Banks give weak response to RBI’s VRRR auctions
Banks have given a lukewarm response to the Variable Rate Reverse Repo (VRRR) auctions conducted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), reflecting that the lenders do not want to forgo excess funds. In the 14-day VRRR auction conducted by the central bank on Friday, banks parked Rs 20,482 crore, which was just 40% of the notified amount of `50,000 crore, showed the RBI data.

Central banks cannot remain spectators to climate change: RBI Deputy Guv Michael Patra

Governments may be the most influential agency to address the climate change issue, but central banks and other financial sector regulators are also stakeholders in it as their mandates of financial and price stability could be impacted by deteriorating environment, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor Michael Patra said.

PayGlocal gets RBI nod for payment aggregator license
PayGlocal, a cross-border focused payments platform provider, has received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India for Payment Aggregator (PA) license. This process, once completed, will enable PayGlocal to onboard merchants onto its platform for online payment processing. Founded in 2021 by Prachi Dharani, Rohit Sukhija and Yogesh Lokhande, PayGlocal offers its technology platform to various players in the market for payment processing and transaction risk management. This helps them accept online payments securely through various payment instruments including cards and global alternative payment methods, per the company.

PNB launches Digital Gold Loan
Punjab National Bank (PNB) celebrated a one-day Digital Mahotsav at its Head Office in Dwarka, New Delhi, where a plethora of products and services were unveiled, the most notable being the Digital Gold Loan. PNB Digital Gold Loan is designed to provide a hassle-free credit to customers to quickly meet their personal as well as agriculture credit requirements against the pledge of Gold Jewellery/ornaments. Speaking at the launch, MD & CEO of PNB, said: “In an era where banking should effortlessly blend convenience, flexibility, and transparency, PNB Digital Gold Loan offering will be a golden ticket to a modern banking experience.”
https://www.millenniumpost.in/business/pnb-launches-digital-gold-loan-539732

Be conscious of data privacy and cybersecurity issues, State Bank of India MD Chaudhary tells MFIs
New Delhi: Micro finance Institutions (MFIs) need to pay special attention to data privacy and cyber security issues as they deal with large volumes of customers’ data, SBI MD Alok Kumar Choudhary said on Wednesday. This is necessary even as these institutions should continue to march ahead in their digital journey, Chaudhary said at the Sa-Dhan-organised national conference on financial inclusion. 

Indian banks outperforming global peers in digital maturity score: Deloitte report
Mumbai: Indian banks are outperforming their global peers in digital maturity score compared to the global average, per Deloitte India’s survey-based report “Digital Banking Maturity (DBM)”.

Be wary of Big Tech: SIDBI chief warns MFIs of data misuse threat
Microfinance institutions (MFIs) would need to brace themselves up for the onslaught of digital disruption that is currently underway and threatening their very existence, SIDBI Chairman and Managing Director S Ramann said on Wednesday.  “My fear is that payment aggregators will tomorrow pull the rug from below your (MFI’s) feet by offering rates of interest that today is completely not viable for you,” Ramann said at the Sa-Dhan National Conference on Inclusive Growth in the capital. 

MFIs need to focus on data privacy and cyber security: SBI MD Alok Kumar Choudhary
State Bank of India (SBI) managing director Alok Kumar Choudhary on Wednesday said there is a need for micro finance institutions (MFIs) to pay attention to data privacy and cyber security as they deal with data of a large number of customers. Speaking at a conference organised by Sa-Dhan, he said, MFIs should also focus on capacity building to deal with the challenges of the future.

Reliance Capital Q2 net loss at Rs 239 crore
Reliance Capital on Wednesday reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 239 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2023-24.It had posted a net profit of Rs 215 crore for the year-ago period.Total income rose to Rs 6,393 crore in the second quarter from Rs 5,796 crore in the year-ago period, Reliance Capital said in a regulatory filing.

