12.11.2020 : Today's Banking / Financial News

 12.11.2020 : Today's Banking / Financial News at a Glance

🍒 Bank of Baroda announces reduction in MCLR by 0.05% across all tenors : State-owned Bank of Baroda on Wednesday announced reduction in the marginal cost of funds based lending rate by 0.05 per cent across all tenors. "The bank has revised marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) with effect from November 12, 2020," Bank of Baroda said in a regulatory filing.  The one-year tenor -- which is the benchmark for all consumer loans such as auto, retail, housing -- has been reduced to 7.45 per cent from 7.5 per cent. Among others, from overnight to six-month tenor loans, the MCLR has been cut to 6.60-7.30 per cent, the bank said. Shares of Bank of Baroda were trading 1.76 per cent lower at Rs 47.35 apiece on the BSE. - Business Standard

🍒 Government okays Rs 5,500 crore equity infusion into Punjab & Sind Bank :  Public sector Punjab & Sind Bank (PSB) on Tuesday said the government has okayed infusion of Rs 5,500 crore capital into the bank in lieu of preferential allotment of shares. The bank is in receipt of letter dated November 10, 2020 from the Ministry of Finance regarding sanction to infuse an amount of Rs 5,500 crore, it said in a regulatory filing. The capital infusion, the lender said, is towards the contribution of the central government in the preferential allotment of equity shares of the bank during financial year 2020-21. The government's shareholding in the bank as of September 30, 2020 stood at 83.06 per cent, as per data on BSE. - economic times

🍒 RBI imposes Rs 50 lakh penalty on Central Bank of India for non-compliance : The Reserve Bank on Tuesday said it has imposed a penalty of Rs 50 lakh on state-run Central Bank of India for non-compliance with its directions on disbursal of some housing loans. "Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has, by an order dated November 10, 2020, imposed a monetary penalty of Rs 50 lakh" on the bank for non-compliance with certain provisions contained in the circular on 'Housing Sector- Innovative Housing Loan Products - Upfront disbursal of housing loans' dated September 3, 2013, it said in a statement. Giving details, it said an off-site examination of the records pertaining to some housing loans disbursed by the bank was conducted by RBI. The examination and related documents revealed non-compliance with the directions issued by RBI, it said. - Business Standard

🍒 ICICI Bank's retail home loan portfolio crosses Rs 2 lakh crore : Even as the unlock is happening gradually, demand for home loans surged and ICICI Bank which has more than half its retail loans in mortgages, witnessed all time monthly high loan disbursements in October which was mostly from the second and third tier cities. Overall, ICICI’s retail home loan portfolio reached Rs 2.05 lakh crore at the end of September, showing 9.6% year-on-year rise over Rs 1.87 lakh crore a year back.The bank said it's the first private sector lender to reach the Rs 2 lakh crore milestone. Country's largest lender the government-owned State Bank of India has a home loan portfolio of Rs 4.68 lakh crore at the end of September. SBI said its home loan grew 10.34% year-on-year. ICICI's total mortgage loan portfolio which includes securitized home loans from other lenders stood at Rs 2.12 lakh crore while the bank's gross loan portfolio was at Rs 6.53 lakh crore. - economic times

🍒 Retired PSU bankers may get one rank, one pension plan : A one-rank, one pension (OROP) kind of scheme is in the works for retired PSU bank employees. OROP was a longstanding demand of armed forces’ veterans, where the pension would be reworked so that everyone who retired in the same rank will get the same pension, irrespective of the date of retirement. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has sounded off banks to do more for employees who retired earlier so they are not discriminated against in terms of pension. The government has also asked banks to review the family pension scheme so that the pension for the spouse is the same as the government. - economic times

🍒 IBA, bank unions conclude wage revision negotiations : The Indian Banks' Association (IBA) on Wednesday announced the conclusion of the 11th Bipartite Wage Negotiations with bank unions and officers' associations. After three years of intense negotiations, bank employees' unions and IBA, on July 22, had entered into a memorandum of understanding for an annual wage hike of 15 per cent.  “The Indian Banks' Association is pleased to announce the conclusion of 11th Bipartite Wage Negotiations with bank unions and associations to be effective from November 1, 2017. The agreement reached today, provides for a 15 per cent increase in pay slip,” IBA chief executive Sunil Mehta said in a statement. - economic times

🍒 HDFC Bank eyeing tenfold growth in merchant base to 20 million in three years : Country’s largest private sector lender HDFC Bank has set an ambitious target to expand its merchant base by ten-fold in the next three years, eyeing a sizable share of India’s rapidly growing digital payments market. The lender is planning to reach out to more than 20 million small and medium merchants and also professional services like doctors, pharmacies, salons and laundry services across metro, semi urban and rural India in the next 3 years, the head of payments, consumer finance, marketing and digital banking, Parag Rao said on Wednesday. HDFC Bank has about two million merchants on its network as of FY20. “Small and medium businesses are the backbone of our economy,” Rao said. “To further deepen the penetration of digital forms of payment across India, it is important that the merchant network is empowered with the best range of solutions.” - economic times

