Bank of Baroda board approves to raise Basel III complaint Tier 1 bonds upto Rs 1650 crores.

Bank of Baroda (BoB) board - Capital Raising Committee of the bank has approved Issuance of Basel III Compliant Additional Tier I Bonds for aggregate total issue size not exceeding Rs1,650cr, with a base issue size of Rs500cr and a Green Shoe Option to retain over-subscription up to Rs1,150cr.

Further, the Bank of Baroda board said that issuance of Basel III Compliant Tier II Capital Bonds Compliant with Basel III Capital regulations of the Reserve Bank of India for aggregate total issue size not exceeding R500cr, with a base issue size of Rs250cr and a Green Shoe Option to retain oversubscription up to Rs250cr.

According to the Mint report, the bank plans additional exposure of Rs10,675cr to NBFCs in the second quarter of FY20. The bank is also looking to purchase NBFC assets worth Rs5,600cr, co-originate loans of Rs1,000cr, provide loans of Rs3,575cr for on-lending to the Agri sector and has set aside Rs500cr for “high-ticket balance sheet takeover".

After the announcement, the shares of Bank of Baroda traded on NSE index was more than 3% up at Rs 98.

Source: Bombay Stock Exchange.

Tamal Bandyopadhyay’s HDFC Bank 2.0 book narrates the Puri legacy.

Indian banking industry is not in the pink of health now but that’s largely the story of the government-owned banks. If we look at the private sector, barring a few odd banks which are not the best examples of corporate governance, over the last three decades, the industry has witnessed phenomenal growth with consumerism. The privitisation push in 1991 was a defining moment for the financial sector in India. What we have achieved today would not have been possible without India’s private sector banks like HDFC Bank. It is a child of economic liberalisation.

In the 1990’s, talking about banks as dinosaurs, Bill Gates of Microsoft famously said, “We need banking, but we don’t need banks anymore”. Three decades later, a bank is still relevant and will continue to do so if it’s willing to reinvent itself to be in sync with the changing milieu where it operates – by embracing digitalisation.

From a nimble start-up in 1995 to India’s most valuable banking brand, HDFC Bank has a made  gigantic strides into the world of digital banking under the leadership of Mr Aditya Puri. In a sector marred by controversies, Mr Puri has not just been the longest serving chairman of any bank globally but the face of a world class bank in India. Tamal Bandyopadhyay’s latest book “HDFC Bank 2.0: From Dawn to Digital” narrates this unique story of the  transformation of India’s most valued lender from a life cycle bank to a lifestyle bank. 

For starters, let me remind you that this book is not a sponsored project. It chronicles the HDFC Bank story warts and all. While highlighting the bank’s unique features, Tamal also criticises the unforgivable mistakes done by HDFC Bank during this journey through his unparalleled  writing skills. 

One of the key reasons why Indian banks were largely unaffected  during the Global Financial Crisis of 2009 was the fact that they were truly connected with their roots. During that  period, Mr Puri had guided HDFC Bank to add branches and ATM network in tier three cities and rural areas. The expansion drive created the credit card, auto and home loan boom. The book describes how  a bank reaching out to person for a loan – and not  the other way round - creates a new sense of trust in the aspirational class of India.

The era of Digital Disruption

Mr Puri believes that digitalisation and disruption are intertwined. Whenever there’s change, people tend to panic but if handled correctly, it can open up new beginnings. HDFC Bank saw this transformation ahead of others. During his Silicon Valley trip in 2014, Mr Puri saw how the fintech companies – the new kids on the  tech block – were venturing into fund transfers, mobile banking and shopping. They could build products that could give instant loan with slick user interface on their phones. Home grown fintech innovations like the United Payments Interface (UPI) were set to transform the way we Indians bank.

“Why don’t we disrupt ourselves instead of waiting to be disrupted by fintech companies? Why can’t we give a loan in 10 seconds? Why can’t we invent something to transfer money in just a click? HDFC Bank aspires to become a financial marketplace. It wants to be India’s Alibaba or Netflix when it comes to banking”. - Mr Aditya Puri, Chairman & Managing Director, HDFC Bank.

HDFC Bank first tied up with Chillr, an app which sends money over the phone using a UPI technology. A BharatQR code-based payments service named PayZapp is popular in many stores. The bank has also used AI for many applications like chatbots and social media interactions. Indigenously developed IRA robots have been deployed at several branches to solve customer queries. 

While adopting this technological shift, there were times when the bank failed on the customer front. For instance, the HDFC bank app crash in November 2018 became a hot topic in the media and  the bank was subjected to national outrage and ridicule. The book – “HDFC Bank 2.0: From Dawn to Digital” – clinically  chronicles the journey over the years.

About the book

Tamal Bandyopadhyay’s HDFC Bank 2.0: From Dawn to Digital is published by Jaico Publishing House. The book was launched by Rajnish Kumar, Chairman, State Bank of India at Nehru Centre, Mumbai. Aditya Puri, Managing Director, HDFC Bank Ltd  and many  luminaries in the financial services industry were present there. Tamal Bandyopadhyay is an author, columnist and keen watcher of banking and finance. His Banker’s Trust column, which now appears every Monday in Business Standard, is the most popular column on banking and finance with over half a million followers on the Linkedin platform.

“Tamal combines his financial knowledge, eye for detail, and an excellent storytelling style to create a vivid portrait of India’s most valued bank and its path to future” - Nandan Nilekani, Co-foundar & Chairman, Infosys & founding chairman of UIDAI, has written in his forward to the book.

