Page 44 - Finance Sector

World's higher-for-longer rate era stokes worry among finance officials

Debt levels are at record high levels at the same time that we're in this higher-for-longer interest-rate environment, said Gita Gopinath, No 2 official at IMF

State-run banks to lower bond purchases as liquidity tightens: Officials

Bond yields have spiked since Oct. 6, when the central bank said it will keep monetary policy restrictive and sell bonds to manage banking system liquidity. Bond prices move inversely to yields

HDFC Life Insurance Q2 profit rises 15.5% on strong premium growth

The Mumbai-based insurer's profit after tax rose to 3.77 billion rupees ($45.30 million) for the quarter ended Sept. 30, from 3.26 billion rupees a year ago, it said in an exchange filing

Maruti Suzuki signs MoU with IDBI to provide dealer financing solutions

The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India has signed an initial pact with IDBI Bank to offer financing solutions for dealers. The new alliance will empower over 4,000 Maruti Suzuki sales outlets across the country with comprehensive inventory funding options for their working capital needs, the automaker said in a statement on Tuesday. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed with IDBI Bank in this regard. "We have worked closely with IDBI Bank in developing curated products and end-to-end working capital solutions for our dealer partners across the country," Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Senior Executive Officer (Marketing & Sales) Shashank Srivastava said. Dealer partners are the backbone of the company's business and the automaker is committed to supporting them in enhancing their capabilities to address the growing Indian passenger vehicle market, he added. "IDBI Bank's supply chain finance will provide easy access to working capital finance to the dealers of

Fintech firms are back to business by wooing audience in small markets

Sector's growth mirrors growth in the broader credit market but it faces greater regulatory scrutiny

RBI policy hawkish, expect rate cut only in Apr-Jun 2024: Analysts

The Reserve Bank's status quo in policy rates and the accompanying commentary was termed as a "hawkish" pause by analysts on Friday. Many professional watchers said the fourth consecutive pause pushes their expectations of a rate cut further, with some saying it can happen only in the April-June quarter of 2024. After announcing the rate panel decision, Governor Shaktikanta Das said the RBI will be "actively disinflationary" and "emphatically reiterated". The panel also stuck to the stance of "withdrawal of accommodation", and Das later hinted that a relook at it is not possible till inflation cools down. "We foresee a rate cut only in the first quarter of next fiscal, assuming normalising inflation and slowing growth," ratings agency Crisil said, adding uneven distribution of rainfall during the monsoon season, rising crude oil prices and tight global food supplies as upside risks to inflation this fiscal. Foreign brokerage Goldman Sachs termed it as a "hawkish hold" from the RBI

Poonawalla Fincorp posts record Q2 disbursements at Rs 7,750 crore

Meanwhile, it posted a 10 per cent sequential growth from Rs 7,063 crore in the first quarter of FY24

SBI takes banking to doorsteps to enhance inclusion with mobile devices

State Bank of India on Wednesday introduced banking through mobile handheld devices for its customers to enhance financial inclusion. This initiative, chairman Dinesh Khara said, aims to empower financial inclusion and extend essential banking services to the masses and is part of enhancing accessibility and convenience in availing banking services. The move brings kiosk banking directly to customers' doorsteps as it offers greater flexibility to customer service point agents, enabling them to reach out to customers, especially for those facing health issues, senior citizens and differently-abled. The new offer will provide five core banking services -- cash withdrawal, deposits, fund transfers, balance inquiry, and mini statements -- in its initial phase. These services account for more than 75 per cent of the total transactions conducted at the bank's CSP (customer service point) outlets, Khara said. The bank also plans to include services such as enrolments under social security

Unsecured loan growth high, RBI unlikely to put restrictions: India Ratings

Unsecured loans are on the rise, but the Reserve Bank is unlikely to put regulations to curb the same, a top official of India Ratings and Research said on Wednesday. The domestic credit rating agency, a part of the Fitch Group, feels there are no issues on asset quality as a result of the fast-paced growth in the portfolios as yet, its head for financial institutions Karan Gupta told reporters here. Gupta said most of the unsecured lending by banks is to salaried individuals, especially ones with whom banks already have a long relationship, giving them a look into cash flows while making the lending calls, he said, adding events like major job losses can hurt the asset quality. It can be noted that banks have been reporting very high growth in the retail unsecured books for the last few months, leading to concerns over its possible impact on asset quality. RBI's financial stability report also flagged the risk, pointing out that the credit card NPAs for state-run lenders is over 16