Power Finance Corporation Q2 Results: Net profit jumps 27% YoY to Rs 6,628 crore
New Delhi: State-owned Power Finance Corporation (PFC) on Wednesday posted a nearly 27% rise in its consolidated net profit to Rs 6,628.17 crore in the July-September quarter compared to a year ago. The consolidated net profit of the company was Rs 5,229.33 crore in the quarter ended on September 30, 2022, a BSE filing showed.

HNIs should look at gold as an investment option: Anuj Kapoor, JM Financial
Mr. Anuj Kapoor, who is currently serving as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD & CEO) of Private Wealth and Alternatives Asset Management at JM Financial talks to ET about why HNIs should look at gold as an investment option and how the diversified alternatives and private market investment are becoming popular among HNIs and UHNIs.

Excerpts of the interview:

Welspun targets $10-billion market capitalisation in 2 Years

Mumbai: The Welspun Group aims to reach $10-billion market capitalisation, from the current value of $3 billion, in the next two to two-and-a-half years, the conglomerate's chairman BK Goenka said.

Religare rebels against Burmans’ takeover

Mumbai: The independent directors of Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL) have written to regulators such as RBI, Sebi and the insurance watchdog, levelling allegations of fraud and other breaches against the Burmans, which had made an open offer in September to acquire firm's control.

Microfinance portfolio up 24% in June quarter, delinquencies contained

Mumbai: Small ticket borrowers from the bottom of the pyramid borrowed 24 percent higher during the June quarter and have also managed to contain delinquencies, a report by credit bureau Crif High Mark said.

Pidilite Industries plans to set up lending business

Company Expansion

Monetary Transmission via NBFCs strong but impact delays: RBI CAFRAL report

“Loans and advances fall less than the total shrinkage in the balance sheet. It falls slowly (only in year three following the policy decision) and the impact in the initial two years is, in fact, positive,” said the CAFRAL report.

Monetary policy contraction shock leads to riskier NBFC lending
 

10% rise in UPI transactions linked to 4.6% rise in fintech lending: CAFRAL report
Mumbai: A 10 per cent increase in per capita UPI transactions usually leads to a 4.6 per cent rise in fintech lending and 1.5 per cent in lending by commercial banks, as per the Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning (CAFRAL)’s ‘India Finance Report 2023’. “The relationship is even stronger when the speed of growth is considered: a 10 per cent increase in the UPI growth rate is associated with an almost 8.1 per cent increase in fintech growth, compared to a 6.9 per cent corresponding rise in SCB (scheduled commercial banks) lending growth,” the report said.

India, Singapore digital payment link clocking 100 transactions per day

The cross-border payment tie-up between Singapore’s PayNow and India’s Unified Payments Interface, the first international payment systems link to use scalable cloud-based infrastructure, is currently clocking close to 3,000 transactions a month, benefiting the Indian diaspora through a sharp reduction in remittance costs.

UPI-PayNow tie-up gains currency, cuts cost of remittance

The cross-border payment tie-up between Singapore's PayNow and India's Unified Payments Interface, the first international payment systems link to use scalable cloud-based infrastructure, is currently clocking close to 3,000 transactions a month, benefiting the Indian diaspora through a sharp reduction in remittance costs.

Bitcoin rises above $35,300; Solana, Toncoin climb up to 9%

The crypto tokens were trading mixed in Wednesday's trade with a positive bias. Bitcoin, Solana, Toncoin, and Polygon were trading in the green, while Ethereum, XRP, BNB, Cardano, Dogecoin, and Polkadot were trading in the red.

“Only 10-yr rolling returns sahi hain”: AMFI to fund houses
The Association of Mutual Funds in India’s (AMFI) directive to fund houses regarding the use of projected returns in advertisements is a step in the right direction to curb mis-selling, say MF executives and distributors.

