Indeed, there were frauds, and the politician-banker-industrialist nexus played a role in the rise of NPAs, but governance issues in Indian banking are far more nuanced and complex, reveals Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Vodafone Idea's (Vi's) search for a lifeline has turned longer and tougher even as it continues to lose customers and delay vendor payments. Vi's much-needed Rs 1,600-crore fundraising plan got stuck due to the government's silence on picking up a proposed 33 per cent equity in the financially stressed telco. The development spells further trouble for the company, which has an overall debt pile of Rs 2.2 trillion, including hefty dues to the government.
The government currently holds 87.40 per cent stake in IRCTC. To meet Sebi's public holding norm, it has to lower its stake in the company to 75 per cent.
I am not sure if Modi can ever act as a chowkidar, even if he wants to. But he can surely act as a thanedar, by ensuring a fast resolution of corruption cases once they come to light. Exemplary action is easier and will burnish his anti-corruption image, argues Debashis Basu.
Usain Bolt is running in a new direction, as the Jamaican sprinting champion became a co-owner of Irish esports organization WYLDE on Wednesday.
The rising pitch of road shows and long rallies with hectoring pitches seem to have exhausted and numbed the audiences, rather than motivating them to vote for the party, observes Shreekant Sambrani.
Indian companies are planning to increase investments in the new year to expand capacity, acquire companies, and go on a hiring spree, a survey of top executives showed. They, however, cited rising costs, weak consumer demand, and increasing interest rates as major concerns for 2023 which may impact their plans.
Retail investors-those investing up to Rs 200,000-lapped up all the four initial public offerings (IPOs) that opened for subscription on Wednesday. This is the first time since 2007 that four IPOs have been launched on a single day, according to information provided by Prime Database. KFC and Pizza Hut franchisee Devyani International (size Rs 1,838 crore); Diagnostic chains Krsnaa Diagnostics (Rs 1,213 crore), pharmaceutical firm Windlas Biotech (Rs 401 crore) and vitrified tiles manufacturer Exxaro Tiles (Rs 161 crore) are the four companies whose IPOs opened on Wednesday.
The fundamental issue between banks and fintech would be who will own the customer and who will be the service provider.
Shareholders of the six listed Future Group companies voted on Wednesday. Bankers said all the large lenders had rejected the proposal.
Personal loans have about 80 per cent share in exposures restructured under regulatory package 2.0 by eight banks who have declared results for the second quarter. The remaining 20 per cent are loans to individuals used for business and credit to MSMEs. The total recast exposure of these banks under One Time Restructuring (OTR 2.0) was Rs 27,708 crore.
Believe it or not, the regulator is even stretching its arm to identify stressed borrowers and gauge the 'distance to default' as a measure of a particular bank's fragility, reveals Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday held his first Cabinet meeting with the new team as he prepares for his debut at Prime Minister's Questions, the first big test of Britain's Indian-origin premier's leadership.
'There will be partnerships between banks and fintech firms, but there will also be areas where they will be direct competitors.'
Arun Jaitley has advised banks to take decisions without fear.
Asset quality of banks, which saw some improvement in the second half of 2020, is likely to worsen during the first six months of 2021, according to a survey. The findings are part of the 12th round of bankers' survey carried out by FICCI-IBA between July and December 2020. The survey was conducted on 20 banks, including public sector, private sector and foreign banks, representing about 59 per cent of the banking industry, as classified by asset size.
Chanda Kochhar, who was arrested for a cash-for-loan scam on Friday, was once a powerful banker and instrumental in making ICICI Bank the country's biggest private sector lender. Kochhar, a regular feature on Forbes top global honchos lists, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) along with her husband Deepak Kochhar in connection with alleged cheating and irregularities in loans sanctioned by ICICI Bank to Videocon Group companies. Kochhars were called to the agency headquarters and arrested after a brief questioning session. Her chapter at ICICI Bank ended abruptly in 2018 when the board of directors approved a request from Kochhar to seek early retirement following allegation of corruption and quid pro-quo while extending loans to the now bankrupt Videocon Industries.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed journalist Rana Ayyub's plea challenging summons by the Ghaziabad special court in a money laundering case, leaving it open for her to raise the issues before the trial court.
