Friday 23 October 2020

23.10.2020: Today's Banking / Financial News

23.10.2020: Today's Banking / Financial News at a Glance

🍒 Bank credit up 5.66 percent, deposits rise 10.55 percent: RBI data : Bank credit grew by 5.66 per cent to Rs 103.44 lakh crore, while deposits increased by 10.55 per cent to Rs 143.02 lakh crore in the fortnight ended October 9, according to RBI data. In the fortnight ended October 11, 2019, bank credit had stood at Rs 97.89 lakh crore and deposits at Rs 129.38 lakh crore. In the previous fortnight ended September 25, 2020, bank credit had grown by 5.15 per cent to Rs 102.72 lakh crore and deposits rose by 10.51 per cent to Rs 142.64 lakh crore. On a year-on-year basis, non-food bank credit growth decelerated to 6 per cent in August as against 9.8 per cent in the same month last year, central bank data showed. Growth in loans to agriculture and allied activities rose 4.9 per cent in the reporting month, as compared to a growth of 6.8 per cent in August last year. - economic times

🍒 Fill up Non-Executive Director posts: PSBs to Finance Ministry : Public sector banks (PSBs) have requested the Finance Ministry to fill up Non-Executive Director positions to ensure adherence to corporate governance norms and constitution of board-level committees. Some of these positions have been vacant for almost seven years. Currently, there are vacancies in the category of Non-Executive Chairman, Workmen Employee Director, Officer Employee Director, and Director (under the Chartered Accountant category), and Part-time Non-official Directors, among others. With six PSBs getting merged into four PSBs with effect from April 1, there are now 12 state-owned banks in the country. Non-Executive Director vacancies exist in a majority of these banks. “All 12 PSBs have unfilled vacancies of Officer and Workmen Director positions. It is a purely political decision. “If the positions are vacant, the bank is free to do and undo things as per the select few on the board. Hence, (bad loan) write-offs are going on unchecked,” said S Nagarajan, General Secretary, All-India Bank Officers’ Association. He underscored that a PSB board without an Employee and Workmen Director can steamroll its decisions without any opposition.- Business Line

🍒 ‘UCO Bank yet to come out of RBI’s PCA framework’ : Despite complying with all key regulatory parameters for three subsequent quarters, UCO Bank is yet to come out of the Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) measure of the Reserve Bank of India. The bank has been posting a sequential growth in net profits for the last three quarters, and has also been able to consistently improve its asset quality by bringing down both gross and net non-performing assets (NPA). PCA is triggered when banks breach certain regulatory requirements such as minimum capital, return on asset, and quantum of non-performing asset. According to Atul Kumar Goel, MD and CEO, UCO Bank, while the bank has been able to adhere to all the four parameters required to come out of PCA, the regulator (RBI) might want to wait and assess the impact of the pandemic and the moratorium on asset quality in the next one or two quarters. “We have managed to adhere to all four parameters required to come out of PCA in the March, June and now in the September quarter. The call has to be now taken by the regulator. The impact of moratorium, if any, would be only seen in the December and March quarters. So, they may want to see our performance during these quarters,” Goel told newspersons in a virtual conference on Thursday. - Business Line

🍒 Indian Bank Q2 net profit rises 15 per cent to Rs 412 cr : State-owned Indian Bank on Thursday reported a 15 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 412.28 crore for the second quarter ended September, despite increase in provisions for bad loans. The bank’s net profit in July-September quarter of 2019-20 stood at Rs 358.56 crore. The results are not strictly comparable with that of previous year’s as Kolkata-based Allahabad Bank merged with Indian Bank on April 1, 2020. Indian Bank’s total income rose to Rs 11,669.11 crore during September quarter this year from Rs 6,045.32 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal. - Business Line

🍒 SBI Cards Q2 results: Net profit dips 46% to Rs 206 crore as NPA provisions rise : SBI Cards and Payment Services Ltd (SBI Card) the credit card arm of State Bank of India (SBI) reported a 46% drop in net profit in the quarter ended September 2020 to Rs 206 crore from Rs 381 crore a year earlier due to a rise in provisions as non perfoming assets (NPAs) spiked. Total provisions for NPAs and stressed loans more than doubled to Rs 862 crore from Rs 329 crore a year earlier, including an additional Rs 268 crore provision made in the second quarter, SBI Card said in a press release. Gross NPAs spiked sharply to 4.29% from 1.2% in June 2020 and was higher than the 2.33% reported a year earlier even as the company flagged uncertianties due to the economic disruption caused by the Covid 19 pandemic. - economic times