HDFC Bank 2.0: From Dawn to Digital (ISBN: 978-93-88423-35-9) are now available at Crossword, Amazon, Flipkart and other leading book stores.

TCS will digitally transform India Post's 1,50,000 post offices with ERP solutions.

Indian MNC Tata Consultancy Services has received an order to digitally transform India Post's 1,50,000 e-postal network with next-gen ERP solutions. TCS has partnered with the Department of Posts in its multi-year transformational journey to become a multi-service digital hub, modernize the delivery of mail and packages, enhance customer experience, and launch innovative services that will drive new revenues.

At the heart of this transformation is the Core System Integration (CSI) program designed and implemented by TCS. This involved deploying an integrated ERP solution that caters to mail operations, finance and accounting, and HR functions, and connects its vast network of more than 150,000 post offices, making this the largest distributed ePostal network in the world.

The integrated solution is built to cater to the Department’s immense scale, and future needs. It supports the HR needs of over 500,000 employees, services over 40,000 concurrent users, and processes over 3 million postal transactions a day, making this one of the largest SAP implementations in the world.

On the front-end, TCS has implemented its Point of Sale (PoS) solution across 24,000 post offices with over 80,000 PoS terminals, making this amongst the largest such implementations in the world. Additionally, TCS has built a web portal with consignment tracking capabilities, and set up a multi-lingual call center for customer support.

To enable India Post to benefit from the burgeoning ecommerce opportunity, while fulfilling a vital social obligation, the web portal has an e-marketplace to help rural artisans, self-help groups, and women entrepreneurs reach out to buyers throughout the country.

An important objective of the transformation is to use the Department’s nation-wide reach to drive financial inclusion and accessibility of citizen services in remote areas. This is being accomplished through over 130,000 DARPAN hand-held devices that Gramin Dak Sevaks use to provide postal, banking, insurance, and cash management services in remote villages, even those without network connectivity.

Salim Haque, Member, Postal Services Board, said, “A program of this scale, spread and complexity, required meticulous planning and adroit execution. The TCS team has shown sheer rigor, passion, dedication and attention to detail, which have been commendable. Their maturity in understanding the requirements of India Post has been par excellence, yielding a robust design, which makes the solution state-of-the-art and adaptable to future needs.”

Department of Posts is pioneering in an initiative to build a world class, future-ready digital platform that the nation can be proud of. With the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning solutions, the department can offer smart postal services, enriched customer experiences, and innovative value-added services to the citizens of India.

"One Nation One Card" for Metro, Local Train, Buses across India. NPCI, CDAC and Bharat Electronics develop National Common Mobility Card.

National Payments Corporation of India, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing and Bharat Electronics Limited have jointly developed an intelligent transport system smart-card. In line with the spirit of 'One Nation', the smart card once recharged can be used anywhere on any metro system, suburban trains, and buses across India. At this moment, the Delhi Metro card cannot be used on AFC gates in Mumbai Metro. Similarly, Mumbai Metro, Monorail, Local trains and BEST buses issue different smart cards dedicated only for its respective ticketing service.

Soon, a Pan-India transport card will be made available for the common public. Such smart cards are operational in advanced city nations like Singapore and Hong Kong. Transport evangelists believe that other services like taxis and toll tax could also be linked on this National Common Mobility Card.

PM Narendra Modi launched today One Nation, One Card for transport mobility at a function in Ahmedabad today. The Indigenous Automatic Fare Collection System based on One Nation One Card Model i.e. National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) is the first of its kind in India.

India’s First Indigenously Developed Payment Eco-system for transport consisting of NCMC Card, SWEEKAR (Swachalit Kiraya: Automatic Fare Collection System) and SWAGAT (Swachalit Gate) is based on NCMC Standards.

A new era of Smart Transportation

Public Transport is extensively used across India as the economical and convenient mode of commuting for all classes of society. Cash continues to be the most preferred mode of fare payments across the public transport. However, there are multiple challenges associated with the cash payment e.g. cash handling, revenue leakages, cash reconciliation etc. Various initiatives have been taken by transit operators to automate & digitize the fare collection using Automatic Fare Collection System (AFC). The introduction of closed loop cards issued by these operators helped to digitize the fare collection to a significant extent. However, the restricted usability of these payment instruments limits the digital adoption by customers.

AFC System (gates, readers/validators, backend infrastructure etc.) is the core of any transit operator to automate the fare collection process. The major challenge associated with AFC system implementation in India till now is the lack of indigenous solution provider. Till now, AFC systems deployed at various Metros are from foreign players. In order to avoid the vendor lock-in and create an interoperable system, there was a need to develop indigenous standards and AFC system under Make in India initiative.

In order to ensure a seamless travel across metros and other transport systems in addition to retail shopping and purchases, the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) came out with the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) Program. 

A committee was formed with representatives from National Informatics Centre (NIC), Centre for Development of Advance Computing (C-DAC), Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Ministry of Finance with an objective to develop the vendor agnostic interoperable ecosystem for NCMC including indigenous AFC System and banking interface. 

NPCI was given the mandate to develop the specifications for card & terminal to support the NCMC ecosystem. Based on the best global practices and dynamics of Indian market, the committee recommended EMV based Open Loop Card with stored value as NCMC

CDAC has entrusted the task of finalization of NCMC specification for AFC system including the interface with Bank server. CDAC worked in collaboration with NPCI to complete this activity. Thereafter, BEL was roped in for making Gates & Reader.

