Indian banks wrote off more than $30 billion worth of bad debt in the year to June 30, helping to lower stressed loans on their books by 8.5%, according to central bank data reviewed by Reuters. The write-offs illustrate the urgent problem of bad loans as borrowers struggle to service, let alone pay-off, their debt in a stuttering economy. As of June 30, total stressed assets on the books of Indian banks were at $137.50 billion, down from $150.22 billion a year ago, according to central bank data.
-Economic TimesThe non-food credit growth in the banking system stood at 8.79% y-o-y for the fortnight ended Nov 7, the highest in the last 3 fortnights, following the lending “outreach programmes” by PSBs. Between October 11 and 25, non-food credit grew 0.4% to Rs 97.68 lakh crore, according to the provisional data released by the RBI.
-Financial Express
From January 2020, banks can no longer charge SB account holders for online transactions in the NEFT system. The RBI has now mandated banks to do this through a press release today.
-Economic Times
Almost 5 years before the actual fraud was unearthed, the RBI had raised red flags on various aspects of Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank’s (PMC Bank) lending. The RBI report had also said that PMC Bank’s credit appraisal and post disbursement supervision needed improvement. Significantly, the report had observed that the bank did not maintain names of the entities related to the Directors.
-Business Line
The RBI is probing a suspected breach of client confidentiality by IDBI Bank. The allegation is that the bank gave access to its client data to the LIC which owns 51% stake in the bank.
-The Hindu
SBI today reduced its MCLR by 5 basis points across all tenors, effective Nov 10, and sharply slashed the deposits pricing between 15 and 75 basis points. This is the seventh consecutive cut in lending rates by the bank this fiscal. With this reduction, the 1 year MCLR, to which most of its loan prices are linked, will come down to 8%, the bank said in a statement. It has reduced interest rate on retail term deposit by 15 basis points for 1 year to less than 2 years’ tenor.
-The Hindu
Bank Of Baroda’s July-Sep quarter profit jumped 73.2% year-on-year to Rs 736.7 crore despite sharp increase in provisions. Profit in year-ago quarter stood at Rs 425.38 crore.
-Moneycontrolcom
IDBI Bank narrowed its losses to Rs 3,458.8 crore in the quarter ended Sep 2019 from Rs 3,602.5 crore in the same period last year.
Andhra Bank has earned a net profit of ₹70 crore in the second quarter ended Sept 30, 2019. In the corresponding quarter of the previous FY, the bank posted a loss of ₹434 crore.
-Business Line
Allahabad Bank posted profit before tax (PBT) of Rs 2,108 crore for the second quarter of this financial year, against a PBT of Rs 1,822 crore in the same period last year.
-Business Standard
The RBI today increased the household income limits for borrowers of NBFC-MFIs from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.25 lakh for the rural areas with an aim to strengthen credit to those in the bottom of the economic pyramid. Similarly, the limit has been increased from Rs 1.6 lakh for urban or semi-urban areas to Rs 2 lakh, the RBI said in a circular.
After downgrading India’s sovereign outlook, Moody’s Investors Service today downgraded its view to ‘negative’ from ‘stable’ on many top Indian companies, including SBI, HDFC Bank, TCS, Infosys, BPCL, NTPC, NHAI and GAIL. Other financial institutions that have seen a downgrade are Exim Bank, Hero FinCorp, Hudco and IRFC. However, the agency kept rating and outlook unchanged on Bank of India, Canara Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Syndicate Bank and Union Bank of India.
-Economic Times
Standard Chartered said that the pension allowances for its chief executive and chief financial officer Andy Halford will be halved from January following a shareholder protest. Bill Winters and Andy Halford have both agreed to have their pension allowances cut from 20% to 10% of their salary, putting them in line with the rest of the bank’s workforce in Britain.
-Business Line
Smartphone users in India transacted more than ₹20.82-lakh crore on their mobile devices using the UPI platform of the NPCI since demonetisation in Nov 2016. With this, the number of transactions crossed 1,239.75 crore during this period.
-Business Line
Banker Uday Kotak pitched for rules to enable exits and consolidation in the financial sector. Kotak, the head of the Kotak Mahindra Bank, said non-disruptive creative destruction is essential for the financial sector to help in winding up of businesses.
-Economic Times
HDFC Bank has reduced the MCLR by 5-10 basis points (bps) across various tenures with effect from Thursday. The 6-month MCLR has been reduced by 5 bps to 8.1% and 1-year MCLR reduced by 5 bps to 8.3%.
-The Hindu
Bajaj Allianz General Insurance has rolled out a mobile app ‘Farmitra,’ catering to the specific needs of farmers.
-Business Line
On the third anniversary of demonetisation, former economic affairs secretary S C Garg said the Rs 2,000 note, which the Government brought replacing older 500 and 1,000 notes, were being hoarded and should be demonetised.
-Economic Times
On the third anniversary of demonetisation, Sonia Gandhi asked prime minister own up the responsibility for the damages inflicted on the economy by such a ‘Tughlaki blunder’. In a statement issued today, Sonia Gandhi said that the “tyrannical government” was hell bent upon attacking the livelihoods and lives of its own people.
-Business Line
The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) today said merger of banks, firms like BSNL and MTNL and other issues connected to the country’s public sector did not show a “thoughtful approach” and these required more deliberations.
There are 50,000 employees of the BSNL who have been opted for VRS that the Government recently opened. This shows that the scheme was well thought out,” Anshu Prakash, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications told reporters.
-Business Line
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