SEBI issues new framework to deepen corporate bond market

Regulator SEBI on Friday put in place a new framework for consolidation in debt securities as part of its efforts to deepen the corporate bond market.Liquidity in the secondary market for corporate bonds will be increased by way of minimal number of ISINs (International Securities Identification Numbers).ISINs code, which has 12 characters, is used for uniquely identifying securities like stocks, bonds warrants and commercial papers.Generally, investors trade in corporate bonds that are freshly issued by a particular issuer. As a result, the...

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Karnataka Bank’s Image Debit Card

Karnataka Bank has launched the ‘KBL-Image Debit Card’ to enable its cardholders to personalise the card with the image of his/her choice. A press release by the bank said here on Friday that the customers will have the option of selecting an image either from the bank’s gallery of images or any image of his/her choice to be printed on the debit card. Customers can apply through the bank’s website for this card, the release said. Source : TheHinduBusinesslin...

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Banking staff threatens strike on August 22 over mergers, NPAs

Employees of public sector banks have threatened to go on a day long nation-wide strike on August 22 against the government proposal to merge state-owned lenders. Besides, they want the government and the Reserve Bank to declare wilful default as a criminal offence and desist from writing off of corporate non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans, United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) said. An umbrella body of 9 unions, UFBU has also asked the government not to increase service charges in the name of GST.Goods and Service Tax (GST), which will...

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RBI gets one application for on-tap licensing of private universal banks

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday said that it has received just one application for ‘on tap’ licensing of universal banks in the private sector — from UAE Exchange and Financial Services. “In order to ensure transparency, the names of the applicants for bank licenses will be placed on the RBI website periodically,” the central bank said, adding that going forward, it will publish the names of the applicants on a quarterly basis. In August last year, the RBI had released guidelines for on tap licensing of universal banks in the private...

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Bank of Baroda rate cut by 10 bps to 9.5 pct; to benefit borrowers who took loans before April 2016

State-owned lender Bank of Baroda (BoB) on Friday trimmed its base rate by 10 basis points (bps) to 9.5%, according to a stock-exchange notification. The rate cut will benefit borrowers who had taken loans before April 1, 2016 and who have not switched to the marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) regime as yet. The differential between BoB’s one-year MCLR — which stands at 8.35% — and the base rate still remains at a high of 115 bps.The last round of base rate cuts by major banks came in April, when State Bank of India (SBI) had...

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Banks in India set to face further pressure on earnings; here is why

Indian banks are likely to face pressure on their earnings with financial disintermediation getting broad-based due to growth in market-based financing of the real sector, the Reserve Bank of India said in its six-monthly Financial Stability Report on Friday.The banks’ share in the flow of credit, which was around 50% in 2015-16, declined sharply to 38% in 2016-17, the RBI said.Indian banks are likely to face pressure on their earnings with financial disintermediation getting broad-based due to growth in market-based financing of the real sector,...

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SBI urges government to ease provisioning

The country’s largest bank, the State Bank of India, has written a letter to the finance ministry raising concerns over the stringent provisioning norms for companies under the Bankruptcy Code, which will eat into its profit margins. The lender is reluctant to meet these norms and has sought the ministry’s intervention on the matter.A senior executive with the lender confirmed the development and said that the government is expected to hold discussions with the Reserve Bank of India, state-run lenders and the Bankruptcy Board. An email sent...

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12 large NPAs: Banks may see provisions doubling this year

Even as some banks assert about being resilient in the face of insolvency resolutions in 12 largest default accounts, foreign brokerage Morgan Stanley today said it sees banks' provisioning for those accounts doubling up from the current level.The brokerage also warned that merging small and weaker PSBs with larger ones to help tide over their capital issues will be counterproductive for the acquiring banks."We think provisioning on these loans is 30-40 per cent currently and could increase to around 60 per cent. This could imply 0.40-0.90...

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Frauds going up in number, banks need to tighten cyber security norms: RBI

The Reserve Bank of India flagged the rapid proliferation of frauds in the banking space over the last five years marking out a 19% increase in the number of fraudulent incidents and 72% increase in the value of the amount lost in the attacks. Around 86% of the frauds reported in 2016-17 was in the space of various credit accounts, said RBI.The number of frauds went up to 5064 from 4235 and the value shot up to Rs 16770 crore from Rs 9750 crore over the last five years, said the central bank in the Financial Stability Report of 2017, released...

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12 large NPAs: SBI chief rules out big hit on bottomlines

The nation's largest lender State Bank today ruled out the additional provisioning towards the 12 largest NPA accounts which have been referred to insolvency proceedings denting the bottomlines very hard as most of the provisioning has already been done."The increased provisioning requirements, more or less, in all of these accounts we have pretty large provisions. But yes, we have to make a little more but it should not very badly impact our earnings going forward," chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya told reporters after the AGM here this late...

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