The Gate & Reader prototype has been made by BEL. This is the first gate and the reader which has been manufactured by an Indian company. This is also the first indigenous payment reader which has been certified as per International standards. India joins the very few elite nations who have indigenous capacity on gate and reader production.

NCMC Ecosystem offers the value proposition for customers as they need not to carry multiple cards for different usage. Further, the super quick contactless transactions will improve the seamless experience. For operators, NCMC ecosystem brings common standards for implementation without vendor lock-in.

This will also help in higher digital payments penetration, savings on closed loop card lifecycle management cost and reduced operating cost. The rich data insights may be used by operators for business intelligence leading to efficient operation. 

With the NCMC Ecosystem, banks will get an access to segments which are highly driven by cash but stickiness in nature. NCMC Ecosystem will further help the government in digitization of low-value payments and reduced cost for the entire ecosystem. 

In order to showcase the entire NCMC ecosystem for digital fare collection, the complete AFC system has been deployed in Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) across few stations for field trial purpose. Under this pilot, NCMC compliant gates have been deployed at various stations of DMRC and cards have been issued by multiple banks to the users.

The pilot at DMRC was inaugurated by MoHUA on Jan 31st, 2019. This pilot will help to improve hardware reliability and fine tuning of the software. This will also facilitate large scale indigenous production and deployment in the Indian transit system. The first level trails has been successfully completed in collaboration with CDAC, BEL, NPCI and SBI.

'One Nation One Card'

Public Sector Banks like SBI will issue Debit/Credit/Prepaid cards and the customer may use this single card for payments across all segments including metro, bus, suburban railways, toll, parking, smart city and retail. The stored value on card supports offline transaction across all travel needs with minimal financial risk to involved stakeholders. The service area feature of this card supports operator specific applications e.g. monthly passes, season tickets etc.

The National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) to enable seamless travel by different metros and other transport systems across the country besides retail shopping and purchases is an initiative of the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs. The card will address the challenges associated with the cash payment e.g. cash handling, revenue leakages, cash reconciliation etc. Various initiatives have been taken by transit operators to automate & digitize the fare collection using Automatic Fare Collection System (AFC). The introduction of closed loop cards issued by these operators helped to digitize the fare collection to a significant extent. However, the restricted usability of these payment instruments limits the digital adoption by customers. 

The customers need not carry multiple cards for different usage. Further, the super quick contactless transactions will improve the seamless experience. This will also help in higher digital payments penetration, savings on closed loop card lifecycle management cost and reduced operating cost. The rich data insights may be used by operators for business intelligence leading to efficient operation.

Source - Press Information Bureau.

ICICI Bank: Hard Lined Corporate governance yields positive results in third quarter.

There is increasing awareness among Indian investors to invest in companies that follow practices of good corporate governance. And so, the fact that leading private sector bank like ICICI Bank had the fortitude to appoint someone of Justice Srikrishna’s stature to given an unbiased decision speaks volumes about the credibility of its Board.

ICICI Bank Board took a bold decision not only to dismiss her but also clawback of all her bonuses paid from April 2009 until March 2018 - a first in Corporate India and the Bank is showing the way to other boards/corporate Inc. The ICICI Bank has shown great composure following results of the Srikrishna panel and is once again taking the lead in setting a fine example for good corporate governance and safeguarding its investors. Perhaps, Investors have held on the right reasons and their faith has paid dividends considering the positive outcome of the Q3 results.

Some of the highlights from ICICI Bank’s third quarter results are that its Net interest income has increased by 21% year-on-year and its core operating profit has grown by 14% year-on-year to ₹ 5,667 crore. With a banking network of 4867 branches, Current Account and Saving Account (CASA) deposits increased by 15% year-on-year to ₹ 2,99,374 crores. In addition to this, retail loans have grown by 22% year-on-year and the Bank's total income rose to ₹ 20,163.25 crore over the third quarter as compared to ₹ 16,832.22 crore in the same period a year ago, ICICI Bank said in a statement.

Future forecast for ICICI Bank also looks bright according to multinational financial services company Morgan Stanley that sees ongoing improvement in ICICI Bank’s asset quality trends over the next few quarters and expects stronger performance from the bank’s stock in 2019.

Looks like the ICICI Bank has moved on and whatever has happened is good for the shareholders as it has bought renewed optimism within the institution.

YES BANK Datathon unites professionals and academia to co-create next-gen data driven products.

Technology and Banking are no longer poles apart. Over the last few years, innovation in the fintech industry has taken the world by storm, becoming a global phenomena not limited to one region. The Asian fintech space was dominated by innovations from Indian and Chinese firms, especially from the new-age startups. Being a software superpower, Indian startups and MNCs are contributed immensely towards the development of innovative products and models.

This year, we all have witnessed the growth of game-changing technologies like UPI, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and Open Banking. Global technology giants like Google, WhatsApp were wooed by the United Payments Interface, making India a top destination of digital payment adoption. Blockchain, which is also the underlying technology for all cryptocurrencies is implemented by banks to secure financial transactions.

Experts who have closely followed these trends believe that the next wave of fintech would be in the field of data science. YES BANK, India’s fourth largest private bank has been at the forefront for adopting next-gen technologies to service its customers better. YES BANK believes that the best of outcomes in the field of technology is received from the engineers and data scientists of tomorrow – the students. The idea generation from aspiring data scientist and its execution under the mentorship of CIOs and CTOs would be key in building scalable models in the data science ecosystem.

Data scientists, engineers, students from Top colleges, all compete at the Datathon.

