29.11.2020: Today's Banking / Financial News

29.11.2020: Today's Banking / Financial News at a Glance

🍒 Government opposes further loan moratorium : The government on Friday cited constraints imposed by the country’s economic situation and the uncertainty over the Covid-19 pandemic to oppose any further Supreme Court relief by way of extending the loan moratorium scheme to other affected sectors. The government, through Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, told a bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan that it had already extended the loan moratorium scheme for small borrowers and waived interest on interest. “Any such relief sector-wise would be a problem under Article 32,” he said. “There is already a mechanism (restructuring). Let them work out things under the mechanism,” the SG said. “Given the economic position of the country and the pandemic… no one knows when this situation will end,” he said. Further relief would be difficult to extend to all affected sectors, including big borrowers, he argued. Justice M R Shah wondered if the government was saying that there was a line that must not be crossed. Justice Bhushan insisted that the bench would take a call on this once it had heard out all the other petitioners in the court, including Credai, the power producers, mall owners and jewellery shop owners. - economic times

🍒 Bankers hope retail, SME segment will sustain credit offtake in H2 : Bankers are optimistic about tempo of credit offtake and some easing of risk of slippages in current fiscal on the back of the narrower GDP contraction in the second quarter. Ashwani Bhatia, Managing Director (MD), State Bank of India (SBI) said things do not look bad so far. "With the (Q2 GDP) numbers, the double-digit dip in FY21 may not be there and we could see positive growth. This would have a beneficial effect on the credit side. However, much of the credit growth will be seen retail (auto, housing and personal loans) and SME segment," he said. Bank credit grew by 5.7 per cent year-on-year till early November 2020, shows Reserve Bank of India data. "The risks of slippages are within control for now. Yet, we have to be watchful of some large exposures in airports and SME segment," Bhatia added. - Business Standard

🍒 Delhi High Court stays RBI's show cause notice to UVARCL :  The Delhi High Court on Friday stayed a Reserve Bank of India notice warning of possible cancellation of UV Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd’s (UVARCL) registration, over what the central bank termed an illegal bankruptcy resolution proposal moved by the ARC for telecom firm Aircel. Mere submission of a resolution plan cannot be held illegal, Justice Navin Chawla held on a petition filed by UVARCL, while seeking response from the RBI, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) and the union government within 15 days.  The RBI had in a notice last week warned UVARCL that its certificate of registration could be cancelled unless it explained by this weekend why it did not inform the bankruptcy court that the regulator had rejected its resolution plan for Aircel. UVARCL approached the court against the show-cause notice this week.- economic times

🍒 Write-off of Lakshmi Vilas Bank's debt to sting small lenders : India’s smaller banks will likely face higher funding costs and reduced investor appetite for their bonds just as non-performing loans spread, after the central bank moved to write off debt of an ailing lender. The Reserve Bank of India on late Thursday said Rs3.18 billion ($43 million) of Tier 2 bonds of Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd. will be fully written down as DBS Group Holdings Ltd. acquires the lender. The announcement comes as a surprise after the RBI-appointed administrator said last week DBS would take over all obligations, including bonds. “Financing costs may inch up and the appetite shall be lower especially for the lower-rated private and small finance banks," said Ajay Manglunia, managing director and head at JM Financial Products Ltd. “Such lenders will have to rely more on equity raise as investors shall be a bit more skeptical to take risk now." - Live Mint

🍒 EPFO extends deadline to submit life certificate by pensioners till February 28 : Retirement fund body EPFO has extended the deadline for submission of life certificates by pensioners till February 28, a move which would benefit over 35 lakh persons who could not submit the document by November due to coronavirus pandemic. The pensioners who could not submit their life certificates till November 30 deadline, would get pension every month till February. "In view of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the vulnerability of elderly population to coronavirus, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has extended the time limit up to 28th February 2021 for submission of Life Certificate (Jeevan Pramaan Patra-JPP) in respect of the Pensioners drawing pension under EPS 1995 (Employees' Pension Scheme-1995) and whose Life certificate is due in any month till February 28, 2021," a labour ministry statement said. - economic times

