23.09.2020 Banking / Financial News

23.09.2020 Banking / Financial News

🍒 Central Bank sets QIP floor price at ?16.18 apiece : Central Bank of India launched its fund-raising exercise on Tuesday through a qualified institutional placement. The floor price has been set at ?16.18 per equity share for the QIP. “…the capital-raising committee of the bank has, at its meeting held on September 22, passed the following resolutions – approved and adopted the preliminary placement document …, approved the opening of the QIP on September 22, 2020; and approved the floor price of ?16.18 per equity share for the QIP,” it said in a regulatory filing. The capital-raising committee of its board will meet again on September 25 to consider and determine the issue price for the equity shares to be allotted to qualified institutional buyers, it further said. On Tuesday, the bank’s scrip closed 14.29 per cent higher at ?17.20 apiece on the BSE. - Business Line

🍒 Indian Parliament passes bill to bring cooperative banks under RBI's supervision : Parliament on Tuesday passed amendments to the Banking Regulation Act to bring cooperative banks under the supervision of the RBI, a move aimed at protecting the interest of depositors.The Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2020, which replaces an ordinance that was promulgated on June 26, was passed by a voice vote in Rajya Sabha. The amendment had got approval from Lok Sabha on September 16. The bill, which comes in the backdrop of the PMC Bank scam, seeks to strengthen cooperative banks by increasing their professionalism, enabling access to capital, improving governance and ensuring sound banking through the RBI.Replying to a short debate on the bill in Rajya Sabha, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the amendments have been brought to completely protect the interest of depositors. She clarifies this amendment is only for cooperative societies engaged in banking activities. "During the COVID period many cooperative banks have come under stress. Their finances are being closely monitored by the regulator RBI," Sitharaman said. - economic times

🍒 Rate cuts have not spurred investment: SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar : State Bank of India chairman Rajnish Kumar on Tuesday said that interest rate cuts had not led to an increase in investment, despite the banks passing on the rate cuts to the customers. Speaking at the 47th National Management Convention of the All India Management Association (AIMA), Kumar said that credit growth had been slow this year as capex was not happening at the usual pace. He pointed out that in the last crisis in 2008, banks had increased lending by diluting norms and the country had paid a high price for that, so banks were being prudent this time. - economic times

🍒 Corporates reluctant to go in for loan restructuring: SBI chief : SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar, on Tuesday, said there has not been too much of rush for loan restructuring so far as announced by the Reserve Bank of India. According to him, more than banks, corporates are reluctant to go for restructuring. Hence, there might not be much demand for restructuring among corporates; however, there might be some demand from the lower end of corporates or from the MSME segments. “From the banking side, what I am seeing is that there is not too much demand (for corporate restructuring). It may be contrary to what the public discourse is, but as of now, the reasons could be many. One is, of course, a lot of clean up has already happened. In the capital, a lot of deleveraging has also happened. And more than banks, corporates are reluctant to go for restructuring. That is the feeling I am getting,” said Kumar at the banking colloquium organised by CII on Tuesday. - Business Line

🍒 PSBs get more retail credit inquiries than private banks during Jul-Aug: Report : The state-run lenders are seeing faster pick up in retail credit inquiries than their private counterparts on quicker reopening of branch network, a report by a credit information company (CIC) said on Tuesday. Despite the inroads done by digital alternatives, through which lenders are receiving inquiries and even disbursing loans online, branch offices continue to play an important role, Transunion Cibil said in the report. The lenders get in touch with CICs while doing diligence on every credit proposal, which triggers in inquiries. It can be noted that many analysts have said that a large share of the incremental credit demand is coming from the more aggressive private sector lenders who also have larger capital buffers. "Public (sector) lenders saw the biggest rebound in inquiries in July and August 2020, most likely because they were early in recommencing operations than their private and NBFC (non-bank finance companies) counterparts," the report by Cibil said.- economic times

🍒 RBI, government in right direction to keep economy moving: Axis Bank CEO : The Reserve Bank and the government are in the right direction to keep the economy moving and signs of revival in the banking industry are visible with people starting to repay their liabilities, Axis Bank MD and CEO Amitabh Chaudhry said on Tuesday. "We have gone through two phases of concession being given to the borrowers with the moratoriums, now we are in the so called restructuring phase. "The numbers are trending in the right direction, that means the customers do realise that they do need to pay. Many customers who have taken moratorium or who were worried about this situation have actually started paying and I am expecting a similar trend on restructuring side as well," Chaudhry said. He was speaking at a virtual event organised by the All India Management Association (AIMA).- economic times

🍒 Government needs to cap MDR on debit card at 0.6% to promote digital transaction: Report : The government needs to cap the merchant discount rate on all types of debit and pre-paid cards at a lower rate of 0.6 per cent of the transaction value with a view to end distortions in the card payment ecosystem and promote digital transactions, suggested a study. The study done by the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay further suggested that there could be an upper ceiling of Rs 150 for a prescribed merchant discount rate (MDR) of 0.6 per cent. "To encourage digital payments where cash is a strong alternative, for small and medium merchants accepting POS based payments, and having annual turnover of at most Rs 2 crore, the MDR for all types of debit and pre-paid cards, for transactions up to Rs 2,000, could be fixed with a cap of 0.25 per cent, while for transactions exceeding Rs 2,000, the cap could be 0.6 per cent," it said.- economic times

