Page 3 - Credit

Debt-trapped Pakistan slashes trade deficit by 43 per cent in FY23

Cash-strapped Pakistan has slashed its trade deficit by a staggering 43 per cent to USD 27.55 billion in the fiscal year 2023, according to a media report on Wednesday. The government's stringent control over imports played a vital role in this significant reduction, as it aimed to stabilise the country's critically low foreign exchange reserves and mitigate the risk of default. In the previous fiscal year 2022, the trade deficit had widened to a daunting USD 48.35 billion, causing concern about the country's economic stability, The Express Tribune newspaper reported. However, the government's strict administrative measures on imports and the impact of floods in 2022 negatively affected the domestic economy, resulting in a provisional growth rate of only 0.3 per cent in FY23, compared to 6.1 per cent in FY22. Recent data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said that imports decreased by 31 per cent to USD 55.29 billion in FY2023. This is a significant drop from the record

SBI to raise up to Rs 50,000 crore in FY24 by issuing debt instruments

State Bank of India plans to raise up to 50,000 crore rupees ($6.06 billion) this financial year by issuing debt instruments, as lenders look to meet rising demand for credit

Rising risk appetite may affect some Banks' credit profiles: Fitch

Banks' loan growth over the financial year ended March 2023 (FY23) reached 15.4 per cent, the highest since FY12

Beyond the financial system: Will AA framework be a game-changer in India?

The Account Aggregator framework is being adopted across sectors, including in verifying the employment status of newly skilled workers

Shapoorji Pallonji Group taps private credit market to raise $1.6 bn

The group has been seeking ways to free up cash as rising interest rates bite

India extends $1 billion credit line to crisis-hit Sri Lanka by a year

The credit line, part of about $4 billion in emergency assistance extended by India during the peak of Sri Lanka's financial crisis early last year, was scheduled to end in March

Industrial credit growth slips to a 12-month low of 7% in February

The slowdown in industrial credit was much sharper than the slowdown in overall non-food credit, which continued to grow in double digits at 15.9 per cent YoY in February

China as a creditor

Sovereign debt restructuring has become tricky

A powerful tool for democratising credit access

Credit card growth does not conflict with real-time payment systems, but complements them and offers consumers more payment options

Pre-sanctioned credit lines at bank to come under UPI ambit, says RBI

The Reserve Bank on Thursday proposed to expand the scope of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) by including pre-sanctioned credit lines at banks within the ambit of the popular payment platform. UPI is a robust payment platform supporting an array of features. Presently it handles 75 per cent of the retail digital payments volume in India. The UPI system has been leveraged to develop products and features aligned to India's payments digitisation goals, said RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das while announcing the bi-monthly monetary policy. "It is now proposed to expand the scope of UPI by enabling transfer to / from pre-sanctioned credit lines at banks, in addition to deposit accounts," he said. In other words, UPI network will facilitate payments financed by credit from banks. This can reduce the cost of such offerings and help in the development of unique products for Indian markets. At present, UPI transactions are enabled between deposit accounts at banks, sometimes intermediated

RBI proposes expanding UPI payments to allow pre-sanctioned credit lines

According to Das, the UPI has transformed retail payments in India and its robustness has been leveraged to develop new products and features from time to time

Credit Information firms to compensate for delayed updations: RBI

According to RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, the above measures will further enhance consumer protection

Now boarding: Is India on the cusp of a tectonic shift in retail credit?

First-time customers are emerging as a huge catchment area for retail finance, but dangers lurk in the nooks and crannies

Industry's share of non-food bank credit hits record low of 26.6%

Economists at India Ratings blamed the recent surge in interest rates

Adani Group fallout? NBFC loans against shares under RBI scanner

The central bank's Department of Supervision sought this information over the past week, and the deadline for submission of large exposure was on Monday, informed a source

Bank credit grows at 16.1% to Rs 134.17 trillion in Feb 10 fortnight

About a month ago (January 13 fortnight), credit growth stood at 16.5 per cent YoY

RBI-MPC may go for 25bps policy rate hike in April, says Acuite Ratings

Credit rating agency Acuite Ratings and Research said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will continue with monetary tightening and will hike the policy rate by 25 basis points (bps).

Two-thirds of NTC consumers were from semi-urban areas in 2021: Report

More than two-third of the new to credit customers in India hailed from the rural and semi-urban areas in 2021, according to a credit information company. Women, farmers and youth lead the charge on the New To Credit (NTC) customer addition front, which is desirable from a financial inclusion perspective, Transunion Cibil said on Tuesday. In 2021, the total number of NTC customers stood at 35 million while the January-September 2022 period saw 31 million additions, it said in a report. NTC consumers are ones with no prior credit history on their credit bureau file who opened their first-ever, traditional credit product such as a consumer durable loan, personal loan, agricultural loan, two-wheeler, gold loan or home loan. More than a fourth of the NTC customers in the first nine months of 2022 started their credit journey by availing a consumer durable loan, followed by 16 per cent who took an agricultural loan and 13 per cent availed personal loans, it said. Among the NTC consumer

Hinduja sweetens offer for RCap to counter Torrent group's winning bid

CoC decide whether Hinduja offer is legally valid or not as e-auction has ended

Bank credit grows 17.2% YoY to Rs 129.48 trn in fortnight to Nov 18

Deposit growth rises 9.6%, analysts cite FPI flows, govt spending