Towards the end of the calendar year, an Internal Working Group (IWG) of the RBI made a case for large corporate groups being permitted to spawn banks
The FSR has warned that while easy money is intended to support growth, it can encourage leverage, inflate asset prices and endanger financial stability
At Business Standard Unlock BFSI 2.0, some of the best minds from the SFB sector discuss the consequences of the lockdown, the urban- rural divide, capital-raising plans, and the way forward for SFBs
At the Business Standard Unlock BFSI 2.0, leading minds of the payments industry and fintech players discuss the opportunities and challenges thrown up by Covid
A snapshot of the key data on Indian banking
Leading names of India's banking industry join Tamal Bandyopadhyay at Business Standard's Unlock BFSI 2.0 to discuss the issues plaguing the sector
Flexi hours and creches for children can help retain them but a bigger problem at the moment is women bankers don't have too many role models to look up to
Edited excerpts from a discussion at the Business Standard Banking Technology Round Table 2016 held in October
Edited excerpts from a discussion at the Business Standard Banking Round Table held in Mumbai in October
By going digital, in the long run we see both top line and bottom line improving, said Aditya Puri Managing Director, HDFC Bank
Aditya Puri has always taken the untrodden path and come out a winner
HDFC Bank is ahead of its peers in shareholder returns, presence in rural and semi-urban areas and innovations in digital banking
Banks will need to address issues such as stressed assets, capital adequacy, competition from digital and new players. Time is running out
Demonetisation will be a boon for digital transactions. Is the banking system ready for this tectonic shift to a less cash-intensive economy?
Romesh Sobti, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, IndusInd Bank, tellsNikhat Hetavkar and Abhijit Lele that the bank will increase its focus on rural banking and also foray into areas such as insurance, mutual funds and stockbrokingHow has your journey been since you took over the reins in 2008?When we came in 11 years ago, we found a bank where weaknesses outnumbered the strengths. In this period, we had some tailwinds assisting us, a lot of luck and, of course a determined execution of strategy, which laid down what you could do and more importantly, what you can?t or shouldn?t do. Our belief was that you should be a universal bank and do everything that the regulator allows you to do. On the other side, you don?t need to manufacture all products such as insurance and asset management. Instead, you can be a good distributor of products.Will you then not get into these areas?Today, in addition to scale, we also have experience in these products. We have a massive client bas
Is the worst behind us in terms of non-performing assets (NPA)?Rajkiran Rai G: The trend is very clear, gross NPAs are going to come down, slippages are moderating. But we never use this phrase, ?the worst is behind us?. Whenever we used this phrase, usually that quarter was bad with something different. We are now fed up of making this statement. If you ask me if good times are ahead of us, yes, very much because now NPA slippages are moderating. In the system as a whole, the recognition part of NPA is coming to an end. We will have NPAs, but the recognition part to a great extent is complete. Now it is the provisioning part which is ahead of us.Chandra Shekhar Ghosh: What we have observed is that the lesser the ticket size of the loan, the better the repayment rate. Repayment rates have improved, weathering demonetisation and GST (goods and services tax)-related impact. But there are some customers who are irregular in their payments; we are trying to regularise them.Pramit Jhaveri:
People, technology and the opportunity to tap growth in an economy undergoing rapid financialisation are the key factors in play in two historic mergers this year. V Vaidyanathan heads IDFC First Bank after the merger of Capital First with IDFC Bank. P S Jayakumar is MD and CEO of Bank of Baroda, which is in the process of a merger with Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank. The two CEOs discuss the opportunities and challengesOn the way ahead for IDFC First BankV Vaidyanathan: I believe that retail is a very big opportunity. Having said that, I also see opportunity in wholesale banking along the way, though definitely the bias will be in favour of being a retail bank. Out of Rs 80 trillion of credit only Rs 20 trillion is personal credit. Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have a share of under Rs 5 trillion.We will have a substantial bias towards retail banking. Our retail loan book on a combined basis is only Rs 35,000 crore. In the next five-six years we want to take it close to Rs 1
Small finance banks (SFBs) and payments banks are yet to take off in a big way. Some of the entities that won licences to start payments banks have surrendered their licences. SFBs were hit hard by demonetisation. In a fireside chat, Jio Payments Bank MD and CEO H Srikrishnan and Jana Small Finance Bank MD and CEO Ajay Kanwal discuss the challenges and opportunities for their new banksOn Jana SFB being hit by demonetisationAjay Kanwal: Jana was one of the largest microfinance companies and was doing exceptionally well. Demonetisation really caused a challenge, which ended up being a good crisis. Just before we turned into a bank, we had the challenge around non-performing assets (NPAs). It gave us a lot of time to introspect and see what went wrong either on the growth side, policy side or process side. When you are in an NPA challenge, you want to make sure that your capital is backing you. Jana was fortunate as investors stood strong. We did go through a transformational period. Thin
Edited excerpts from a discussion at the Business Standard Banking Technology Round Table held in Mumbai
Over the past 10 years, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and housing finance companies (HFCs) have grown from being specialist financiers to companies grabbing market share from banks, especially state-owned ones, in the wake of various issues plaguing the banking sector. However, some of that success has come undone recently in the wake of the defaults by Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS). Top experts discuss the way ahead for NBFCs. Edited excerpts from the Business Standard NBFC Round Table:How do you see the present situation of non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) after the IL&FS problem?Gagan Banga: There is undoubtedly a crisis. Any financial services company should build its business with the realisation that it will go through a liquidity crisis every three to five years, for one reason or the other. This is the fourth crisis in the last 10 years, and the reason and the trigger every time are different. In the 2008 crisis, banks and mutual