The Uttarakhand government on Friday decided to waive for six months electricity and water bills of families and individuals affected in the subsidence-hit Joshimath.
The disruptions caused by COVID-19 have more severely impacted small and mid-sized corporates, including NBFCs and MFIs, in terms of access to liquidity.
The Delhi high court on Monday sought the Centre and SBI's reply to former RCom chairman Anil Ambani's plea to include the Chinese banks, which have got a decree of $717 million against him from a court in United Kingdom, in the proceedings related to recovery of Rs 1200 crore loan granted to two of his companies. The high court also said that the moratorium on recoveries from sale of Ambani's assets, as provided under section 96 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), would remain in operation for now. This direction came on the application moved by the State Bank of India (SBI) seeking a declaration that the moratorium shall continue to be in effect.
Yes Bank customers will be able to access full banking services from Wednesday evening, as the moratorium will be lifted earlier. The RBI had on March 5 put a moratorium on Yes Bank restricting withdrawals to Rs 50,000 per depositor till April 3. However, the government in a notification on Saturday said the moratorium will be lifted by 18:00 hrs on March 18.
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The Reserve Bank on Friday superseded the board of the city-based Abhyudaya Cooperative Bank on concerns emanating from "poor governance" and appointed an administrator to manage the affairs of the lender. In what can be seen as a step that should allay depositors' concerns, the central bank did not put any restrictions or moratorium on deposit withdrawals because of the comfort it gets on the bank's finances, according to people in the know. "(The) action is necessitated due to certain material concerns emanating from poor governance standards observed in the bank.
With slippages increasing every quarter, any derailment on growth or change in customers' repayment behaviour after moratorium may impact the overall asset quality. Correction, though, presents attractive buying opportunities, given the bank's sustained leadership position.
'RBI is already late in addressing inflation pressures.'
"No Yes Bank," Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday, taking a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government over the moratorium placed on Yes Bank, and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his "ideas" had destroyed the country's economy.
After Yes Bank was placed under moratorium, digital payments were impacted as PhonePe, which depends on the cash-strapped lender for its transactions, could not operate. Even the bank's own net banking facilities have not been operational since last evening. Other fintech operators who rely on Yes Bank to settle their transactions are also down.
Ten years after Kingfisher Airlines was grounded, its former employees continue to wait for their dues. On Monday, the Supreme Court awarded a four-month sentence to the grounded airline's flamboyant owner Vijay Mallya in a contempt case. The apex court also ordered him to deposit $40 million plus interest in four weeks to avoid attachment of his properties.
Mall owners have incurred a loss of around Rs 3,000 crore during the ongoing second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic over the last eight weeks due to lockdowns and restrictions imposed by various states across the country. In the wake of the second pandemic wave, around 25 per cent of the business of the retail side across categories has been lost and this is going to impact the mall owners as well, according to Shopping Centres Association of India (SCAI) Chairman Mukesh Kumar. However, mall owners would go ahead and complete their under-construction projects as they anticipate demands for commercial and office space once the pandemic recedes, the SCAI said.
The Governor said the MPC had voted to maintain its accommodative stance, implying more rate cuts in the future if the need arises.
Asian Paints was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, falling around 5 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finance, HDFC, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank and Kotak Bank. On the other hand, Tech Mahindra, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel and HCL Tech were among the gainers.
Delivering a public speech hours after the RBI launched a rescue act for Yes Bank on March 6, Governor Shaktikanta Das reiterated the RBI's affirmation to do whatever was needed to combat the coronavirus impact. On that day, India had only one confirmed COVID-19 infection, the World Health Organisation was five days off from declaring it as a pandemic and the financially debilitating lockdowns were not even on the horizon. Das' promise on efforts to mitigate COVID-19 impact appeared as a footnote in news reports from the event.
Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday said the central bank will ensure adequate liquidity in the system to ease the financial stress caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The central bank reduced the reverse repo rate -- the rate at which banks park their fund with the central bank -- by 25 basis points to 3.75 per cent.
