Banking Round Table highlights: GDP is fine, trajectory upwards, says HDFC Bank's Puri

The finest minds in Indian banking have come together to share their thoughts on the sector and the economy

Business Standard Banking Round Table, 2016, started on Thursday, with the finest minds in Indian banking coming together and sharing their thoughts on some of the critical issues in not only the banking industry but also the economy at large.

Here are the highlights of what the top banking honchos said: 

1) The one thing striking about the banking side in concentration of assets and liabilities, said IDFC Bank MD & CEO Rajiv Lall

2) IDFC Bank's Rajiv Lall said that 45 per cent of all outstanding advances were made to only 300 corporates. 

3) Rajiv Lall pointed out that 60 per cent of India's household savings were still outside the financial system.

4) Union Bank of India CMD Arun Tiwari said that there is a perception advantage in terms of which bank is a retail bank and which is involved in corporate lending. 

5) Axis Bank MD & CEO Shikha Sharma said that credit growth to the corporate sector was relatively weak and that working capital demand has also been depressed.

6) Shikha Sharma added that there have been no new projects in the last 18 months and working capital demand has also been depressed.

7) Axis Bank's Sharma pointed out that the retail and small and medium-sized enterprises sectors were showing demand. However, she cautioned that there was worry over whether that is the next bubble.

8 )Chandra Kochchar, the head of ICICI Bank highlighted that it's imperative for banks to become agile and active to keep evolving their business models. A cause of concern is that loan against property and unsecured loans appears to be growing at a fast pace, she added. Kocchar also said the next round of credit growth will come from the secondary impact of all the government spends.

9) Aditya Puri of HDFC Bank pointed out that the government, banks and the Reserve Bank of India are very clear that they're not in the business of charity. If money has been borrowed, it must be given back, he said.

10) Pramit Jhaveri of Citibank thinks technology  is going to be the biggest driver for banking."India is among most attractive destinative as far as financial services industry is concerned," said Jhaveri.

11) Chanda Kocchar of ICICI Bank said infra projects will be funded partly by banks and partly by other means such as bonds. This means that project finance will get more structured before money is committed towards a particular project.

12) She also said robotics have reduced  the bank's error rates and response time to consumers