Monday 21 December 2020

21.12.2020: Today's Banking / Financial News

21.12.2020: Today's Banking / Financial News at a Glance

🍒 Bank of Baroda completes integration of erstwhile Dena, Vijaya banks with itself : State-run Bank of Baroda on Sunday said it has completed integration of 3,898 branches of erstwhile Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with itself. In a first three-way amalgamation, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank were merged with Bank of Baroda from April 1, 2019. The bank has completed the integration of 1,770 erstwhile Dena Bank branches in December 2020, and had earlier completed the integration of 2,128 erstwhile Vijaya Bank branches in September 2020, the lender said in a release. "We have successfully completed integration of erstwhile banks with Bank of Baroda amidst the challenges faced under the COVID environment. We are happy to once again welcome all our esteemed customers and request them to avail full suite of Bank of Baroda's products and digital solutions," the bank's managing director and CEO Sanjiv Chadha said in the release. - economic times

🍒 PSU banks to raise Rs 25,000 crore in next 3 months: DFS Secy : Public sector banks (PSBs) are planning to raise about Rs 25,000 crore through a mix of equity and debt in the next three months to support credit pick up and meet regulatory requirement. In the last few months lenders including State Bank of India, Canara Bank and Punjab National Bank (PNB) have raised about Rs 40,000 crore from the market, Financial Services Secretary Debasish Panda told in an interview. "Banks have been able to raise a lot of money from the markets. About Rs 40,000 crores have been raised by the public sector banks both in the form equity and also AT1 and Tier II bonds. We will expect another 20,000-25,000 during the remaining part of the financial year," he said. Earlier this month, Canara Bank raised Rs 2,000 crore while Punjab National Bank (PNB) raised Rs 3,788.04 crore through qualified institutional placement (QIP). RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das has been advising banks to proactively raise capital and not wait for a difficult situation to arise due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. - economic times

🍒 India needs multiple bad banks to clean balance sheets of lenders, get credit growth back : Industry body CII on Sunday said it has urged the government to consider creation of multiple bad banks to address the adverse impact of non-performing assets (NPAs) accumulated by public sector banks in the recent past, that got further accentuated during the pandemic. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in its pre-budget memorandum recommended that the government consider enabling Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) and Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) to purchase NPAs. "In the aftermath of Covid, it is important to find a resolution mechanism through a market determined price discovery. With huge liquidity both globally and domestically, multiple bad banks can address this issue in a transparent manner and get the credit cycle back in action," CII President Uday Kotak said. - economic times

🍒 Gold imports dip 40% in Apr-Nov to $12.3 bn : Gold imports, which have a bearing on the current account deficit, fell 40 per cent to $12.3 billion during April-November due to fall in demand in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the commerce ministry. Imports of the yellow metal stood at $20.6 billion in the corresponding period of 2019-20. The imports, however, recorded a year-on-year growth of 2.65 per cent in November to $3 billion. Silver imports during April-November 2020 too dipped 65.7 per cent to about $752 million. The decline in gold and silver imports has helped in narrowing the country's trade deficit, difference between imports and exports, to USD 42 billion during April-November 2020-21 as against USD 113.42 billion in the year-ago period. - economic times

🍒 FPIs invest Rs 54,980 cr in Indian equities in Dec so far : Foreign portfolio investors (FPI) pumped in Rs 54,980 crore in Indian markets in December so far amidst availability of excess liquidity in global markets and expectation of fresh stimulus package by various central banks, among others. As per the depositories' data, FPIs invested a net Rs 48,858 crore into equities and Rs 6,122 crore into debt segment between December 1 and 18.This took the total net investment to Rs 54,980 crore during the period under review.In November, the total net investment of FPIs stood at Rs 62,951 crore. Himanshu Srivastava, associate director - manager research, Morningstar India said, "availability of excess liquidity in global markets and low interest rates diverted foreign flows into emerging markets like India." - economic times

🍒 EPFO net new enrolments rises 56% to 11.55 lakh in October : Net new enrolments with retirement fund body EPFO rose by 56 per cent to 11.55 lakh in October compared to 7.39 lakh in the same month last year, according to its latest payroll data, providing a perspective on formal sector employment amid the coronavirus pandemic. The net payroll additions, however, have registered a slight dip in October compared to 14.19 lakh in September this year, according to a statement by the Labour Ministry. Provisional payroll data released by the EPFO last month had shown that net new enrolments stood at 14.9 lakh in September this year. - economic times

🍒 PayPal faces Rs 96 lakh penalty for violating India's anti-money laundering processes : American online payment gateway giant PayPal has been imposed a Rs 96 lakh penalty by the FIU for alleged contravention of the anti-money laundering law and accused of "concealing" suspect financial transactions and abetting "disintegration" of India's financial system. PayPal, which began India operations in November 2017, said it was fully committed to follow due processes and is "carefully reviewing the matter". The company has also been charged with "defeating and frustrating" the tenets of public interest and the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), which aims to keep the country's financial system safe from economic crimes, terrorist financing and black money transactions. Calling the contraventions as "deliberate and wilful", the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in a scathing 27-page order issued on December 17 held the company guilty on three broad counts, the fundamental being its failure to register itself as a "reporting entity" with the federal agency as mandated under the PMLA.- economic times

🍒 Corporate Insolvency: IBBI may rein in engagement of third party consultants : Insolvency professionals appointed under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) may not find it all that easy to contract out their duties to third party consultants or advisors (including non Insolvency Professional Entity) during corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) if the latest IBBI discussion paper is anything to go by. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), which has released the discussion paper on ‘Engagement of “professionals” in a corporate Insolvency Resolution Process’, has invited public comments on several questions including whether only a person having an authorisation from the regulator of a profession to practice the profession may be appointed as a “professional” by an IP in a CIRP. - Business Line

🍒 Pensioners can submit life certificates till February 28: Union Minister Jitendra Singh : In a major relief to central government pensioners amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the date for submission of life certificate has been extended up to February 28 next year, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Sunday. "This decision has been taken considering all the sensitivities to avoid pandemic risk emanating from gathering of crowds at the pension disbursing banks," said Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel. In addition to this, he said, the pensioners above the age of 80 years were given an exclusive window from October 1 onward to submit their life certificate so as to avoid rush likely to happen from the opening date of November 1. - financial express

🍒 M-cap of eight of top-10 most valued companies zoom, HDFC, TCS lead gainers : Eight of the top-10 most valued domestic companies together added Rs 1,25,229.25 crore in market valuation past week in-line with a bullish broader market trend, with HDFC, TCS and Bajaj Finance emerging as the biggest gainers. Over the past week, the BSE benchmark gained 861.68 points or 1.86 per cent. Only Reliance Industries Limited and Hindustan Unilever Limited witnessed erosion from their market valuation, rest eight companies including HDFC Bank and Infosys made gains. HDFC’s valuation zoomed Rs 32,992.86 crore to Rs 4,46,174.05 crore, making it the biggest gainer. The market capitalisation of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) jumped Rs 29,700.13 crore to Rs 10,74,157.65 crore. Bajaj Finance added Rs 24,642.81 crore to Rs 3,16,481.88 crore to its valuation. - Business Line.

No comments:

Post a Comment