Datathon, India’s first bank led Datathon collaborated aspiring data scientists and professionals from IT field to augment YES BANK’s 600 TB anonymized and embedded data stack to create new Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) prototypes in a period of just 100 days. In its inaugural season, more than 6000 aspiring data scientists/ engineers and developers joined this competitive initiative. The top teams include not only students from top technology institutes like the IITs, BITS, ISI Kolkata and University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka but also 150 plus professionals from top IT organisations.

Participants at Datathon got an opportunity to access unstructured and anonymised data on Cloudera and AWS dashboards. YES BANK had also onboarded a pool of 20+ data science experts and leaders across industries, to support the data science teams as well as to help the bank identify relevant use cases for product development using Big Data Analytics, AI and ML. After the detailed scrutiny of models, top 15 teams were invited to Bengaluru to present their models in front of esteemed panelists at Datathon Finale.

Data models developed during the Datathon were aimed at addressing the current business and service requirements. For instance, team Django Unchained has created an AI based application for sales representatives of the bank which enables them to measure share of wallet reserved for every retail customer, predict customer attrition and provide customized products to different classes of customer. Team Prayaas, a mix student team from NMIMS Mumbai and ISI Kolkata worked on a proactive model which predicts individual customer deliveries like cards, cheque books, statements by reducing human interference and service requests. Majority of models presented at Yes Datathon pointed towards improving customer satisfaction and reducing overheads; a facet of fintech.

And the winners are...

Oracle, a team of professionals from IBM and two students from IIM Bangalore bagged the top spot of Yes Datathon challenge. Team Oracle presented a ‘master product’ which creates a single 360 degree view of every retail customer. Upon analysis, the model provides customised product and service recommendations for every individual retail customer along with the resolution of pending service requests. Team Data Pros and Data Acers from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka were honoured with runners-up and Best Student Team (position) at Yes Datathon challenge.

YES BANK plans to deploy the selected data models in the real-time banking ecosystem by March 2019. YES BANK believes in the ideology of consistently adopting next-gen technologies to deliver superior products and services. Datathon is also actively partnering with top technology institutes, and has partnered with top IITs and BITS Pilani, and will also host AI/ML challenges and data engineering workshops to deepen practical and technical knowhow of future technology leaders and widen the data science ecosystem. Yes Datathon is a part of a long-term strategy of YES BANK of ‘becoming a technology company in the banking business’.

- Chaitanya Kulkarni.

#DialDforData: YES BANK’s Data Science Initiative Collaborates with 200 Data scientists to create 20+ data models in just 100 days.

Over the years, data has been an analytical tool to record and gather information from our surroundings to optimise our lives. The millennials would recall how we as society shifted from being predominantly ‘analog’ to ‘digital’ in just a few years. Today, thanks to technologies like the cloud and the algorithm-based infrastructure, data evangelists are talking about storing and analysing thousands of terabytes of data within a matter of minutes. This exponential growth of data is referred to as Big Data.

Big Data is our present and our future. In this age of information, data will fundamentally change the way businesses compete and operate. The analysis of this data could help businesses in making key management decisions which drive scalable transformation. Data scientists funnel vital data from terabytes of unstructured information to understand consumer buying patterns, likes and needs, and create scalable models which reduce systemic bottlenecks.

If data is a new oil then analysis is the refinery. The Internet of Things, Machine Learning, Predictive Analytics, Hadoop etc. are leading industrial trends which are shaping the data-driven economy.

Data Analytics: the next frontier.

The impact of data analytics will be beyond one sector, be it manufacturing, healthcare or finance. For instance, data science has today become a vital part of sports management industry. Each and every player of Indian Cricket Team is analysed on his current and past performance to predict behavioural patterns in an effort to rectify human error. BFSI firms are one of early pioneers to adapt data analytics.

With data science and analytics gaining importance across sectors, YES BANK reached out to the global developers, coders and data science community to work on Yes Bank’s data stacks. Datathon, an initiative of YES BANK is India’s first bank-led Datathon with a mantra of decode-derive-develop. Launched in September 2018, Yes Datathon has witnessed participation of over 6000 plus data scientists and engineers both from academia and corporate background. In a competitive selection, top 15 teams qualified for the Datathon Finale will be given 60 days to create working data models/prototypes which will be trained, tested and deployed by the Yes Bank.

The top teams include not only students from top technology institutes like IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur and ISI Kolkata but also 150+ professionals from organizations like IBM, Walmart Labs, Oracle, Amazon Development Centre, TCS, Accenture and Infosys among others, who are taking on the challenge beyond their professional duties. A student team from University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka presented their model at Yes Datathon finale held in Bengaluru.

Teams participating in Yes Datathon presented innovative models which were previously not thought-off. For instance, Team Data Pirates created an alternative method to credit score customers pooling in LinkedIn and external APIs. Team Greenity has developed an ML algorithm which analyses credit card history transactions to service customer better and predicting new target customers for YES BANK credit card.

Moving from buzz to biz

Artificial Intelligence has moved from buzz to biz. YES BANK has deployed AI based chatbot named Yes Robot to disseminate information about loan offerings to prospective customers. It currently helps users with instant 20+ banking services and 2,000+ banking queries. Next-gen technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing and bots enables YES BANK to serve their customers and clients with greater depth, sophistication and efficiency.

Yes Datathon is a part of a long-term strategy of Yes Bank of ‘becoming a technology company in the banking business’. Data scientists and engineers would have an experience of a lifetime handling 600 TB of anonymised data. Datathon provides a rare opportunity to build algorithms and data models on Terabytes of ‘real data’ in a deployment-ready environment. The collaboration between academia and corporate would deepen practical and technical know-how of future technology leaders and widen the data science ecosystem.

