Page 16 - Banking Sector

Small-cap banks take the lead in average spend per credit card transaction

Credit-card spending for January stood at Rs 1,841 billion, marking a two per cent slide month-on-month (MoM), but a strong 14 per cent year-on-year growth

Bank of India adds 111 new branches to expand urban, semi-urban reach

As of December 2024, BoI had 5,202 branches in the country, with 993 in metros, 838 in urban centres, 1,501 in semi-urban centres, and 1,868 in rural areas

Banks' Apr-Dec performance robust, impaired loan ratio near trough: Fitch

Fitch Ratings on Monday said Indian banks have performed robustly in the first nine months of the current financial year with the sector's impaired loan ratio close to the trough. In its commentary, Fitch said improvements in key performance metrics of Indian banks in the past few years will provide strong support for their Viability Ratings (VRs). The global rating agency also said that Indian banks' risk appetites have been more calibrated since 2018, with efforts to diversify loans and improve the quality of corporate exposures contributing to lower bad loan formation. Lower legacy bad loans drove improvement in banks' gross impaired loan ratios and earnings, Fitch said. However, these risk enhancements have yet to be fully tested, and banks have tended to vary risk appetite through cycles, such as growth in unsecured personal loans in recent years until regulatory measures discouraged this behaviour, Fitch noted. "Indian banks performed robustly in the first nine months of the

Long haul for growth: How GDP dynamics may shape up in the coming quarters

Looking at India's growth performance from the expenditure lens indicates a pickup in the private consumption expenditure to 6.9% YoY in Q3FY25 compared to 5.9% YoY in Q2FY25

BS Manthan: Bilateralism now topping the agenda, says FM Sitharaman

The global churn and India's reset played out on day one of BS thought summit, with the who's who from government, economy, banking, defence coming together

EOW arrests son of absconding businessman in New India Coop Bank fraud case

The Mumbai police's economic offences wing (EOW) has arrested the son of a businessman wanted in connection with the embezzlement of Rs 122 crore at the New India Cooperative Bank, an official said on Friday. The EOW on Thursday arrested Manohar Arunachalam (33), the son of absconding accused Unnathan Arunachalam, the official said. This is the fourth arrest in connection with the case, he said. The EOW had earlier arrested three persons, including the bank's ex-general manager, Hitesh Mehta, and real estate developer, Dharmesh Paun. The official said Manohar allegedly helped his father, Unnathan Arunachalam alias Arun Bhai, to flee, and a probe has revealed that he was with his father when the latter absconded. He will be produced in a court later in the day, the official said. EOW officials have been searching for Unnathan Arunachalam for the last several days, and a lookout circular has been issued against him According to the EOW, the bank's ex-general manager, Hitesh Mehta,

Physical banking will get slower in terms of share, says Uday Kotak

Speaking at the Business Standard's annual conclave BS Manthan, Uday Kotak, founder and director of Kotak Mahindra Bank said politics is emerging as a highly disruptive force, reshaping global finance

New India Coop Bank had capacity for Rs 10 cr, book showed Rs 122 cr: EOW

New India Cooperative Bank's Prabhadevi branch in Mumbai had a capacity to keep Rs 10 crore at a time, but the cash in hand book showed there was Rs 122.028 crore in the safe on the day of RBI inspection, police officials said on Tuesday, citing probe into a fraud case. Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) is probing a Rs 122-crore embezzlement at New India Cooperative Bank and has arrested three persons, including two former top executives of the lender, so far. The RBI inspection team visited the corporate office branch of the bank at Prabhadevi on February 11, where they found Rs 122 crore cash was missing from the safe, an official said. The balance sheet at the corporate office branch was showing Rs 133.41 crore at the bank's safe at Prabhadevi and Goregaon branches, and Rs 122.028 was the figure on the balance sheet of Prabhadevi branch on that day, he said. During the probe, the EOW found the capacity of the safe at the corporate office to store cash was only Rs 10 .