'In times of recovery, we may see a rural-urban divide with the urban pockets affected more by COVID-19, but the MFI business model should encourage banks to handhold them in this hour of crisis,' notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The Modi government wants to have a smooth relationship with the DMK government.
For smaller MFIs, resuming operations is more difficult because they haven't got any fresh bank credit sanctioned from their lenders.
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.
Former RBI governor R Gandhi said that the RBI needs to re-introduce a one-time restructuring package and mere moratoriums will not suffice in unprecedented times like the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bosses of SBI, Union Bank and Central Bank have been driving down to their offices everyday to take stock of the biggest loan drive ever undertaken for MSMEs, discovers Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
SBI has announced an investment of Rs 7,250 crore in Yes Bank through the acquisition of 725 crore shares at Rs 10 each.
'On the evening of the 17th, the RBI said the bank was put on moratorium.' 'Within an hour, the RBI said it would be merged with DBS.' 'How did DBS come to know within an hour that LVB was in trouble?' 'It means, what happened was match-fixing.'
Has Vijay Shekhar Sharma given up on the bank? For now, he seems to be on a save-OCL mission. The bank will face its logical end, observes Tamal Bandopadhyay.
'We do not know when we will get to the business-as-usual mode.' 'Many borrowers may not be able to pay up.' 'The incidence of cheque bouncing has doubled or even trebled, some lenders say,' says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Consolidation has begun, due to which some are trying to trim the business and others are seeking an exit. The situation would worsen after August 31.
Finance secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey on Sunday hinted that the government was working on another stimulus package but he refrained from giving a timeframe.
While the economy seems to be on a firm growth path, the fight against inflation is not over yet. Shaktikanta Das seems to be in no hurry. After playing well through a five-year Test match, he doesn't want to get out hit wicket, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
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".
There will be different ways of returning the money, depending on the profile of the depositors and the amount, predicts Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Scores of employees took to social media to express disappointment and said they were asked to resign over WhatsApp calls. On Twitter, some said they had been asked to resign by May 31 and that there was no severance package and salary would be paid only for May.
Business leaders, among others, ask govt to let go of fiscal target, seek stimulus, and direct cash transfer.
The central agency is probing Kapoor's role in connection with the disbursal of a loan to a corporate entity and the subsequent alleged kickbacks that were reportedly received in his wife's accounts.
Be wary of co-operative banks which have historically been most vulnerable.
Vodafone-Idea (Vi) has said the key hurdle it faces in raising fresh funding, despite interest from investors, is the 'pricing situation' which is also the reason why it has asked the Department of Telecommunica-tions (DoT) for another extension of the moratorium on payment of spectrum instalment by one more year. Responding to a question during an analysts' call on Friday after its quarterly results on the reason for the delay in fund-raising nine months after it was announced, CEO & MD Ravinder Takkar said: "We are in discussions with investors. There is continued interest in investing in the telecom sector in the country. "The biggest hurdle is that the overall industry is under stress because of the pricing situation." He said that once tariffs go up, it will create a significant amount of confidence.
Debt-ridden Future Group is now focusing on saving and rebuilding firms such as -- Future Lifestyle Fashions, Future Supply Chain Solutions, Future Consumer and Future Enterprises, after the Rs 24,713-crore deal with Reliance Retail was rejected by secured creditors, according to industry sources. However, Future Group's flagship firm Future Retail Ltd (FRL), which has nearly Rs 18,000 crore debt, is bound to face the corporate insolvency resolution process before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). Other companies like Future Enterprises Ltd (FEL), Future Lifestyle Fashions Ltd (FLFL), Future Supply Chain Solutions Ltd (FSCSL), Future Consumer Ltd (FCL) can sustain on their own and can be rebuilt by restructuring their liabilities with the help of current lenders and investors, said an industry source close to the Future Group.
Following the 30-day moratorium placed on Yes Bank, asset management companies have asked their clients, who have bank accounts with the troubled lender, to furnish details of alternate accounts for receiving redemption payouts. Redemption is the return of an investor's principal on a fixed income security such as a bond, mutual fund or preferred stock.
They also warned that banks will start reporting higher non-performing assets after September, once the six-month moratorium on loan repayment ends.
