have money to return to the bank fold, ditching other asset classes, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The Supreme Court Friday assured the home buyers of the to-be-razed 40-storey twin-towers of real estate firm Supertech in Noida that they will be refunded the full amount deposited with the builder. The apex court also asked the Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) of the firm, facing insolvency proceedings, to deposit Rs one crore with the apex court registry. The Supertech's 40-storey twin towers at Emerald Court Project of Sector 93A of Noida are scheduled to be razed on August 28.
After the finance minister directed public sector banks to join the account aggregator (AA) ecosystem, 5-6 major ones, including State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of Baroda are expected to go live by July-end. Sahmati, an industry alliance for the AA ecosystem, has been working with PSU banks to get them onboarded for quite some time now. So far, Union Bank of India and Punjab National Bank (PNB) have gone live on the AA ecosystem. While Union Bank has been live for a while, PNB went live earlier this month.
A consortium of lenders led by State Bank of India (SBI) has agreed to provide loans to Tata Group for the smooth operations of loss-making Air India. Tata Group, which won the bid to acquire the national carrier along with Air India Express and 50 per cent stake in AISATS in October last year, is expected to formally takeover the airline on Thursday. Sources said the SBI-led consortium has agreed to grant both term loans and working capital loans depending on the airline's requirements. All large lenders, including Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, and Union Bank of India, are part of the consortium, they added.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Tuesday stayed the order of NCLT Mumbai directing the lenders of DHFL to consider the offer by the debt-ridden mortgage firm's erstwhile promoter Kapil Wadhawan. A vacation bench of NCLAT comprising Acting Chairman Justice A I S Cheema and Member Technical V P Singh stayed the order passed by the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). On May 19, NCLT Mumbai had directed the settlement plan offered by Wadhawan to be considered by the lenders of DHFL, one of the lawyers engaged in the matter said.
Public sector lender Bank of India has moved to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) seeking initiation of insolvency proceedings against Future Retail Ltd and a moratorium over the assets of the Kishore Biyani-led debt-ridden firm. Besides, Bank of India (BOI), the lead banker of a consortium of banks that lent money to Future Retail Ltd (FRL), also suggested the insolvency tribunal appoint Vijay Kumar V Iyer as the interim professional of the company. Meanwhile FRL, in a regulatory filing, said it has been served and received a copy of the petition and is in the "process of taking legal advice".
As per norms, sanction for prosecution of government employees accused of corruption has to be given within four months' stipulated time.
If the banks throw caution to the winds for building loan books, the hydra-headed bad loans may resurface and spoil the party, warns Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
In the biggest consolidation exercise in the banking space, the government on Friday announced four major mergers of public sector banks, bringing down their total number to 12 from 27 in 2017, a move aimed at making state-owned lenders global sized banks.
We'll need to wait a couple of years to see how many restructured loans turn bad and whether some banks fall victim to their obsession for growth, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.