FinMin defers performance review meeting with heads of PSU banks to Mar 5

The finance ministry has deferred performance review meeting with heads of public sector banks (PSBs) by a day to March 5. The meeting, to be chaired by Financial Services Secretary M Nagaraju, would review financial performance and progress of financial inclusion schemes, among others, sources said. Earlier, Department of Financial Services had fixed March 4 for the meeting. This is going to be the first meeting after presentation of Union Budget 2025-26 in Parliament. The 12 PSBs have posted highest-ever net profit of Rs 1.29 lakh crore in the April-December period of the current fiscal year, marking an annual increase of 31.3 per cent. The performance of PSBs has shown significant improvement on key financial parameters, like record net profit growth, improved asset quality, and build-up of adequate capital buffers, during the period under review. Further, improved asset quality is also visible from significantly low net NPA ratio at 0.59 per cent (aggregate net NPA outstandin

Microfinance loan book shrinks 3.5% to Rs 3.85 trillion in Dec quarter

Share of overdue loans shoots to 6.4%

IndusInd Bank gets GST demand notice of Rs 21.62 crore for short payment

IndusInd Bank on Tuesday said tax authorities have slapped a demand notice of about Rs 21.62 crore for alleged short payment of GST. The bank has received a communication/demand order on Tuesday from Deputy Commissioner of State Tax, Ahmedabad, Gujarat for various GST issues, IndusInd Bank said in a regulatory filing. The financial impact of the demand is to the extent of Rs 21.62 crore including penalty, it said. The bank will explore filing of appeal against the order, it said.

Cracks in co-ops? Irregularities persist in UCBs despite RBI interventions

RBI's initiatives to promote sound governance practices in UCBs include introducing a four-tiered regulatory framework, direct engagement with directors on UCB boards

Create an ecosystem for banks to offer equity support to startups: CS Setty

SBI Chairman C S Setty on Tuesday pitched for creating an "ecosystem" where banks can offer "equity support" to startups in the country. He said the government is also looking at a guarantee scheme where support for loans up to Rs 100 crore will be provided to the startups. "We need to work out an ecosystem where the equity support from the banking system is also available to the startups," Setty said, speaking at the annual NTLF event organized by tech industry lobby grouping Nasscom here. Banks are not allowed to offer equity support to startups at present, and can only offer debt support. Setty said the country's largest lender has been active on the debt support front when it comes to startups, pointing out that it lends directly to such enterprises or through dedicated funds. It also has seven dedicated branches across the country which offer dedicated banking support and loans to the start-up ecosystem, which is the third largest globally. Setty said the fledgling fintechs

IndusInd Bank cuts fixed deposit rates, offers 8.25% for senior citizens

Maximum interest rate of 7.75% for general and 8.25% for senior citizens applicable to tenures ranging from one year five months to just under one year six months

Govt seeks advisers for minority stake sales in state-run banks, firms

The federal finance ministry is looking dilute minority shareholdings in Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, UCO Bank, and Punjab and Sind Bank

Banks continue to rely on certificates of deposits amid liquidity woes

Outstanding amount on CDs hits all-time high of Rs 5.19 trillion as of fortnight ending February 7

RBI must infuse Rs 1 trillion by March to ease bank liquidity gap: Analysts

Since mid-January, the Reserve Bank of India has infused funds to counter a sharp decline in liquidity caused by its aggressive intervention in the foreign exchange market, among other factors

Green loan expansion can boost loan portfolios of Indian banks: IIM study

The IIM Lucknow study seeks to address this gap by designing a framework to identify non-carbon-intensive sectors and assess their impact on loan portfolio quality

Govt should bear higher premium for increased deposit insurance: AIRBEA

Currently, with coverage being for Rs 5 lakh, 97.8 per cent of the total number of deposit amounts are fully protected. However, in terms of value only 43.1 per cent of the deposits are insured

HSBC India's profit before tax rises 11.27% to $1.68 billion in 2024

HSBC India ranks just behind the UK and Hong Kong in terms of profit, as mainland China and Canada saw elevated profits due to one-time gains and profits from associates