‘RBI to hold rates till it clearly sights Fed heading to cut’
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will keep interest rates on hold until the prospect of rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve are “more clearly in sight”, Moody’s Investors Service said on Thursday. adding that post-festival demand dynamics in India, which will likely sustain growth in the near-term amid weak exports, will depend on inflation and the lagged impact of monetary tightening,

RBI tightens the reins on cross border payment aggregators and gateways
The RBI has overhauled the regulatory framework governing cross border payment service providers, This has been done in the light of recent judicial pronouncements regulating online payment gateway service providers (OPGSPs) as payment system operators under the Payment Settlement Systems Act, 2007,. Abandoning its light tough approach, RBI has directed entities, formerly known as online payment gateway service providers, to mandatorily seek approval from RBI to continue operations in India.

Absolute decoupling yet to happen between carbon emission, GDP growth globally, says RBI deputy governor
Mumbai: While the growing recognition of the adverse effects of climate change had led to some recent actions that were weakening the correlation between carbon emissions and GDP growth globally, an absolute decoupling was yet to happen, Michael Debabrata Patra, deputy governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said at the New York Fed Central Banking Seminar organised by the Federal Reserve Bank, New York, on October 9, 2023 at New York, USA.

Inflation remains vulnerable to recurring, overlapping food price shocks: RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das
 

India, Japan can collaborate in chips, rare-earth & AI, says RBI chief
 

Indian banks need to improve personal fin services to emerge as Digital Champions: Deloitte
Though Indian banks have been improving their performance in digital maturity score compared to the global average, they need to ‘rise further’ to become Digital Champions, according to Deloitte India’s survey-based report -- Digital Banking Maturity (DBM).

PSU banks continue to be bullish on lateral hiring from private sector
Public sector banks will continue lateral hirings from the private sector at senior levels directly from the private sector, said bankers. And most believe that this is was more of an “one-off” incident.

Exports to rise by 6.3 per cent in Q3: Exim Bank
Mumbai: The Export-Import (Exim) Bank of India has forecast India’s total merchandise exports to touch $111.2 billion, a year-on-year growth of 6.3 per cent, during the October-December quarter (Q3) of FY2024.

ICICI Bank receives RBI nod to make ICICI Securities a wholly owned subsidiary
ICICI Bank on Thursday received approval from the Reserve Bank of India for making ICICI Securities a wholly-owned subsidiary.

Capital Small Finance Bank PAT rises 32.4% Y-o-Y in April-September
he net profit of Capital Small Finance Bank rose 32.4% year-on-year(y-o-y) in the first half of the current financial year due to a rise in total interest earned.

Banks aim to launch wholesale CBDC by January next year
Banks are likely to launch wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) by January next year as they move cautiously to test the infrastructure for the digital currency for companies.

SC denies IBC relief to personal guarantors

The Supreme Court allowed banks to initiate insolvency proceedings against personal guarantors of loans taken by defaulter companies without giving them an opportunity to present their stand in what experts said was a key ruling that could speed up the bankruptcy process.

Amid concerns over delinquencies, public sector banks assure govt 'small loans not a systemic risk '

New Delhi: Amid mounting concerns over delinquencies, public sector lenders have assured the finance ministry that they do not see any systemic risks emanating from small unsecured loans as their overall exposure remains small. The finance ministry had asked state-run banks to review their small loan portfolios and submit a report detailing the situation.

IOB invites bids for Rs 457-crore MSME loans

Mumbai: Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) has announced the sale of a portfolio of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) loans of ₹457 crore across 91 different accounts. The bank expects a recovery rate of 60% from this sale, which includes a cash portion and security receipts (SR).

Airtel Payments Bank Q2 net up 157% at ₹7.7 crore
Airtel Payments Bank (APB), a fintech, has recorded a 157 per cent increase in net profit for the second quarter ending September 30, 2023, at ₹7.7 crore.  The company’s revenues for the quarter under review grew 39 per cent to ₹427 crore.

FIIs fall in love with attractive PSU bank stocks, ditch private sector stars in Q2

Public sector banks, which have been outperforming their private sector peers by a wide margin over the last couple of years, continued to do so in the last quarter as well, giving handsome returns to investors.

Star Housing Finance to raise ₹60 crore
Star Housing Finance Ltd. (Star HFL), said it has received board approval for capital raise of ₹60 crore, subject to shareholders’ approval, to fuel its growth and expansion plans.

PNB Housing Finance launches festive campaign #DiwaliApneGharShiftingWali
PNB Housing Finance launched its brand campaign #DiwaliApneGharShiftingWali. The campaign portrays the feeling of homecoming, seasoned with humour and light-hearted conversations among a group of office colleagues, who need to travel to their hometowns to spend the festival with their loved ones. However, in a turn of events, one of them quips with the fact that he is moving to his ‘own home’ this Diwali. The brand film captures the emotions of joy, pride and fulfilment one feels on becoming a homeowner, where PNB Housing Finance is a companion in helping them achieve the milestone in life.