- Chaitanya Kulkarni.

BRICS established New Development Bank deploys TCS BaNCS for treasury management.

Pic Courtesy - Russia Today

Global enterprise tech giant Tata Consultancy Services has announced that New Development Bank (NDB), a multilateral development finance institution set up by the BRICS nations and headquartered in Shanghai, has gone live with TCS BaNCS for Treasury.

New Development Bank is a multilateral development bank established by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in 2014 with an initial authorized capital of USD 100 billion. The Bank is mandated to mobilize resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging economies and developing countries, complementing the efforts of multilateral and regional financial institutions for global growth and development. Since the launch of its operations, NDB approved projects in its member countries with loans aggregating over USD 5.1 billion. The Bank’s headquarters is located in Shanghai, China and is headed by renowned Indian banker KV Kamath.

NDB selected TCS BaNCS for its risk and treasury operations for the solution’s support for an impressive array of asset classes, and advanced features such as real-time position keeping, risk analytics, and a single product configurator that supports complex debt structures for their issuance programs. The cloud-based offering of TCS BaNCS reduces the time taken for customer on-boarding to a fraction of what it takes in conventional on-premise implementations, as the need to procure and invest in internal infrastructure is eliminated, along with the complexities involved in replacements.

The go-live at NDB, which was achieved in 12 weeks, deployed TCS’ market-proven methodology for cloud on-boarding that leverages enabler toolkits for all project activities – from solution configuration and alignment, to migration, training and testing. TCS also demonstrated its capability with ISO/IEC 27001:2013 cloud services with this deployment, enabling responsive and resilient operations for the bank. TCS BaNCS will now support all market operations linked to NDB’s investment and liability portfolio consisting of global bond issuances, including managing inherent risks.

“Technological change will continue to transform the economic landscape and open new opportunities for citizens of BRICS nations. For a bank to develop conventional infrastructure as well as to take maximum advantage of transformative technological developments as they happen at high speed and large scale, a flexible and digital backbone is essential. TCS BaNCS was selected not only for its extensive product capabilities but also for its compelling and relevant implementation footprint across the globe.” - Leslie Maasdorp, Vice-President & Chief Financial Officer, NDB.

TCS BaNCS for Treasury is an integrated, cross-asset-class solution for front-, middle-, and back-office operations in treasury and trade, encompassing cash and derivatives on foreign exchanges, money markets, fixed income, equities and hybrid structures. It is a multi-entity, multi-currency trading, risk management, processing, settlements and accounting solution that drives innovation, agility and efficiency in markets worldwide.

Source - Press Release.

#TheIndianCapitalist: All You Need to Know about the LIC - IDBI Bank Deal

The much-awaited LIC - IDBI Bank deal has finally received the green light from the apex regulators and the union cabinet. India’s largest insurer, the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) will now have a controlling stake in the IDBI Bank, one of India’s leading nationalised bank. With a rich legacy of industrial financing for more than 50 years, IDBI was converted into a banking company ie. IDBI Bank Ltd. - to undertake the entire gamut of banking activities across the length and breadth of India. IDBI Bank has serviced millions of Indians through a wide array of banking products and services from its 1900 plus branches and more than 4,000 ATMs.

In August 2018, the Union Cabinet chaired by PM Modi had approved conveying of no objection to the reduction in Government of India shareholding in IDBI Bank to below 50% by dilution. It had also approved the acquisition of controlling stake by LIC as a promoter in the bank through preferential allotment/open offer of equity, and relinquishment of management control by the Government of India in the IDBI Bank.

The approvals on LIC- IDBI Bank deal from Union Cabinet was followed after Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) go ahead on the same. The IRDAI, in June 2018, gave a one-time exemption to LIC to acquire a 40 per cent stake in the IDBI Bank, taking its total holding in the lender to over 51 per cent.

Financial experts are of an opinion that both LIC and the IDBI Bank would be benefited with this transaction. Both the entities will gain in terms of their reach through extensive customer and network base. LIC will get access to IDBI Bank’s 1.6 crore customers and 1,900 branches to sell its insurance products while IDBI Bank may further earn fees and float income from LIC customers that will boost its income and bring down the cost of funds. Also, the reach of LIC would be beneficial for IDBI Bank to target rural and semi-urban segments. The strong financial backup from the LIC brand would help IDBI Bank in its NPA resolution plan.

LIC – IDBI Bank Deal: The Way Forward

LIC is India’s insurance mammoth. Its brand value is immense; a renowned name for every Indian. One out of six people in India has an LIC policy. With a financial inclusion outlook already being saturated in the urban and semi-urban markets, IDBI Bank could reach rural segment with the reach of insurance agents. The Bank can leverage the bancassurance tie-up with LIC as also augment its ability to market its products and services. Taken together, the LIC home finance and the Bank’s home loan portfolio would be the biggest in the segment for the industry as a whole. This could act as a major growth driver for the Bank and could contribute immensely towards its revenues.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Ministry of Finance have shown its strong commitment towards the NPA resolution. Independent media think tanks say that as much as Rs 4 lakh crores of bad loans have returned back to the system because of the new Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). RBI is set to refer 12 big NPA accounts to National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) under the new IBC code. IDBI Bank has received as much as Rs 329 crores as interest income from Bhushan Steel resolution. Media reports suggest that IDBI Bank has also moved to NCLT as a lead banker against Reliance Naval, Lanco Infratech, Jaypee Infratech etc. for bid-based resolution or liquidation for a quick recovery.

