Banking Reforms

Par panel recommends IPO route for profitable RRBs to raise capital

The government should consider launching public offerings of highly profitable Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) to attract market capital and promote stronger corporate governance standards, a Parliamentary panel has said in its report. Standing Committee on Finance, headed by senior BJP leader Bhartruhari Mahtab noted the successful completion of the structural consolidation of RRBs, reducing their number from 43 to 28 highly viable entities across 11 states, eliminating the need for further capital infusion in 2026-27. RRBs have achieved a historic consolidated net profit of Rs 7,720 crore in just the first nine months of FY 2025-26, driving gross NPAs down to a 13-year low of 5.4 per cent, though vulnerabilities remain, particularly the 13.8 per cent GNPA in priority sector education loans. The panel recommend that RRBs actively mitigate these specific sectoral risks by fully leveraging their inclusion in the Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme for Education Loans (CGFSEL) and aggressively .

We framed this Budget on a larger plank, not based on any one incident: FM

The India-US trade deal, had it come a little earlier, would not have made the Union Budget any different, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said

Union Budget 2026-27: High-level panel set to review banking sector

The proposed committee could examine long-pending issues such as corporate entry into banking, FDI norms, voting rights caps and consolidation

Microfinance in vicious cycle of debt, high rates, warns RBI deputy guv

RBI Deputy Governor M Rajeshwar Rao warns of high interest rates, borrower over-indebtedness, and coercive recovery in India's microfinance sector, calls for urgent lender reforms

BS BFSI summit highlights: 'Data science can help pre-identify those vulnerable to cyber fraud'

Business Standard BFSI Summit 2024 highlights: Catch all the updates related to the BFSI summit here

BFSI summit highlights: Not acquisition but integration a challenge, says Razorpay's MD

Business Standard BFSI Summit 2024 updates: Catch all the updates related to the BFSI summit here

Fiscal consolidation: Yes. Banking reforms: Wait

Next-generation reforms are at the bottom of the list of nine priorities of this Budget

Majority of CISOs in financial services sector experience gaps: Report

The report said that 76 per cent of CISOs polled witnessed the aforementioned challenge

Replacing 'phone banking' with 'digital banking' promoted growth: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday attributed India's sustained economic growth to the efforts of the BJP government to replace pre-2014 'phone banking' with 'digital banking'. Referring to the previous UPA regime, he said under 'phone banking', instructions were given on phone to banks regarding whom they had to lend to and at what terms and conditions. "The economy of any country is as progressive as its banking system is strong," the Prime Minister said after dedicating 75 Digital Banking Units (DBUs) to the nation via video-conference. Observing that the country has shifted from the pre-2014 'phone banking' system to digital banking in the last eight years, he said "as a result, India's economy is moving forward with a continuum." Modi said before 2014, the banks used to get phone calls to decide their functioning, and added "phone banking politics had made the banks unsafe and made the country's economy insecure by sowing the seeds of thousands of crores of scams." The ..

UPA fell back on loosening govt's grip on PSBs: Montek Singh Ahluwalia

In a Q&A, the former deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, dwells on the areas where he feels UPA did not meet up to the challenges and the progress made by the BJP on certain fronts

Govt banks continue to have truncated boards, 10 don't even have a chairman

Meeting quorum of board sub-committees becomes difficult sometimes, say bankers

PMC Bank gets some cooperative support, but revival to take time

The takeover of this bankrupt urban cooperative bank by the Centrum-BharatPe combine marks the first instance of NBFCs, high-net worth individuals and fintechs being allowed entry in this space

Privatisation of two public sector banks on meeting agenda next week

Four to five PSBs have been suggested by the Niti Aayog and they will be discussed in the meeting, sources said

Bank privatisation as an experiment

The government must test the efficacy of privatising two banks first before going the whole hog

PM harps on trust and transparency for depositors, investors in fin sector

Says banking sector was badly hit 12 years ago due to aggressive lending; but now instead of brushing NPAs under the carpet, it is mandatory to report even one-day defaults

How to revive PMC Bank

Mired in corruption, politics and with a history of suicides by its hapless depositors, PMC Bank's revival is a challenge very different from Yes Bank and LVB, both for the regulator and the rescuer

Budget 2021: All eyes will be on the package FM unveils for state-run banks

A status check on the consolidation of four sets of state-run banks offers clues to the hard decisions that are needed, write Abhijit Lele and Raghu Mohan

The BIC's time to resolve recap issues is now

Inadequately capitalised banks will face problems in increasing their credit portfolios. A credit squeeze on account of banks' balance-sheet constraints would also have larger macroeconomic dimensions

A poor idea

Bad bank will only kick the can down the road

Expect banking revival in 2021

The potential turnaround in banking means the government does not need to act in haste, only to repent at leisure