Sustained high, unsecured loan growth can increase mispricing risk: Fitch Ratings
“Underwriting quality and risk controls will remain key, given the banks’ heightened interest in unsecured retail loans, where growth has well-exceeded the overall loan book growth,” Fitch said in a note, adding that the risk profiles of Indian banks remain closely linked to their asset quality scores and reflect their above-average risk appetite given their growth aspirations and the amount of unseasoned loans building up.

REC signs pact with RailTel; to finance infra projects in telecom, IT and railway signalling
State-owned REC on Thursday said it has inked a pact with RailTel to finance up to Rs 30,000 crore for infrastructure projects in telecom, IT and railway signalling. "REC Limited signed an MoU with RailTel on 9th November 2023 to extend financial assistance up to Rs 30,000 crore for infrastructure projects to be executed by RailTel in next 5 years," an REC statement said.

Adhesive maker Pidilite to enter lending business, to acquire promoter group's NBFC firm
New Delhi: Adhesive and construction chemicals manufacturer Pidilite Industries plans to enter the lending business, providing small-value retail loans. To facilitate this, Pidilite Industries, would acquire an existing NBFC -- Pargro Investments, belonging to its Promoter Group, according to a regulatory update.

Tata Capital soars in unlisted market on IPO hopes
Mumbai: Tata Capital is now valued at ₹1.5 lakh crore on the platform for unlisted stocks, making the mutual fund and lending arm of India's most valuable conglomerate the third biggest non-bank lender by market capitalisation - just after the Bajaj twins.

MFI loans rise 24% to ₹3.5 lakh crore led by rural market growth: CRIF report
Mumbai: Portfolio outstanding of the microfinance sector grew 24.3 per cent yoy and 5.2 per cent sequentially to ₹3.5 lakh crore as of June 2023, according to the quarterly report by CRIF High Mark.

Piramal Enterprises swings to black in Q2 on loan growth
Mumbai: Piramal Enterprises (PEL), the non-banking financial company of the Piramal group, swung to profit in the quarter ended September from a loss a year earlier, led by strong growth in retail loans, higher fee income and reversal in provisions.

Pidilite to pilot lending biz in south market
Mumbai: Initially positioned as a captive lender to cater to the needs of Pidilite Industries’ existing base of contractors and dealers, Pargro Investments , the non-banking finance company arm is the latest business addition of the leading adhesive manufacturer. “The reason for our success is our user base and the demand (for the NBFC) will be from our user base,” explained Bharat Puri, Managing Director, Pidilite Industrie in a media briefing when asked about the rationale for entering the lending business. “Nobody knows them better than us and we have their KYC (know your customer) and borrowing patterns”.

Capital Small Finance Bank reports 6.5% increase in Q2FY24 net profit at ₹24.29 cr
Mumbai: Capital Small Finance Bank reported a 6.5 per cent increase in second quarter net profit at ₹24.29 crore, supported by robust growth in other income and decline in provisions and contingencies even as net interest income witnessed a relatively muted growth. The Jalandhar-headquartered SFB had reported a net profit of ₹22.81 crore in the year ago period.

Muthoot Finance posts 14% growth in net profit at ₹984 cr in Q2FY24
Kochi: The standalone net profit of gold loan lender Muthoot Finance has achieved a 14 per cent growth at ₹984 crore in Q2 of FY24 compared to ₹865 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. Consolidated PAT of the standalone entity during the period stood at ₹1,095 crore against ₹902 crore. The consolidated loan assets under management grew 24 per cent y-o-y to ₹79,493 crore as at H1 FY24 against ₹64,356 crore last year. During the quarter, consolidated loan assets under management increased by ₹2,694 crore, an increase of 4 per cent.

Samvat to Samvat: Largecaps may play catch-up, NBFCs may emerge as a theme, says Hemang Jani
Hemang Jani, Independent Market Expert, says “one theme which is clearly emerging is the NBFCs where the lending is happening with some collateral because we have seen some stress come through when it comes to unsecured lending. Some of the housing finance companies, something like LIC Housing, Five Star Finance and then entire rural focus companies like Mahindra & Mahindra Finance, Shriram Transport. These are the names where you would see a shift happening from unsecured lending.

Five Star Business Finance to increase its presence in the North
Chennai: Chennai-based non-banking finance company Five Star Business aims to expand its footprint in the north. “Today our portfolio in the South is about 94 per cent. In the next three years, the north might contribute 15 per cent of our portfolio and the south might contribute about 85 per cent,” said Rangarajan Krishnan, CEO, Five Star Business Finance Limited. 

InCred Finance raises ₹500 crore, turns unicorn
Bengaluru: InCred Financial Services Ltd (InCred Finance), the lending arm of financial services firm InCred Group, has raised ₹500 crore in its Series D round of funding, becoming the second startup to join the coveted ‘unicorn’ club this year after quick commerce firm Zepto.

Saluja's remuneration meets legal, corporate governance norms: Religare
"As per standard corporate governance, exercising of listed stock options by employees requires requisite approvals which spans across several months before the actual sale. The process involves financing from external lenders as well as approvals for pledging financing or revocation and eventual sale. In the said allegation, the entire process started months before the eventual sale of ESOPS on September 21, 2023. The process was undertaken before the meeting on September 20, 2023 .  