Amidst the NPA debate, the financial reports of IDBI Bank shed light on the bank’s lending potential in the long-term horizon. The bank reported an increase in operating profit by 71% to Rs 7907 crores during FY 2018 from Rs 4690 crores in FY2017. Recovery and up gradation improved to Rs. 6,231 crore during FY 2018 from Rs. 4,849 crore during FY 2017. IDBI Bank reported exponential growth in Current Account Savings Account (CASA) deposits and is expected to rise further after the LIC – IDBI Bank transaction.

TheIndianCapitalist.com is of an opinion that the LIC – IDBI Bank deal is a win-win for both the entities. The brand value of LIC and strong lending portfolio of IDBI Bank will create synergy and endless opportunities for millions of MSME lenders and policyholders.

- Chaitanya Kulkarni.

Financial Inclusion 2.0: All 1.55 lakh post offices will offer banking services through India Post Payments Bank.

From the Red Fort, PM Modi announced the plans about postal banks across all villages of 715 districts of India in 2014. The much delayed India Post Payments Bank was launched on 1st September in Talkotara Stadium, Delhi in the august presence of PM Modi and Mr Suresh Sethi, MD and CEO, India Post Payments Bank. The function was witnessed at over 3000 locations across the country, which were connected to the main event in Delhi. "Jo Khata Nahi uska bhi toh Khata Hota Hain" said jokingly as PM Modi also become the first bank account holder of India Post Payment Bank.

IPPB has been envisioned as an accessible, affordable and trusted bank for the common man, to help speedily achieve the financial inclusion objectives of the Union Government. It will leverage the vast network of the Department of Posts, which covers every corner of the country with more than 300,000 Postmen and Grameen Dak Sewaks. IPPB will hence significantly augment the reach of the banking sector in India.

The launch of IPPB marks another significant milestone in the Union Government’s endeavour to take the benefits of a rapidly developing India to the remotest corners of our country. On the day of the launch, IPPB will have 650 Branches and 3250 Access Points spread across the country. Simultaneous launch events will be held at these branches and access points. All the 1.55 lakh Post Offices in the country will be linked to the IPPB system by December 2018.

IPPB will offer a range of products such as savings and current accounts, money transfer, direct benefit transfers, bill and utility payments, and enterprise and merchant payments. These products, and related services will be offered across multiple channels (counter services, micro-ATM, mobile banking app, SMS and IVR), using the bank’s state-of-the-art technology platform.

Postmen across India has long been a respected and accepted person in the villages. He said the trust on the postman remains, despite the advent of modern technology. The Government’s approach is to reform existing frameworks and structures, and hence, transform them in accordance with the changing times. There are over 1.5 lakh post offices and over three lakh postmen or “grameen dak sevaks” who are connected to the people of the country. Now they shall be empowered with smartphones and digital devices to provide financial services. - PM Modi.

The Jan Dhan Yojana has opened 32 crores accounts across the country. But in rural areas, people have to travel more than 20km to reach the bank. Since Postal Departments have a wider reach, financial experts are of an opinion that India Post Payment Bank is indeed Financial Inclusion 2.0.

88% of rural households in India has a savings bank accounts says NABARD.

NABARD All India Financial Inclusion Survey (NAFIS), conducted by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), revealed that farm households register higher income than the families solely dependent on non-farm livelihood activities in rural areas. The report was released by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman in New Delhi.

The NABARD survey, with the reference year of 2015-16, which covered 40,327 rural households, highlighted that the average annual income of an agricultural household is Rs 1,07,172 compared to Rs 87,228 for families engaged only in non-agricultural activities. The survey defined farm households as families having over Rs 5,000 as the value of produce from agricultural operations in the year preceding the survey. For all rural households, the average annual income stood at Rs 96,708. The 48 percent of the rural families are agricultural households. Apart from assessing the income levels of rural households, the survey mapped aspects like debt, saving, investment, insurance, pension and financial aptitude and behaviour of individuals.

While 88.1 per cent rural households and 55 percent agricultural households reported having a bank account, average savings per annum per household was Rs 17,488. About 26 percent of agricultural households and 25 percent of non-agricultural households were found to have been covered under insurance. Similarly, 20.1 percent agricultural households as against 18.9 percent non-agricultural households have subscribed to pension schemes. The Incidence of Indebtedness (IOI) index, which is a proportion of households having outstanding debt on the date of the survey, was 52.5 percent and 42.8 percent for agricultural and non-agricultural households respectively. All India IOI taking rural households together stood at 47.4 per cent.

Highlights of the Nabard All India Financial Inclusion Survey

Income

• Agricultural households, which accounted for 48% of rural households, earned Rs 107,172 during 2015-16 from cultivation, livestock, non-farm sector activities and wages/salaries. Thus, farmers’ income grew at a compounded growth rate of 12% per annum compared to Rs 77,112 per annum as per NSSO assessment in 2012-13. The income levels for 19 out of 29 states are above all India average and 15 states recorded annual compound growth of above 10.5% between 2012-13 and 2015-16.
• Agricultural households earned 34% of their income from cultivation. Wage earnings contributed the same proportion to the income followed by salaries (16%), livestock (8%) and non-farm sector (6%). Other sources accounted for the rest.
• Non-agricultural households reported average annual income of Rs 87,228 majorly contributed by wages (54%), followed by salaries (32%) and non-farm sector activities (12%). Agricultural households earned 23% more than non-agricultural households.

