Russian shipments averaged 1.67 million barrels per day in January compared to 1.48 million bpd in December and 1.53 million bpd a year earlier.
Indian banks have successfully weathered the mayhem that shook the financial world in 2008.
Foreign banks set the template in consumer banking in its infancy, but have almost vacated this booming space.
The government holds stakes ranging from 56% to 84% in 27 state-run banks.
Is the worst over for Indian banks? The past two years saw them ride on treasury trades as deposits soared and credit growth dipped sharply. Gross and net non-performing assets (NPAs) moved south, and the provision coverage ratio (PCR), capital buffers, and profitability indicators are back at pre-pandemic levels. So, what's the plot ahead?
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley sought parliament's approval on Friday to increase the spending budget for this fiscal year by $4 billion, with almost half to be used to inject extra capital into state banks struggling with bad loans.
The average time lag between the date of occurrence of a fraud and its detection is 23 months; for large frauds (Rs 100 crore and above), it was 57 months.
The World Bank and India have concluded negotiations for loans worth $3.2 billion for recapitalising state-run banks and funding for the India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd, a state-run lender to infrastructure projects.
The reason why private banks will play the deposit pricing game strategically is the weakening of banks' deposits base given the competition from MFs and insurance companies due to tax-savings schemes.
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.
In the following pages is a list of some of the top banks that have a successful track record in India (not all banks have been featured in this list because of space constraints).
At a time when the role of corporate boards is once again under the scanner, independent directors on the Paytm Payments Bank board have indicated that red flags were raised over regulatory issues but they may have been late in doing so. "As independent directors, we asked questions and monitored responses to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Many changes were made on compliances. "Obviously, in retrospect, it was not found to be enough," said one of the independent directors on the condition of anonymity.
In the Union Budget for Financial Year 2023-24 (FY24), Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had held forth on the need for better governance and investor protection in the banking sector. She had proposed certain amendments to the Reserve Bank of India Act (RBI Act), 1934; the Banking Regulation Act (BR Act), 1949; and the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970.
The overarching talking point will be the reluctance on the part of private banks to loosen their purse strings and increase lending substantially, even as the central bank believes there is adequate liquidity within the system.
With their weak metrics and high bad loans, India's state-run banks have not been investor favourites
'We are in a position to start due diligence and private data room access shortly.'
Jaitley said there was a need for the banking sector to fund infrastructure and manufacturing sectors to support the ambitions of higher growth.
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.
Still the Reserve Bank of India will operate as usual and can provide funds via its overnight repo window, traders also said.
The government on Wednesday approved merger of crisis-ridden Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) with DBS Bank India Ltd (DBIL) and removed restrictions on withdrawal of deposits by depositors. The Union Cabinet has approved the merger of the LVB with DBS Bank India Limited, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters, adding the decision will provide comfort to 20 lakh depositors and protect the services of 4,000 employees.
An executive director of a bank could, for example, be elevated to the post of chairman of a different bank.
Bankers and government officials told Reuters Rajan's successor may be less aggressive in fighting bad loans, but the general direction will remain the same
These changes will entail a relook at the various laws governing banks in the country - the two Bank Nationalisation Acts (passed in 1970 and 1980); the State Bank of India (SBI) Act of 1955; and the Companies Act of 2013.
A common feature in India is the lag between the occurrence of frauds and the time they are actually reported.
India's state banks are under pressure to improve profitability.
The central bank has not set a deadline for banks to conclude the stress-test exercise, but senior bankers opine that some were already looking at this, and will now fast-track it by September-end, when they will have a better picture of their books after the moratorium on the servicing of loans and a 180-day view on the performance of borrowers' accounts.
In December last year, the finance ministry had asked five state-run banks -- Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Bank of India -- to explore merger opportunities in the banking industry.
State-run Bank of India said on Thursday it will lower some deposit rates by 25-50 basis points from June 7.\n\n\n\n
State-run banks accounted for nearly two-third of the customer complaints received during the last financial year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday said in its report on trend and progress of banking in the country.
An anti-graft panel in Bangladesh has launched an investigation against former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her family in connection with the allegations of embezzling $5 billion in the Rooppur nuclear power plant, according to a media report.
.jpg)
With new private banks in the play, the going could become more difficult for the old-school state-run banks, already losing business and market position, forcing them to think hard towards consolidating and forming larger entities to garner big-ticket deals.
In mid-March this year, the finance ministry asked state-run banks to review their gold loan portfolio for the two-year period between January 1, 2022, and January 31, 2024. This business had grown at a fast clip. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data has it that it grew 15 per cent to Rs 1 trillion in FY24. Now, in recent times, any kind of exuberance in financial services has seen the authorities swoop down - be it pushing the lines on governance or unsecured credit.
The first quarter of calendar 2023 will see new faces heading four large public-sector banks -- Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank, and Bank of India.
'He's at best a holding-CEO. Not one who will re-imagine the bank,' a senior banker and former colleague tells Raghu Mohan about HDFC Bank CEO & MD Sashidhar Jagdishan.
Although private banks continued to operate as usual majority of trade and industry was hit by the strike by staff of 25 nationalised banks who are demanding revision of wages and a second option for pension among other things. The Indian Banks' Association, a grouping of public sector banks, is yet to formally respond to the demands of the striking employees.
The PNB fiasco falls into a family line that involves non-fund limits - read contingent liabilities which are off-books. Harshad Mehta did it with bankers' receipts in 1992. Ketan Parekh exploited the ignorance of bankers who did not know the difference between a cheque and a pay-order. And the RBI blinked when it failed to insist the SWIFT platform be linked to the core banking solution. Raghu Mohan & Abhijit Lele trace the banking mess that was just waiting to happen.
Out of the total potential loss, the share of state-run banks will be Rs 24,800 crore in FY18, while that of the private sector banks will be Rs 5,700 crore
More people are now comfortable using their debit cards.
At the current market price of the stock, that stake would be valued at about $1.5 billion.