Polycab India, Lodha, Shriram Finance, and PFC may migrate to largecaps

Further, Mazagon Dock, Suzlon Energy, Lloyds Metals and SJVN could migrate from smallcap universe to midcap universe, as per an analysis done by Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research

e-Kuber to be functional on March 31 for govt transactions, says RBI

Reserve Bank of India's core banking solution for the government e-Kuber will be functional on March 31, 2024, which is a Sunday. Usually e-Kuber is not operational on holidays like January 26 (Republic Day), August 15 (Independence Day), and October 2 (Gandhi Jayanti), all second and fourth Saturdays of every month and on all Sundays. The office of Controller General of Accounts, Government of India has advised that in order to account for all the government transactions relating to receipts and payments in the financial year 2023-24 itself, it has been decided that March 31, 2024 (Sunday) be marked as a working day for such transactions, RBI said in a notification on Tuesday. Government transactions through integration with e-Kuber processed on March 31, 2024 would be accounted for in the financial year 2023-24 itself for arriving at the cash balance of the Government of India, it said.

At Rs 11.8 trn, India's gross tax revenue up by 16% in 5 months of FY24

August tax mop-up gives boost to govt finances

SBI Cards likely to gain as higher spending expected in third quarter

The four largest players are HDFC Bank, SBI Cards, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank and they hold 70 per cent of outstanding cards and receive about 75 per cent of spends

Higher pension scheme: EPFO extends deadline to upload details till Dec 31

The deadline for uploading wage details which was ending on September 30 has been extended following representations from Employers & Employers' Associations, according to a labour ministry's release

Govt raises interest rate on 5-year recurring deposit to 6.7% for Dec qtr

According to a finance ministry circular, the interest rate on savings deposit has been retained at 4 per cent and on the one-year term deposit at 6.9 per cent

Strong growth prospects for the affordable housing finance sector

The competitive intensity is high in the lender segment, with banks, small finance banks and NBFCs including both specialised HFC and non-specilaised NBFCs active in the segment

ICICI Lombard says it has got Rs 1729 cr tax demand from GST Intelligence

General insurer says it will file a response to the notice based on advice from its tax advisors

Massive write-offs, low recovery ailing banking sector: Amit Mitra

Principal chief advisor to West Bengal chief minister Amit Mitra said on Thursday that massive write-offs in the last nine years and low recovery is presently ailing the banking sector of the country. Speaking at a CII banking session here, Mitra said that in the last nine years from 2014-2023, Rs 14.56 lakh crore has been written off from the books of the banks. During 2021-22, the written-off amount was Rs 1.75 lakh crore, and subsequently Rs 2.09 lakh crore in the succeeding fiscal. Mitra, also the former finance minister of the West Bengal government, said that union minister of state for finance Bhagwat Karad had informed Parliament that out of the total written-off amount of Rs 14.56 lakh crore, Rs 7.40 lakh crore are for large industry and services segments. He said, however, the recovery had been low to the tune of Rs 2.04 lakh crore out of Rs 14.56 lakh crore, which means more than Rs 12 lakh crore is yet to be recovered. According to him, the amount of write-offs in the

Chase UK will soon bar customers from making cryptocurrency transactions

Chase UK, JP Morgan's British digital bank, says it will bar customers from making cryptocurrency transactions starting next month citing an uptick in scams and fraud. From October 16 onward, Chase customers will no longer be able to make crypto transactions using their debit card or through an outgoing bank transfer, the bank said Tuesday. If we think you're making a payment related to crypto assets, we'll decline it, Chase said in an email to customers. If you'd still like to invest in crypto assets, you can try using a different bank or provider instead but please be cautious, as you may not be able to get the money back if the payment ends up being related to fraud or a scam. In an email to The Associated Press, Chase said that Tuesday's decision was made to help keep customers and their money safe. The bank also pointed to increases in crypto fraud-related losses reported by UK regulators in the last year. According to London-based law firm RPC, data from Britain's fraud ...

Govt approves one year extension to RBI Deputy Governor Rajeshwar Rao

The government on Monday extended the term of RBI Deputy Governor M Rajeshwar Rao for a period of one year, according to sources. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the re-appointment of M Rajeshwar Rao, Deputy Governor Reserve Bank of India, for a period of one year with effect from October 9, 2023, they said. He was appointed as the RBI Deputy Governor in October 2020 for a period of three years. Rao was elevated as the RBI executive director in November 2016. An economics graduate and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Cochin, Rao joined the central bank in 1984. As a career central banker, he has exposure to various aspects of the RBI's functioning. He has previously held the charge of the Risk Monitoring Department. He has also worked as the Banking Ombudsman in New Delhi and in the Reserve Bank's regional offices in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chennai and the national capital. According to the RBI Act 1934, the central bank needs to ha