Savings and Investment

• 88.1 per cent of the households reported having a bank account.
• 33% of households reported more than one savings account
• 26% of HH have women with institutional (including SHG) savings account
• 55 per cent of agricultural households reported any savings during the last year and of these 53 per cent saved with institutions like banks, post offices and SHGs.
• Average savings per annum per saver households was reportedly Rs 17,488, of which 95 per cent is with institutional agencies
• 10.4 per cent of agricultural households also reported investment with the average investment per investing agricultural households was reportedly Rs 62,734.
• For all investments amounting more than Rs 10,000 in the year, 60% of the amount was funded through borrowings from either institutional or informal sources.

Debt

• Incidence of Indebtedness (IOI), measured as proportion of households reporting outstanding debt on the date of the survey, is 52.5% for agricultural households and 42.8% non-agricultural households were reportedly indebted at the time of survey.  All India IOI taking all rural households together stands at 47.4%.
• Average amount of outstanding debt (AOD) for indebted agricultural households is reportedly Rs 1,04,602 as on the date of the survey. Debt outstanding for indebted non-agricultural households is reportedly Rs 76,731. Overall extent of indebtedness taking all households combined is Rs 91,407.
• 43.5% agricultural households reported to have borrowed any money during last year from some source or the other. 60.4% of them reportedly borrowed from institutional sources exclusively. Further, 30.3% borrowed from only informal sources and 9.2% of agricultural households borrowed from both sources. 56.7% of Non-Agricultural households and 58.6% of all households borrowed from institutional sources during last year.
• During the year 2015-16, borrowing Agricultural households reportedly availed a loan of Rs 107,083 from various agencies, 72% of which was availed from institutional sources including MFIs and SHGs. 69% of borrowings of all households and 65% of non-agricultural households were from institutional sources.

Insurance and Pension

• About 26% of agricultural households and 25% of non-agricultural households reported having been covered under one or the other type of insurance.
• Among agricultural households who reported to have taken any loan for agricultural purposes in the last one year [2015-16] from institutional agencies, 6.9% reported being covered under crop insurance.
• The coverage under any type of pension was reported to be about 18.9 % for non-agricultural households as against 20.1 % for agricultural households.
• When assessed for the type of pension received, 32% of all households with senior citizens reported being covered by old age pension.

Read the full report here- https://www.nabard.org/auth/writereaddata/tender/1608180417NABARD-Repo-16_Web_P.pdf

Wonder Home Finance commences operations with 29 branches across Rajasthan.

With 29 branches spread across the big cities and small towns of Rajasthan, Wonder Home Finance Limited has announced its entry into India’s booming retail housing finance business. Wonder Home Finance is a part of RK Group, Rajasthan and India’s well-known business groups. From RK Marble to Wonder Cement and now Wonder Home Finance, RK Group is committed to holistic and transparent business practices. The vision and dedication of its promoters and employees had led to patronage amongst its consumers and business partners. Wonder Home Finance Limited has received final approval from the National Housing Bank to commence its business.

As a part of the first phase of roll-out, Wonder Home Finance will focus on its lending business across the length and breadth of Rajasthan. Currently, the company has 9 branches in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Udaipur, Chittorgarh and Rajsamand region and is in a process to set up 20 more branches across the state of Rajasthan by the end of August 2018. The branch spread will cover almost 70% of service area in Rajasthan state.

Wonder Home Finance will give financial assistance in the range of Rs 5 lakhs to Rs 35 lakhs to the people from lower and middle income strata of the society. The interest for home loans, repair and renovation of homes and construction of homes will be in the range of 11% to 14% with the tenure of 3 years to 20 years. With the focus of last-mile financial inclusion, the facility of home loans can be also availed on Gram Panchayat Properties and for the development of Non-Agriculture land.

In a boost to small businesses and proprietorship, Wonder Home Finance will offer financing at attractive interests. The loan amount ranges from Rs 5 lakhs to Rs 20 lakhs with the maximum loan tenure period of 15 years.

The lending by Wonder Home Finance is envisioned with PM Modi’s vision of ‘Housing for All by 2022’. The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana is an initiative by Government of India in which affordable housing will be provided to the poor with a target of building 20 million affordable homes. The scheme also includes an attractive credit linked subsidy on loan interest which aims to help PMAY beneficiaries from lower and middle income group. As per National Housing Bank, beneficiaries from lower and middle income group would be eligible for the interest subsidy at the rate of 6.5% for loan amount upto Rs 6 lakh, 4% for loan upto Rs 9 lakhs and 3% for the loan amount upto Rs 12 lakh. Wonder Home Finance Limited has signed a MoU with National Housing Bank keeping in mind the mission of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana which allows beneficiaries to apply for Credit linked subsidy scheme.

“With the launch of Wonder Home Finance Limited, we are confident that we will be able to deliver unified financial services to the people of this country. Our people centric business model and service oriented delivery mechanism will help to create an exceptional experience amongst our target audience. It will further enhance the groups philosophy of perfection and reaching to masses. Also envisaged by our Government’s vision of ‘Housing for all by 2022’, it is a step towards delivering last mile financial services to the people of this country. We are confident of this business proposition which is a unique one in the industry today and it will surely help us to drive the group’s growth to the next level.” - Shri Ashok Patni, Chairman, RK Group.

Wonder Home Finance uses easy, transparent and customer friendly loan processes. The company claims to offer home and business loans with the fastest decision time of 3 days. Convenience and use of technology are among the core values as customers can avail easy financing through the website, mobile app and door step service.