🍒 Let us declare NPAs, banks to Supreme Court; govt pleads against sector-specific relief : The Indian Banks’ Association on Friday made a strong case for vacation of the Supreme Court order that restrained banks from classifying accounts as NPA. Senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for IBA, vehemently urged a Bench led by justice Ashok Bhushan to vacate its order of September 3 that directed banks against declaring loan accounts that were not NPAs prior to August 31. Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, urged the apex court not to delve into the issue of sector-specific loan repayment reliefs and the issue should be left to be resolved between lender banks and borrowers. The apex court had last week asked RBI to respond to the power producers’ demands for various benefits, including restructuring of their loans, under the recent central bank circular on debt recast. - financial expresss

🍒 Manappuram Finance mulls options to raise funds via borrowings : NBFC Manappuram Finance on Friday said it is considering various options for raising funds through borrowings for expansion of business. The Kerala-based lender has reported a good growth in its gold loan portfolio, with consolidated assets under management increasing 18.6% year-on-year to Rs 26,902.73 crore. The lender in a regulatory filing with the exchanges said the company may consider and approve issuances of debt securities during December. Based on the prevailing market conditions, the board of directors may consider and approve issuances of various debt securities in onshore or offshore securities market by public issue on a private placement basis, or through issuing commercial papers, the company said. Average borrowing costs for the standalone entity declined 26 basis points during the second quarter to 9.13%. The lender, which operates a home loan, microfinance and commercial vehicle leasing subsidiary, has reported a standalone net profit of Rs 405.56 crore in the gold loan business, compared with Rs 336.17 crore in the year-ago period. - financial express

🍒 Paytm to not charge any fee on wallet payments for merchants; move to benefit 1.70 crore users : In an effort to de-clutter the digital payments ecosystem and augment the use of online payments, Paytm has announced that merchants will now be allowed to receive unlimited payments through its Paytm Wallet at a 0% fee, along with UPI and Rupay Cards. “With this, we aim to benefit more than 17 million (1.7 crore) merchants who can enjoy a 0% fee on all their digital payments with direct settlement in their bank accounts,” paytm said in a blog on its website. Paytm is one of the largest payment solutions providers in the country with a large customer base. Of the 17 millions merchants that use Paytm, Goldman Sachs recently said, a massive 70% are active.  Paytm said that its move to allow merchants to receive unlimited payments through Paytm Wallet will provide them with a single point of reconciliation for all their payments, not requiring them to use multiple QRs codes. “All they need is Paytm ‘All-In-One QR’ to accept payments from Paytm wallet, Paytm UPI, or any other UPI app,” Paytm said. This All-in-one QR code will enable merchants to receive payments from any bank account or any rupay card, along with paytm wallets at zero fee charged by the company.- financial express

🍒 Rupee likely to trade in narrow range of 73.68-74.24 next week, deploy short Iron Butterfly : The United States Dollar/Indian Rupee (USD/INR) witnessed mild profit booking after hitting the stiff resistance zone of 74.50- 74.60 per US dollar and closed with the mild loss of approximately 10 paise on a week on week basis at 74 per US dollar. The currency pair failed to breakout and fall back in the previous trading range of 73.10 to 74.60 per US dollar. In an upcoming trading week, traders can expect the recent fall to get abated for the time being and the sideways move in a narrow range could be seen. The bullish 'Harami' candlestick pattern formed on November 26, suggesting that bears have booked profit at lower levels. The momentum indicators are locked in a sideways zone and no major move is expected in an upcoming truncated week. - moneycontrol.

🍒 Why traditional banks need to partner with fintech firms for delivering essential banking solutions : The gap between what customers expect and what traditional banks currently deliver has never been wider. Still, it now is the right time for banks to catch up from front to back-end to offer the best customer experience,” this is one of the key messages delivered in the World Fintech Report 2020 by Capgemini. The report urges a rethink of the execution of collaborations between incumbent finance players and the new up-and-coming players, both of which stand to benefit from collaboration. Capgemini’s Open X Readiness Index Report says that banks already leading in a revitalised approach to collaboration are those who have designated a dedicated and autonomous start-partnership team and who “demonstrate a fail-fast innovation approach” to determine the value and cut losses quickly. Frontrunners will also invest in emerging technologies and have little dependency on legacy systems, making FinTech integration easier. And to keep up with ever-changing customer expectations in today’s marketplace, incumbent banks must transform into Inventive Banks with collaborative support from qualified FinTech partners. To remain attractive and competitive, banks must shift to becoming customer-centric and inventive. - financial express.