🍒 DHFL bidders jack up offers; Oaktree’s highest at ₹33,000 cr : Lenders to the troubled Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) have received revised offers from its four bidders, with the highest tender now at ₹33,000 crore. According to informed sources, US-based Oaktree Capital has revised its bid to ₹33,000 crore from ₹28,000 crore earlier for the entire company on an ‘as is where is’ basis. Under its earlier bid, it had offered lenders ₹15,800 crore for the entire company, payable after seven years. It also offered the ₹12,000 crore of cash available with the company to the lenders.  - business line

🍒 Gift City: IFSCA approves draft Banking Regulations : The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) —regulator of IFSCs including Gift City— on Wednesday approved draft Banking regulations that will be applicable in international financial services centres (IFSCs) such as Gujarat’s Gift City. The formulation of draft regulation paves the way for putting in place the rules for the various aspects of banking operations that would be permissible at the IFSC. The draft regulations include laying down the requirements for setting up IFSC Banking Units (IBUs); Permitting persons resident outside India (having net worth not less than $1 million) to open foreign currency accounts in any freely convertible currency at IBUs; Permitting persons resident in India (having net worth not less than $1 million) to open foreign currency accounts in any freely convertible currency at IBUs to undertake any permissible current account or capital account transaction or any combination thereof under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) of the Reserve Bank of India. - Business Line

🍒 1 in 3 people are making digital payment at least once a day during festival season: Survey : Digital payments continue to be the preferred payment method for 39 per cent of consumers in India, ahead of debit and credit card payments (26 per cent) and cash (26 per cent). According to a new study conducted during the festival season by YouGov and ACI Worldwide, revealed that digital payments, including eWallets and UPI payments, were used by 57 per cent of respondents more than twice per week for festival season purchases. This is up from 43 per cent a year ago. - Business Line

🍒 Sundaram Home Finance sees green shoots, to raise ₹2,000 cr in H2 : Sundaram Home Finance (SHF) plans to raise ₹2,000 crore during the second half of this fiscal through a mix of debt instruments and bank funding in order to fund its growth plans. “After a nervous start to the year, we have been witnessing some green shoots in the last two months in the housing sector, especially in tier-two towns in South India,” said Lakshminarayanan Duraiswamy, MD, Sundaram Home Finance. - Business Line

🍒 IRDAI nod for remote agent exams could help insurers recruit more easily : Insurance companies are hoping that recruitment of agents will become easier with exams now being held on a remote basis although there remain concerns about how accessible it will be for candidates.  The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India earlier this month decided to allow IC-38 examination for individual agents to be conducted from remote locations through remote proctor model proposed by NSEIT.- Business Line

🍒 Wadhawan writes fresh letter to DHFL Administrator : Highlighting the low value of the revised bids received, jailed promoter of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) has once again written to the company’s Administrator, asking to be allowed to attend the next meeting of the Committee of Creditors. Stressing that DHFL continues to have considerable value, Wadhawan, in his letter, has said that the bids received by DHFL are “abysmally low” and will only result in massive loss of public money and substantially benefit a few if such bids are accepted.- Business Line

🍒 Rupee slumps 18 paise against US dollar to 74.36 : The rupee declined 18 paise to close at 74.36 against the US dollar on Wednesday, tracking strengthening American currency in the overseas market and higher crude prices. However, a strong rally in domestic equities and unabated foreign fund inflows restricted the slide of the domestic unit, forex traders

🍒 Sensex rallies 316 pts to finish at fresh peak; Nifty crosses 12,700 : After touching its all-time peak of 43,708.47 during the session, the 30-share BSE index settled 316.02 points or 0.73 per cent higher at 43,593.67. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty touched a fresh intra-day high of 12,769.75. It finished 118.05 points or 0.93 per cent up at its closing record of 12,749.15.Tata Steel was the top gainer among the Sensex constituents, surging around 8 per cent, followed by Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv, ITC, Infosys, Sun Pharma, Kotak Bank, ONGC and UltraTech Cement. On the other hand, IndusInd Bank, Reliance Industries, Titan, Asian Paints and HDFC Bank were in the red.

🍒 Gold prices steady at Rs 50,708 per 10 gram on firm dollar; silver up Rs 656/kg : Gold prices rose marginally by Rs 43 to Rs 50,708 per 10 gram in the Mumbai retail market on rupee depreciation and weak global market. The precious metal traded in a narrow range amid a lack of fresh triggers and recovery in the US dollar. The rate of 10 gram 22-carat gold in Mumbai was Rs 46,449 plus 3 percent GST, while 24-carat 10 gram was Rs 50,708 plus GST. The 18-carat gold quoted at Rs 38,301 plus GST in the retail market. Silver prices climbed by Rs 656 to Rs 62,440 per kg from its closing on November 10.