In order to take its financial services business to the highest level, Wonder Home Finance Limited will target to leverage the pedigree and network built by the RK Group. With its Pan-India license, the company plans to expand operations in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra in FY 2018-19. The company is confident of building a powerful brand ‘Wonder Home Finance’, which would become a synonym to housing finance segment in the near future.

- Chaitanya Kulkarni

NHAI plans to raise Rs 8,000 crores from Toll Operate Transfer model.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has invited bids for Second Bundle of national highways under the TOT(Toll Operate Transfer) model. The bundle consists of 8 stretches of national highways in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bihar and West Bengal. The total length of the project is 586.5 km. There are 12 Toll Plazas on these 8 road stretches. The Bid Due Date is 5th Nov 2018.

Concessionaires have to quote Bid Concession Fee against NHAI's estimated Initial Estimated Concession Value (IECV) of Rs. 5362 crore. TOT bundle-II also involves an initial construction cost of Rs 929 crore. The total contract period of TOT is for 30 years, which may increase/ decrease by 10/5 years based on an increase/ decrease in traffic. The concessionaire would be required to maintain and operate the stretch during this period.  In Lieu of this, the concessionaire would get the rights to collect user fee for this period, in accordance with prescribed fee rates under NH Fee Rules.

As per Bharatmala, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways plans to build 34,800km of highways from a budgetary outlay of Rs 5,35,000 crores. These will have 9 greenfield expressways projects including the ambitious Mumbai - Delhi Expressway.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is borrowing from the market through the Internal Extra Budgetary Resources (IEBR) route. In 2017-18, NHAI has raised Rs 8,500 crore from LIC and Rs 10,000 crore from EPFO through taxable bonds. Further, NHAI issued rupee denominated Masala Bonds of Rs 3,000 crores through the London Stock Exchange. 

In addition, NHAI is in the process of raising funds through monetization of operational National Highway assets through the Cabinet approved Toll-Operate-Transfer (TOT) model. It may be recalled that for TOT Bundle-I of 648 km, Macquarie had quoted highest as 1.5 times against the NHAI IECV of approx 1 billion USD (Rs. 6258 crores). The highest bid of Macquarie was approx 1.5 Billion USD (Rs. 9681 crores).

Source - PIB.

NHAI gets Rs 25,000 crores unsecured loan from State Bank of India

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is getting an unsecured loan of Rs 25,000 crore from State Bank of India for 10 years with 3 years of moratorium on repayments. This is the largest amount of loan to have been sanctioned to NHAI in one stroke by any institution. This is also the largest long term unsecured loan sanctioned by SBI at a time to any entity. A MoU in this regard was signed between Nitin Gadkari and Rajnish Kumar, Chairman, SBI was signed and the first tranche of Rs 5,000 was handed over to NHAI.

NHAI had invited an Expression of Interest from Scheduled Commercial Banks to fund Rs. 25000 Crore as an unsecured loan for 10 years with 3 years of moratorium on repayments. In response to this EOI, SBI offered to fund the entire requirement of Rs 25000 Crore based on one month MCLR.

The loan sanctioned by SBI is unsecured. There is no principal repayment liability for an initial three years. After three years, the repayment would be done in 14 equal half yearly instalments. The total loan tenure is 10 years. NHAI can repay/ prepay it at any time without any prepayment penalty.

The total sanctioned amount of Rs 25000 Crore is to be disbursed within 31st March 2019. The rate of interest would be based on one month MCLR. Interest accrued on the amount actually outstanding will be paid on monthly basis. NHAI can draw the amount in any number of tranches, latest by 31st March 2019.

NHAI has traditionally relied on borrowing through long term bonds issued to various investors, including LIC, EPFO and other qualified investors, and Tax-Free bonds and Masala Bond issued in the year 2017. NHAI also plans to raise investment of Rs 13,500 crores through Toll Operate Transfer model.

– Chaitanya Kulkarni

Also published on InfraStory.com

43% surge in Mutual Fund investments for Q1 2018-19 says AMFI.

Bombay Stock Exchange

There has been a historic rise in investments in Mutual Funds according to the data released by Association of Mutual Funds of India. According to the financial market expert, the surge in MF investments can be attributed to the strong performance of Indian market, low paying Fixed Deposit interest rates and the rising awareness among small investors through campaigns like 'Mutual Fund Sahi Hain'.

Investors have pumped Rs 1.4 lakh crore into mutual fund (MF) schemes in April-June quarter this fiscal, a surge of 43 per cent from the year-ago period, driven by strong participation from retail investors. 

According to Association of Mutual Funds of India (Amfi) data, the inflow has also helped in pushing the assets base of the 42-player MF industry to Rs 23.40 lakh crore at the end of June this year, an increase of 20 per cent from Rs 20.40 lakh crore in June-end 2017.

According to the data, investors poured in a net of Rs 1,33,903 crore in MF schemes in the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal, as compared to Rs 93,400 crore in the April-June period of 2017-18. The latest inflow has been mainly driven by contributions from liquid funds and equity schemes. Individually, liquid funds or money market category -- investments in cash assets such as treasury bills, certificates of deposit and commercial paper for shorter horizon -- witnessed an inflow of Rs 1.22 lakh crore. Besides, equity schemes attracted close to Rs 33,000 crore.

The rise in the Mutual Fund market despite the volatility and weaker Rupee suggests that investors are looking for long-term horizon view. The trend is expected to rise further as investors are starting to acknowledge the long-term wealth-creation potential of equities.

Source - IBEF.