For last two months, much of the discussion, a large part of due diligence, agreement negotiations, etc, have happened remotely.
the training department in most banks is content with asking branch managers to send employees for drab classroom sessions once a year. The perception about such training is obvious from the fact that most branch managers send the names of employees they can do without.
Finance ministry orders probe.
'I would rather focus on the good rather than what didn't happen.'
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The repo rate continues to be at 8 per cent while the cash reserve ratio has also been retained at 4 per cent despite inflation based on the Wholesale Price Index coming down to a 5-year low of 1.77 per cent in October.
The government on Wednesday announced the appointment of veteran banker K V Kamath as chairperson of the newly set up Rs 20,000 crore development finance institution NaBFID to catalyse investment in the funds-starved infrastructure sector. Parliament had in March cleared the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) Bill 2021 to support the development of long-term non-recourse infrastructure financing in India, including the development of the bonds and derivatives markets necessary for infrastructure financing.
RPG Enterprises Chairperson Harsh Goenka on Tuesday said the NCLT should be the next institution to be cleansed by the government to prevent "hard earned public money being stolen" as companies' promoters stash away money on the side and get "80-90% haircut" from bankers during the insolvency resolution process. In an apparent reference to recent cases of insolvency proceedings of some firms wherein creditors have taken huge haircuts on their dues, Goenka said it is the "new game in town". Insolvency resolution plans require approval of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
Property buyers fund the project cost and the entire debt and entire equity servicing, and yet, have no locus standi in the IBC process, points out Debashis Basu.
As stringent sanctions imposed by the European Union and US are crippling business and trade, desperate Russian oil companies are offering huge discounts to India, provided a payment mechanism to bypass the SWIFT ban is quickly approved by the government. According to sources familiar with the development, Russian oil firms are offering 25-27 per cent discount to the dated Brent crude prices. State-run Rosneft is one the biggest oil companies that supply crude to India.
The flow of deposits from non-resident Indians (NRIs) hit a four-year low in the financial year 2020-21 mainly due to contraction in foreign currency deposits, latest data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) shows. Total NRI deposits during FY21 were $7.3 billion as compared to $8.6 billion in FY20 - the lowest since 2016-17, when such deposits had contracted by $12.3 billion. Indian banks have three kinds of deposit accounts where NRIs or PIOs (persons of Indian origin) can park their funds: non-resident external-rupee account (NRE); non-resident ordinary rupee account (NRO); and foreign currency non-resident bank account (FCNR [B]).
With a view to protect prudent commercial decision of bankers, the government has taken a slew of decisions, including doing away with personal responsibilities of MD and CEO of PSBs for compliance in dealing with large value frauds committed by bank officials.
Even as lenders are getting ready to send more companies to bankruptcy courts from this week, several old cases are still awaiting resolution with no clarity on the completion of the process. This includes some high profile cases from the first list of 40 companies including Videocon Industries, Bhushan Power and Steel and Lavasa Corporation, sent by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for resolution. The delay is mainly due to litigation and late clarifications by various government agencies including the Reserve Bank of India and litigation by the Enforcement Directorate.
Ask your bank to save for you. Plan your taxes. Reward yourself for your addictions... Chartered accountant Shreya Jaiswal's 10 ways to make more money this year.
Officials of public sector banks topped the list of employees against whom the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has advised initiations of major penalty proceedings.
'Let them put their house in order first.' 'Let the RBI first rectify themselves.'
JM Financial, Axis Bank, and Bank of America have been roped in as the bankers to run the mandate, say sources.
How will the RBI announcement on loan moratorium work for those with home loans, auto loans, personal loans, consumer durables loan? Here's what experts have to say.
A case has been registered against Karvy Stock Broking Ltd promoter C Parthasarathy and others for allegedly cheating ICICI Bank to the tune of Rs 563 crore.
Adani, which had earlier bid only for the wholesale book, now want all of DHFL's assets and has pipped both Oaktree and Piramal by bidding higher than each of them.
It is not often that you find a mechanical engineer leading the private banking business of a foreign bank in India.
In an interview with Santosh Tiwari, Sebi Chairman U K Sinha also says he is not against consent orders, but is in favour of a predictable and transparent process.