🍒 Payment operators must shift to interoperable QR code by March 2022: RBI : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on Thursday, said the Payment System Operators (PSOs) that use proprietary Quick Response (QR) codes have to shift to one or more interoperable QR codes by March 31, 2022. The two interoperable QR codes in existence – UPI QR and Bharat QR – will continue as it is at present, it added. No new proprietary QR codes shall henceforth be launched by any PSO for any payment transaction, the central bank said in a notification to all Authorised PSOs (banks and non-banks). The payment system operators ecosystem includes Cards Payment Networks; ATM Networks; entities issuing Pre-paid Payment Instruments; White Label ATM Operators; and Bharat Bill Payment Operating Units; among others. “QR Code is a type of a two-dimensional bar code. It consists of black squares arranged in a square grid on a white background. Imaging devices such as smartphone cameras can be used to read and interpret these codes. “...One can simply scan a QR code to pay utility bills, fuel, grocery, food, travel, and several other categories,” according to the Report of the Committee on the Analysis of QR Code.The RBI Committee was headed by DB Pathak, Professor Emeritus, IIT Bombay. - Business Line

🍒 Kotak Bank cuts interest rate on home loans by another 10 bps : Private sector Kotak Mahindra Bank, on Thursday, announced a further 10 basis points cut in the interest rate for its home loan products. “Kotak Mahindra Bank announced that it has reduced its rate on home loans by a further 10 basis points to 6.9 per cent per annum with effect from October 21, ,” it said in a statement. Consumers can avail Kotak’s festive season bonanza with home loans and balance transfer loans starting at 6.9 per cent per annum, it further said. Significantly, a day before, State Bank of India had also announced concession in home loan rates by as high as 25 basis points. SBI is also now offering interest rates starting as low as 6.9 per cent for a home loan of up to ?30 lakh and 7 per cent for above ?30 lakh.- Business Line

🍒 HDFC AMC Q2 PAT falls 8 per cent to Rs 338 cr : HDFC Asset Management Company (AMC) on Thursday reported a 8 per cent decline in profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 338.06 crore for the three months ended September 30, 2020. The company had posted a PAT of Rs 368.24 crore in the year-ago period, HDFC AMC said in a regulatory filing to the stock exchanges. Total income rose to Rs 569.95 crore in the quarter from Rs 549.07 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. The company’s average asset under management (AAUM) stood at Rs 3.75 lakh crore as of September 30, 2020 as against Rs 3.76 lakh crore on September 30, 2019.- Business Line

🍒 Pandemic beats DeMon: Jan Dhan accounts surge, by numbers and balance, in April-Oct : The no-frill bank accounts opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) have crossed the 41-crore mark, thanks mainly to the surge in new joinees during the lockdown. As on October 14, the total number of Jan Dhan accounts stood at 41.05 crore with a total balance of ₹1,30,741 crore. Since April 1, when the number stood at 38 crore, 3.05 crore accounts were added. During the same period in 2019, the number of accounts went up from 35.39 crore to 37 crore, or a rise of 1.6 crore. Thus, the pandemic led to a 100 per cent increase in the opening of new Jan Dhan accounts. The rise in balance reveals a similar trend. From ₹11,000 crore on April 1, it jumped to ₹1,30,741 crore on October 14.- Business Line

🍒 ‘HFCs should have 60% of total assets towards housing finance’ : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has prescribed a transition path for registered housing finance companies (HFCs), whereby they should have at least 60 per cent of total assets towards housing finance by March 31, 2024. Further, as per the review of regulatory framework for HFCs, the central bank has specified ?20 crore as the minimum net owned funds (NOF) requirement for a company to commence housing finance as its principal business or carry on the business of housing finance as its principal business. According to the framework, HFCs shall maintain a liquidity buffer in terms of Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR), which will promote their resilience to potential liquidity disruptions by ensuring that they have sufficient High Quality Liquid Asset (HQLA) to survive any acute liquidity stress scenario lasting for 30 days. - Business Line

🍒 L&T Finance Q2 profit up 52% : L&T Finance Holdings registered a 52.2 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at ?265.12 crore in the second quarter of the fiscal against ?174.2 crore in the same period a year ago. Its total income, however, fell by 5.5 per cent in the July to September 2020 quarter to ?3,508.91 crore against ?3,711.85 crore a year ago. “With normalcy returning, net interest margins and fees have reached the desired range of 6.5 per cent to seven per cent, despite carrying a negative carry of ?64 crore on additional liquidity,” L&T Finance Holdings said in a statement on Thursday. - Business Line

