HDFC, the pioneer, ICICI, the game-changer, and SBI, the original teaser, turned the market on its head.
The committee is considering multiple BPLRs for corporates, SMEs and retail borrowers and is likely to meet by mid-September to finalise the recommendations on the BPLR structure. BPLR is the interest rate that commercial banks charge their most credit-worthy customers.
Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das will hold a meeting with CEOs of public sector banks on Wednesday to discuss issues concerning slow deposit growth and sustainability of high credit demand. As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, deposits rose by 9.6 per cent as compared to 10.2 per cent on a year-on-year basis, while credit offtake witnessed a jump of 17.9 per cent as against 6.5 per cent a year ago. According to an agenda circulated for the meeting, sources said, sustainability, including pricing and slow growth of deposits, would be discussed.
'My wife, family members as well as members of the workers will be trustees.' 'The trust will take all decisions -- no family member can individually take any decision.'
In a mixed bag for HDFC Bank ahead of the parent HDFC's merger with itself, the Reserve Bank of India has declined to make exceptions on certain aspects, and has offered some leeway on others. The country's largest private sector lender, which is aiming to conclude the merger with the home finance major by July, had written to the central bank seeking certain forbearances after announcing the $40-billion merger in April last year. In an exchange filing this evening, HDFC Bank said it received a response from RBI on Thursday and also said that there are a few pending issues.
Reduces PLR by 25 bps to 13.75% for existing borrowers.
Dismayed by the BJP's decision to say no to FDI in multi-brand retail in its election manifesto, India Inc has urged the party to reconsider its stand, saying the move may send a wrong signal to overseas investors.
Senior bankers are trying to impress upon the central bank that the shift to external benchmark-linked lending be postponed to April 1, 2020.
'When bankers are hounded by investigative agencies for credit decisions going wrong and defaulters are treated like outcasts, who will borrow money and who will lend?' asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Lenders and shareholders of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) will meet on May 2 to demerge the firm's financial services business. This is expected to create a big player in segments including the NBFC (non-banking financial company) space with net worth of Rs 25,851 crore as of March 2022. According to the plan, RIL shareholders will get a share in the demerged entity for each one held in the company.
Second-tier NBFC stocks are trading at 24.4x their trailing earnings, which is nearly twice their 15-year average of 13.9x
Most of the banks and NBFCs lure consumers with interest rate discount of 0.25 to 1 per cent on car loans. The dealers also offer good cash discounts and freebies at this time. However, you need to sift through the offers and bag the deal that ideally suits you.
The government plans to bring down its stake to 26 per cent in these two banks, which are yet to be identified. This may not come in the way of getting investors for these banks, provided the government is willing to step back rather than run them the way it had been doing for over five decades since these banks were nationalised, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'67 per cent of our transactions happen digitally and about 93 per cent of transactions happen outside the branch.' 'Despite that, there is ample scope for promoting banking-related activities in branches.' 'So, for some time, we will have to, probably, live with the same structure.'
Investors not comfortable investing directly may take the mutual fund route, where they get exposure to a diversified portfolio of bonds.
In a fresh twist in the fight to gain supremacy in the Indian retail market, billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail has slapped notices on Future Retail for terminating sub-leases of 950 stores it had taken over previously. In stock exchange filings, the Kishore Biyani-led debt-laded Future Group firms said they have been served notices to terminate the lease of 835 Future Retail stores and 112 Future Lifestyle stores. Last month, Reliance Retail had taken over store spaces for which the Future Group couldn't pay lease rent. These were then sub-let to the Future Group for operation.
Citi Bank on Wednesday joined the list of foreign banks that have exited the retail banking business in India as the US-based banking giant announced selling its consumer banking portfolio to Axis Bank for an estimated Rs 12,325 crore. Global banking majors such as ANZ Grindlays, RBS, Commonwealth Bank of Australia have scaled down their operations in India. In a mega-deal announcement on Wednesday, Axis Bank and Citibank said their boards have approved acquisition of Citibank's consumer businesses in India by Axis Bank.
Future Retail's independent directors had last week asked Amazon if it was willing to give a long-term loan to avoid default on repayment of Rs 3,500 crore loan due on January 29. Amazon replied to that saying it was willing to financially assist Future Retail through the Samara Capital deal but the retailer must shelve Rs 24,713 crore deal with the Reliance group.
Despite a significant improvement in asset quality, the country's banking industry might see its bad assets inching up in the months ahead, particularly in retail segment, global rating agency Fitch said.Rising bad loan assets had prompted many banks to sell their sticky assets to asset reconstruction companies, in order to transfer the risk and clean up their balance sheets.