🍒 State Bank of India planning to monetise its integrated digital banking platform YONO : State Bank of India is planning to monetise its flagship digital banking platform YONO by allowing smaller lenders such as small finance banks and regional rural banks to use it, chairman Rajnish Kumar said. The country's largest bank may soon carve out the integrated digital platform into a separate entity. "The work has started," the chairman said at a CII event on Tuesday. Other lenders would need to connect with the YONO API (application programming interface) for using the platform. Kumar had earlier said that YONO (You Only Need One) is a profitable platform with 2.7 crore users. He had said that YONO could have been valued at $40 billion had a valuation been done. The platform was launched in November 2017. SBI onboarded about 29 lakh customers on this platform in the first quarter of this fiscal. It has seen around three million transactions in the same period. The bank also opened three pilot YONO branches. About 93% of the bank’s total transactions now take place through alternate channels. - economic times

🍒 Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank gets a new administrator : Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has appointed former Union Bank of India general manager AK Dixit as the new administrator of the beleaguered Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (PMC) as the present administrator JB Bhoria is stepped down on September 22 due to health reasons. PMC was placed under RBI directions on September 23, 2019, after its NPAs rose sharply due to loans given to real estate company HDIL and its promoters the Wadhawan's with accounting for it in the bank's book. The directions have been subsequently extended and is presently valid till December 22.- economic times

🍒 Stressed assets could touch 20% by end of fiscal year: Macquarie Capital : In what could raise alarm bells over the asset quality of the Indian Banking system, Macquarie Capital has estimated that stressed assets could more than double and touch nearly 20% by the end of FY21. Bad loan ratio at the end of March 2020 stood at 8.5%. //“As per our estimates, we believe overall stressed assets for banks is expected to touch 20% by FY21E which is perhaps the highest observed in the history of the banking system in India and also one of the highest in the world,” said Suresh Ganapathy, Associate Director, Macquarie Capital. This is so far the worst assessment of the stress induced by the pandemic on bank’s books. The Reserve Bank of India as part of the stress tests it conducted on lender’s books predicted that bad loan ratio could rise to 14.7% under a severely stressed scenario.- economic times

🍒 Banks ready with one-time rejig plan for retail loans : There’s relief in sight for pandemic-hit retail borrowers struggling to make EMI payments. Banks have started offering relief packages to borrowers under the RBI’s Resolution Framework for Covid-19-related Stress. As the six-month moratorium offered to all borrowers came to an end on August 31, the RBI allowed banks to open a one-time restructuring window for banks to offer further relief to borrowers who are still cash-crunched and unable to resume EMI payments. The one-time restructuring of loans include personal, housing, auto and education advances, and credit card dues. Banks are now rolling out the scheme. “We have framed guidelines on the modalities and customers can apply for relief before December 24, 2020,” a senior SBI official told BusinessLine. -Bussiness Line  

🍒 ‘DHFL used 2.6 lakh fraud a/cs in fake branch to siphon funds’ : A whopping 2.6 lakh fake accounts in a Mumbai branch that did not exist. This is what investigations into the DHFL scam have revealed. The ‘branch’ created fake accounts using names of account holders who had already repaid in full to siphon out ₹11,750 crore. Coding was done with the help of three software platforms to camouflage these transactions, according to probe documents seen by BusinessLine Nearly 70 per cent of the ‘fraudulent transactions’ of DHFL flagged by the forensic auditor, Grant Thornton, are from this fictitious ‘Bandra-branch,’ the probe documents show. - Business Line

🍒 Vivriti Capital raises ?100 crore in Series B Funding : Vivriti Capital, which owns and manages online platform CredAvenue, has raised ?100 croreled by existing investor Creation Investments. The company had earlier raised ?350 crore in March from LGT Lightstone Aspada and ?310 crore in 2019 from Creation Investments, and with this investment the company has raised ?760 crore till date, it said in a statement. The funds infused will be used to further strengthen our technological and analytical capabilities and ramp up new platforms, which we have launched specifically for co-lending, supply chain, among others. We will also invest more into our asset management business to set up and launch unique funds spanning the BBB to AAA fixed income universe, said Gaurav Kumar and Vineet Sukumar, Founders and MD of Vivriti Capital.-Bness Line  

