RBI likely to keep rates on hold for entire 2024, says Kaustubh Gupta
Source Credit: Abhishek Kumar, Business Standard

RBI takes stock for digital lending guidelines
Nearly a year after introducing the digital lending norms, the Reserve Bank of India is assessing whether players in the ecosystem are in compliance with norms. Highly placed sources say that with the capping of loss given at five per cent in July this year, it was expected that there would be moderation in growth because fintechs and regulated entities (banks and non-banks) would exercise caution while engaging in such contracts. “However, that is barely the case and it is observed that growth higher than estimated. The overall asset quality picture of these loans seems very benign that there are reasons to believe that some of the practices which the digital lending norms intended to clamp down are still being followed in a different fashion,” said one of persons aware of the matter. 

The big picture: How Axis Bank’s Citi deal is paying off
One in three of the country’s richest Indians today is a customer with Axis Bank. Indeed, the lender’s initiative to ramp up its wealth management platform is paying off. A big part of that strategy—the acquisition of Citibank India’s retail business, branches and all— for a cash consideration of Rupees 12,300 crore, is shaping up well.

Bank unions defer planned bank-wise and state-wise strike action
Mumbai: Bank employee unions have decided to defer the planned bank-wise and state-wise strike action from December 4-11, 2023, and January 2-6, 2024, respectively, as the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) is believed to have agreed to their demand for a broad uniform policy guideline on manpower assessment and recruitment.  However, the unions’ call for an all-India strike on January 19 and 20, 2024, stands.

Bank of India’s Rs 70,000 crore loan pipeline to fuel credit expansion
Bank of India’s robust loan pipeline of Rs 70,000 crore is set to enhance its credit expansion in the second half of the current fiscal year. Among these loan proposals, corporate loans constitute Rs 50,000 crore, undergoing various approval stages, and are expected to be disbursed in the coming months, said a top official of the bank.

Banks want boards kept out of loan renewals in 'related party' cases

Mumbai: Spotting a brother, the in-laws, or even a stepsister, of a director on a borrower's board can be maddening for bankers. Still, they can't disregard the links - lending to companies (where a bank's director has a 'connection') without the clearance or knowledge of the bank's board is breaking the law.

NARCL gets a chief from its agent amid hopes the process speeds up

Former State Bank of India (SBI) managing director Diwakar Gupta is set to take charge as the chairman of the government-backed bad loan aggregator National Asset Reconstruction (NARCL), after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approved his nomination late last week, said three people aware of the development.

‘Abhyudaya to seek expert opinion on legality of RBI move’
The board of Abhyudaya Co-operative Bank will seek expert views on the legality of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) action, superseding the bank’s board of directors, chairman Sandeep Ghandat told FE. “We will take experts’ view to ascertain the legality of this action. We are posting operating profits,” he said.

Abhyudaya Cooperative Bank net NPA at 12%; professional team can clean up balance sheet: Sources
Abhyudaya Cooperative Bank's net non-performing assets (NPAs) ratio have zoomed up to 12 per cent, sources said on Saturday. A day after the Reserve Bank superseded the city-headquartered bank's board, it has emerged that the cooperative bank's cost-to-income ratio had zoomed up to 80 per cent.

How high repo rate impacts your finances, NBFCs
Repo rate, also known as the repurchase rate, is the rate at which the central bank lends money to commercial banks. Repo rate is crucial in altering the economic landscape in the intricate network of financial systems. Fluctuations in this rate have far-reaching implications, altering the cost of credit and borrowing across the economy. Here’s how.

Over Rs 93,240 crore of stressed unsecured loans in bank portfolios
 

Can the RBI’s new risk weight norms lead to a slowdown in bank lending?
In the latest episode of the State of the Economy Podcast, businessline‘s Hamsini Karthik engages in a discussion with Ranjan Pental, Executive Director at Yes Bank, a veteran in the banking sector with a focus on the retail space. The central topic of discussion revolves around the recent developments in risk-weighted assets (RWA) in the banking industry, particularly focusing on the unsecured portfolio. 

PhonePe is set to launch consumer lending by January 2024

Digital payments major PhonePe is set to launch consumer lending on its platform by January 2024, two people aware of the discussions told ET requesting anonymity.

Routine profit booking in smallcaps, rally will continue: Sudeep Shah, SBI Securities
Notwithstanding the minor dip seen in the smallcap index last week, technical indicators suggest buying momentum will continue as the selling was just routine profit booking, says Sudeep Shah of SBI Securities..

BSE comes out with new guidelines for shifting of SMEs to main board
BSE has put in place fresh guidelines for small and medium enterprises looking to migrate from its SME platform to the main board, whereby the applicant will be required to have a net worth of at least Rs 15 crore for the preceding two financial years. Under the guidelines, the applicant firm needs to be listed on the SME platform for at least three years. Besides, they need to have 250 public shareholders before shifting to the main board.

‘We hope to capitalise on first mover advantage in mid corporate lending’
Vivriti Asset Management closed three credit funds with commitments of a total $ 200 million recently. It has also launched $250 million asset back securitisation fund early this year. Vineet Sukumar, founder and managing director tells Raghavendra Kamath, about the company’s strategy, going forward. Excerpts:

Sebi tweaks rules, asks AIFs to dematerialise units
To facilitate ease of compliance and strengthen investor protection in Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), Sebi on Saturday said all the fresh investments made by an AIF after September 2024 should be held in demat form. Approving amendment to AIF rules, Sebi said that some exceptions have been provided.

‘We are bullish on Indian equities but expect volatility to increase’: Nimesh Chandan, CIO, Bajaj Finserv MF
Mumbai : Asset allocation in equities should reflect the changes in market conditions. Unfortunately, a lot of investors have misinterpreted this as selling when the market goes up and buying when the market goes down," says Nimesh Chandan, chief investment officer, Bajaj Finserv Mutual Fund. The asset management firm was in the news recently for launching a balanced advantage fund (BAF), a type of hybrid mutual fund that invests in a mix of equity and debt securities. The Bajaj Finserv Balanced Advantage Fund is an all-seasons product, which suits a large population of investors, Chandan tells Mint. Edited excerpts from an interview:

hBits Asset to raise ₹500 crore under AIF
hBits Asset Management, a wholly-owned subsidiary of fractional ownership platform for commercial real estate hBits, is planning to raise ₹500 crore under its AIF (alternate investment fund) by March 2025, a top company official said.

Invesco under Sebi lens for alleged violation of rules

Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has issued a show-cause notice to the local unit of Invesco, a US-based asset manager, for possible violations of mutual fund rules that potentially risked investor money, people familiar with the development told ET. Invesco is reportedly found to have shuffled securities between schemes in alleged violation of rules.

FPIs reverse selling trend ; invest Rs 378 crore in equities in Nov
Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) have pared their bearish stance on Indian equities during November as they made a net investment of Rs 378 crore on the sharp decline in US treasury bond yields. This came after FPIs dumped Indian equities worth Rs 24,548 crore in October and Rs 14,767 crore in September, data with the depositories showed.

Bain Capital eyeing investment opportunities

Having raised its fifth Asian private equity fund with a corpus of $7.1 billion, Bain Capital is eyeing investment opportunities in the consumer, healthcare and industrials sectors in India, said Pavninder Singh, Partner -Private Equity, Bain Capital, in an interaction with ET.