Mutual funds are taking a shining to new-age stocks

When Honasa Consumer, the parent of beauty and personal care brand Mamaearth, opened the anchor portion of its initial public offering (IPO) on October 30, domestic mutual funds bought shares worth Rs 253.61 crore. With this, Honasa Consumer has emerged as the latest addition to the growing list of new-age stocks finding traction among domestic mutual funds.

61% ELSS SIPs fail to beat benchmarks in 5 years; 3 schemes underperform by over 5% points

Mutual fund advisors typically ask investors to start investing every month via SIP or systematic investment plan in tax saving schemes or ELSS funds to save taxes under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act. An ETMutualFunds study revealed that most SIP investments failed to offer benchmark returns in five years. Three ELSS funds underperformed their benchmarks by over 5 percentage points. Only 13 schemes out of total 33 schemes offered extra returns over their benchmarks.

What are alpha and beta in a mutual fund?

Many new investors are entering mutual funds through SIPs and lump sum investments. Instead of merely looking at the returns in isolation, they need to understand the excess returns their fund generates when compared to the benchmark.

21 equity mutual fund schemes offer over 20% in 10 years

Around 21 equity schemes have offered more than 20% in the 10-year horizon, an analysis of performance showed. Around 144 schemes have completed 10 years of existence in the market.

For mix of stability and growth, invest in large and midcap funds
Large and midcap funds are currently in focus due to the introduction of new fund offerings, including an index fund and an equity-linked savings scheme tracking the Nifty LargeMidcap 250 by Zerodha Fund House. 

Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka lead mutual fund investments in India
Gujarat and Karnataka pipped Delhi to be positioned at the second and third slot respectively, in holding highest equity mutual fund asset in the September quarter. The equity asset of Gujarat and Karnataka jumped to ₹2.21 lakh crore and ₹1.99 lakh crore, while that of Delhi dropped to ₹ 1.94 lakh crore.

If there is value, buyers will find you in the middle of ocean, in the dead of the night: Siddharth Oberoi, Prudent Equity
While foreign institutional investors, aka the big bulls of Dalal Street, remain the primary driving force, the enormous amount of money poured in by the domestic investors in the last couple of years have helped in trapping the downside. Even as the global inflation and growth risks are prompting FIIs to pull money out of India, the faith in the country’s growth story has prompted domestic institutional and retail investors to invest relentlessly.

We would focus on private banks, insurance, real estate and consumer staples: Pratik Gupta
Pratik Gupta, CEO & Co-Head, Kotak Institutional Equities, says “while we are quite positive on the long-term and medium-term outlook for the Indian economy, for the businesses in general, one also has to anchor their investment portfolio to valuations and what is already priced in and the risk of disappointments and you still have a lot of geopolitical events, risks out there. In general, largecaps appear far more attractive to us versus small and midcaps”.

First sovereign gold bond (SGB) issue investors to get a bonanza on maturity
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued the first tranche of Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGB) in November 2015. Investors in this maiden tranche of SGB are set to get a bonanza when the bonds finally mature on November 30, 2023., This is because in the last 8 years, the price of gold has more than doubled. The maturity price of the SGB is yet to be determined and announced by the RBI. However, going by the current gold rate, the bonds will give good returns on maturity.

Indian insurers to lead bids for Reliance Industries' mega bond issue
Reliance Industries' upcoming bond issue, touted to be the second-biggest for an Indian firm, will see strong demand from insurers, with aggressive bidding enabling the conglomerate to borrow at rates that just top the sovereign yield, several merchant bankers said.

Vedanta bondholders set high payout bar, want promoter to contribute capital, too

Mumbai: A group of Vedanta Resources (VRL) bond investors demanded the company pay at least 75% of the principal and interest on the bonds maturing in January next year and 25% on those maturing in March 2025.

FY24 sovereign green bonds for investments by NRI added to FAR list

“It has now been decided to also designate all Sovereign Green Bonds issued by the Government in the fiscal year 2023-24 as ‘specified securities’ under the FAR,” the central bank said.