Commemorating 75 years of India's independence, SBI has launched a 75-day Utsav Deposit Scheme, offering 6.10 per cent for fixed deposits. Senior citizens will get an additional 0.50 per cent and the offer is on until October 30, SBI said.
Be wary of co-operative banks which have historically been most vulnerable.
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.
In fact, some private sector lenders have decided to skip advertising these altogether.
The country's largest private lender HDFC Bank is planning to facilitate a shift in its payments module from the existing core banking platform. This would ensure minimal payments downtime, even if core banking is not available. "This 15-month project will be followed by hollowing the customer-master modules from its existing core systems. "It will ensure a single system of record for customers across various products," said Sashidhar Jagdishan, managing director (MD) & chief executive officer (CEO), in the annual report for 2021-22.
Bank of Baroda (BoB) has made prudential provision of Rs 500 crore for exposure to Go First, which has sought bankruptcy protection after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted its plea for voluntary insolvency. Sanjiv Chadha, managing director and chief executive officer of BoB, said the bank identifies issues in advance and makes provisions if required. The Mumbai-based public sector lender has an exposure of Rs 1,300 crore to the troubled airline.
India's equity markets are on a roller-coaster ride, after delivering spectacular returns for two consecutive years - in 2020 and 2021. The benchmark National Stock Exchange's (NSE's) Nifty50 is down 1.5 per cent in the first nine months of the current calendar year 2022 (CY22) as foreign portfolio investors sold Indian stocks due to rising bond yields in the US and across global markets, including India. The sell-off in the Indian equity markets has, however, not been broad-based and largely limited to sectors facing earnings headwinds from rising interest rates, lower commodity and energy prices, and likely economic recession in advanced economies.
Capital expenditure by 54 large central public sector enterprises and five departmental arms, having a capex minimum target of Rs 100 crore, rose 93 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in the April-May period to Rs 1.39 trillion. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the Railways have started this financial year's capex cycle on a stronger note. In the first two months of FY24, the 54 CPSEs, along with the departmental arms, achieved 19 per cent of their combined budget target of Rs 7.33 trillion, Business Standard has learnt.
'When there is unlocking, there is demand revival.' 'This is going to be the main growth engine in this kind of an economic scenario.'
For the banking system a new cycle starts in FY2024. It's fraught with fresh challenges on asset quality and profitability, warns Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Pre-Budget excercise next month should scrupulously avoid adventurism of all types and refrain from making excessively ambitious projections on revenue and expenditure numbers for 2023-24, suggests A K Bhattacharya.
John Aranha got an order from Central Mumbai District Consumer Forum that made Croma pay him Rs 26,300 for a fridge he had bought but was never delivered to him, says consumer activist Jehangir B Gai
Observing that MSME sector plays an important role in the growth of the Indian economy, RBI said the restructuring of the borrower account has been extended by further one year to March 31, 2021.
Banks and insurers are beginning to reward customers who show exemplary conduct with lower prices and penalise those who behave poorly by imposing higher costs.
Walmart-owned digital payments firm PhonePe has decided to halt its proposed acquisition of Goldman Sachs- and Xiaomi-backed ZestMoney, a Bengaluru-based buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform. The deal, which was poised to fetch anywhere between $150-200 million and $300 million, has hit a snag over lapses in due diligence, disagreements over valuation, sustainability of the business, and shareholding structure of ZestMoney, according to people familiar with the matter. The collapse of the deal is also being attributed to a slowdown in the financial technology (fintech) sector in the midst of a funding winter, difficult regulatory environment, and macroeconomic uncertainty, informed other sources.
There's a long way to go before human beings are replaced by machines -- in banks at least.
The non-watchlist stress emanated from over five year-old loans in the iron and steel, infrastructure and construction sectors.
Dealers across brands are slashing prices by Rs 20,000 to over Rs 1 lakh, depending on the car model.
The ban prescribes Rs 5,000 fine for the first-time offenders and Rs 10,000 for the second-time offenders. Those who violate the ban for the third time will face a fine of Rs 25,000, along with a three-month imprisonment.
Banks to be permitted to raise long-term funds for lending to infrastructure sector with minimum regulatory pre-emption such as CRR, SLR and Priority Sector Lending.
The government is somehow convinced that selective low-rate lending will stimulate demand and accelerate economic growth that plunged to a four-year low of 4.4 per cent in the first three months of 2013-14.