MFIs integral to India’s growth: Kant
 

70% crypto yields are back with DeFi becoming a hot spot for leverage again
Memories are proving to be extremely short in the crypto world, with returns of 70% and higher being offered once again by trading platforms through the re-emergence of the investment strategy known as yield farming. 

After 1% TDS, crypto users shift to offshore platforms, ₹3,500 cr tax goes uncollected: Report
Bengaluru: The imposition of a one percent tax-deducted-at-source (TDS) on the trading of virtual digital assets (VDA) in India, has made three to five million users shift to offshore trading platforms, according to a report by the Esya Centre, a New Delhi-based technology policy think tank.

Next Samvat, SIP numbers could be in excess of Rs 20,000 crore per month: Sunil Subramaniam
Sunil Subramaniam, MD & CEO, Sundaram Mutual, says “the recent drop in the oil prices will lead to a slowdown of FII outflow and maybe some FII flows starting to come in. So, Diwali can be a muskaan wali Diwali because the delayed Diwali means that the festive season is only now starting in terms of the consumer durables, auto, housing kind of sectors and so the next quarter numbers will hopefully show a very robust consumption output and which will lead to better valuations for that sector. So, overall, lots of good news in the pipeline.”

Equity mutual funds surge 42% in October
Mumbai: Flows into equity mutual funds in October jumped 42% over the previous month led by continued investor appetite for small-cap schemes. This marks the 32nd straight month of inflows into equity schemes in the wake of the record-breaking stock market rally.

Mirae Asset Mutual Fund launches UPI AutoPay mandate
Mirae Asset Mutual Fund announced the launch of UPI AutoPay Mandate for SIP registrations. The initiative is jointly developed by Mirae Asset Mutual Fund, KFintech and BillDesk to help investors of Mirae Asset Mutual Fund to register SIP mandate using UPI AutoPay feature. It simplifies the overall investment process by reducing the investment time and improving the overall investment experience, said the fund house.

Amfi appoints Venkat Nageswar Chalasani as new chief executive
Industry body Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) on Wednesday said it has appointed Venkat Nageswar Chalasani, former deputy managing director of State Bank of India, as its new chief executive. This announcement followed the end of NS Venkatesh's tenure, who served two consecutive terms of three years each.

Local funds buying takes AUM Vs FPI ratio to a record
ET Intelligence Group: The ratio of assets under management (AUM) of domestic funds to foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) rose to a record 0.52 in October from 0.47 a year ago amid sustained inflows even as FPIs were in the selling mode.

Large-cap MF inflows turn positive as risk-off mood brings investors

The tide seems to be slowly turning in favour of large cap mutual fund schemes amid high valuations of mid and small cap schemes. The large funds have once again started gaining traction after a series of outflows in the previous few months. According to the data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), the large-cap schemes reported an inflow of Rs 723.8 crore in October 2023 on the back of outflows worth Rs 5,751 crore in the five months to September.

MF industry sees SIP contribution top Rs 1 lakh crore in H1 FY24

Mumbai - The mutual fund (MF) industry has seen sustained inflows through the systematic investment plan or SIP route, with the numbers hitting record highs almost every month.

9 equity mutual funds offer less than 8% SIP returns in three years

Most mutual fund investors are celebrating the handsome returns offered by their equity funds. For example, many mid cap and small cap investors have made over 25% in this year. Even most flexi cap schemes offered more than 15% in 2023. However, some investors were plain unlucky. Data crunching by ETMutualFunds showed that SIP investors in nine equity mutual fund schemes have made less than 8% in a three year horizon.

Minimum investment in HDFC Gold Fund and HDFC Silver ETF Fund of Fund reduced to Rs 10

HDFC Mutual Fund has announced the change in minimum subscription amount for two of its schemes: HDFC Gold Fund and HDFC Silver ETF Fund of Fund.

InCred Holdings secures ₹500 cr equity funding commitment
Mumbai: InCred Holdings Ltd (IHL), the holding company of InCred Financial Services Ltd (IFSL), on Thursday said, it had secured commitments totalling  ₹500 crore in its latest round of equity funding, positioning it to join the ranks of Indian Unicorns after the closure of its Series D fundraise. The equity round garnered interest from various investors, including a global Private Equity Fund, Corporate Treasuries, Family Offices, and UHNIs, per an IHL statement. The equity capital of ₹500 crore will be strategically deployed across InCred’s core business verticals: Consumer Loans, Student Loans, and MSME Lending.

India's 10-year bond yield hits 5-week low tracking oil, US peers
Indian government bond yields settled lower on Wednesday as investors took comfort from easing oil prices and lower U.S. yields.

From Russia with love: Corporate bonds may get Vostro funds to boost trade settlement in rupee
New Delhi: India is considering a plan to allow surpluses in Special Rupee Vostro Accounts (SRVAs) to be invested in corporate bonds in order to give a push to international trade settlement in rupees. Under existing regulations, investment from SRVAs is restricted to government securities and treasury bills.