🍒 RBI pegs minimum NOF for housing finance companies at Rs 25 crore : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday fixed the minimum Net Owned Fund (NOF) size for housing finance companies at Rs 25 crore. The housing finance companies (HFCs) holding a Certificate of Registration (CoR) and having an NOF of less than Rs 25 crore will be required to achieve NOF of Rs 15 crore by March 31, 2022 and Rs 25 crore by March 31, 2023, the Reserve Bank said in a notification. The RBI has issued the revised regulatory framework for HFCs. The RBI further said that it would be incumbent upon such HFCs whose NOF currently stands below Rs 20 crore to submit a statutory auditor's certificate to the central bank within a month evidencing compliance with the prescribed levels. "HFCs failing to achieve the prescribed level within the stipulated period shall not be eligible to hold the Certificate of Registration (CoR) as HFCs and registration for such HFCs shall be liable to be cancelled," the RBI said, adding such companies will be required to approach the RBI for conversion of their CoR from HFC to NBFC-Investment and Credit Companies.

🍒 Banks’ overall credit outstanding goes up by ?74,734 crore : Scheduled banks probably saw the highest fortnightly offtake of credit in the current financial year so far, with their overall credit outstanding going up by ?74,734 crore. Deposits of scheduled banks during the reporting fortnight ended October 9 lagged credit growth for the first time in the current financial year, growing ?43,893 crore in the reporting fortnight, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) daa on scheduled bank’s statement of position in India. The revival in credit growth comes in the backdrop of the economy entering the so- called “busy season” for credit offtake amid the raging pandemic. - Business Line

🍒 BCFI moves to become self-regulatory organisation : The board of the Business Correspondent Federation of India (BCFI) has approved the formation of a self-regulatory organisation (SRO), subject to approval from the Reserve Bank of India. It has also appointed Sunil Kulkarni as the new head of BCFI and CEO (designate) for the SRO. “The team at BCFI will improvise upon the code of conduct and grievance redressal mechanism developed last year, and implement them in earnest among its members with key focus towards ensuring customer protection and betterment of service standards,” the BCFI said in a statement on Thursday. - Business Line

🍒 Gold prices steady at Rs 51,350 per 10 gram; silver falls Rs 484 a kg : Gold prices were steady at Rs 51,350 per 10 gram in the Mumbai retail market on rupee appreciation and negative global cues. The precious metal declined in the international market, weighed down by firm dollar and stalemate over the US stimulus package before November 3 vote. The rate of 10 gram 22-carat gold in Mumbai was Rs 47,037 plus 3 percent GST, while 24-carat 10 gram was Rs 51,350 plus GST. The 18-carat gold quoted at Rs 38,513 plus GST in the retail market. Silver prices declined Rs 484 to Rs 62,779 per kg from its closing on October 21. 

🍒 Equitas SFB issue subscribed twice : The IPO of Equitas Small Finance Bank was subscribed 1.95 times on the last day of bidding on Thursday. It received bids for 22.58 crore shares against 11.58 crore on offer, according to data available with the NSE. The portion reserved for qualified institutional buyers was subscribed 3.91 times while HNIs by just 0.22 times. Retail investors portion got subscribed by two times and employees by 1.84 times. The IPO, which comprises a fresh issue of 280 crore and an offer-for-sale of 7.20 crore shares, has came out with a price band of ?32-33. Equitas SFB had raised ?139.68 crore from anchor investors. - Business Line

🍒 Sensex snaps four-session winning run, ends 149 points lower : he 30-share BSE index settled 148.82 points or 0.37 per cent lower at 40,558.49. The broader NSE Nifty slipped 41.20 points or 0.35 per cent to 11,896.45. IndusInd Bank was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, shedding around 3 per cent, followed by ICICI Bank, Titan, Infosys, HDFC Bank, Nestle India, Sun Pharma and Reliance Industries. On the other hand, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance and Axis Bank were among the gainers.- Business Line

🍒 Rupee settles 4 paise higher at 73.54 against US dollar : The rupee appreciated by 4 paise to close at 73.54 against the US dollar on Thursday, as sustained foreign fund inflows strengthened investor sentiment. However, a strong dollar against major currencies overseas restricted the rupee’s gain, forex dealers said. At the interbank forex market, the rupee opened lower at 73.77, but pared all its losses to finally settle at 73.54, registering a rise of 4 paise..

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