🍒 More clarity on loan recast likely by month-end : A clearer picture on the availment of the loan restructuring scheme is likely to emerge by the month-end as banks are still awaiting collection data and are also hoping for a verdict from the Supreme Court oe of moratorium interest. Meanwhile, even as banks, NBFCs and housing finance companies have begun rolling out retail and home loan recast schemes, most of them do not expect too many borrowers to avail the facility. “As of now, discussions have begun with borrowers who want to avail the recast. But everyone is hoping for more clarity after the Supreme Court hearing on September 28,” said a senior banker with a private sector lender.Like State Bank of India, mFrwost lenders are also seeking the details and proof of Covid-related job loss or salary reduction. “It is the same for both retail and corporate borrowers. They have to approach the bank and discuss the recast. It is not a free lunch,” said anoFoher banker, adding that bank and salary statements and GST returns are being examined.-Bussiness Line  

🍒 Singapore, HK top destinations for suspect funds; China and India follow : Singapore and Hong Kong were the biggest destinations for suspect transactions in Asia, even though the financial centers saw just a smal🙏🏻firaction of an estimated $2 trillion in potentially dodgy money flows revealed in a report. Singapore processed $4.4 billion in suspicious flows through banks, including DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. and United Overseas Bank Ltd., the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists said in an investigation published Sunday. Some $4.1 billion was handled in Hong Kong by lenders including HSBC Holdings Plc and Deutsche Bank AG, it said. The two banking centers are followed by China and India in Asia in terms of the size of suspect flows, according to the report based on a leaked trove of documents to BuzzFeed News. The documents detailed more than $2 trillion in transactions between 1999 and 2017 that were flagged by financial institutions’ internal compliance officers as possible money laundering or other criminal activity. - Business Standard

🍒 Covid-19 effect: Banks may recast Rs two trillion loans, says SBI : The banking system in India is expected to restructure loans worth Rs two trillion of borrowers impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, State Bank of India chairman Rajnish Kumar said. This estimate for recast covers corporate, MSME and retail borrowers. As for SBI, the estimates are in the region of Rs 20,000 crore covering all segments. There isn't much demand for restructuring as of now. The scale of recast will remain restricted if economic recovery isn't delayed much, SBI chairman said. Addressing a banking webinar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Kumar said said very few large corporates with loans above Rs 1,500 crore are likely to be come for restructuring. A lot of clean up and deleveraging has already happened in the case of large companies, many of whom are reluctant to carry the 'restructuring' tag. Segments impacted the most include aviation, hospitality and shopping malls. The real estate sector has been struggling for four to five years and the pandemic has added to problems, Kumar said. - Business Standard

🍒 NBFC-MFIs' loan disbursement drops 96% to Rs 570 cr in June quarter : Loan disbursements by non-banking financial companies-microfinance institutions (NBFC-MFIs) declined 96 per cent to Rs 570 crore in the first quarter of the current financial year, according to a report by Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN). It had stood at Rs 15,865 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The data pertains to NBFC-MFI members of MFIN, a self-regulatory organisation and industry association of the microfinance sector in the country. It has 56 NBFC-MFIs and 35 associates including banks, small finance banks (SFBs) and NBFCs as its members. Analysis on NBFC-MFIs is based on data collected from 54 members that are registered with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), MFIN said.- Business Standard

🍒 SBI to charge additional 0.35% interest on rejigged retail loans : State Bank of India (SBI) on Monday launched a portal to administer the restructuring scheme to retail borrowers hit by Covid-19-related stress. The country’s largest lender will be charging an additional interest of 0.35% per annum over and above the current pricing for the remaining tenure of the restructured loans, “in order to offset partial cost of additional provisions required to be made by the bank.” Customers can check their eligibility for the restructuring of their loans through the portal. Upon logging in, they will be asked to key in their account number. After completion of OTP validation and inputting a few other details, the customer will come to know their eligibility and receive a reference number. This reference number will be valid for 30 days, within which period customers can visit the branch to complete the required formalities. The restructuring process will be completed after verification of documents and execution of some procedures at their branch. - financial express

🍒 Gold prices drop by Rs 658 to Rs 50,683; silver rates fall to Rs 59,959 per kg : Gold prices slide by Rs 658 to hit Rs 50,683 per 10 gram in the Mumbai market on a strong dollar and subdued global cues. The precious metal prices decline on sharp dollar recovery as safe-haven buying switched to dollar with rising coronavirus cases and fear of another lockdown in Europe and the UK. The rate of 10 gram 22-carat gold in Mumbai was Rs 46,426 plus 3 percent GST, while 24-carat 10 gram was Rs 50,683 plus GST. The 18-carat gold quoted at Rs 38,012 plus GST in the retail market. Silver prices declined by Rs 4,182 to Rs 59,959 per kg from its closing on September 21.

🍒 Rupee skids 20 paise to 73.58 against US dollar : The rupee depreciated 20 paise and settled at 73.58 (provisional) against the US dollar on Tuesday tracking negative domestic equities. At the interbank forex market, the rupee opened on a weak note at 73.50, then fell further and finally closed at 73.58 against the greenback, registering a fall of 20 paise over its last close. The rupee strengthened by seven paise to close at 73.38 against the US dollar on Monday.

Forwarded as received:🙏🏻🙏🏻

Business Standard

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Mint

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Ø India's natural gas production down 13% year-on-year in April-August

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