Month: July 2021

Kerala inks $125-million pact with World Bank to boost disaster preparedness

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Government of India, the Government of Kerala and the World Bank have signed a $125-million programme to support Kerala’s preparedness against natural disasters, climate change impacts, disease outbreaks, and pandemics.

Rajat Kumar Mishra, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India; Rajesh Kumar Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Kerala; and Junaid Ahmad, Country Director, World Bank are signatories to the agreement consummated in Delhi.

Need for building resilience

A World Bank spokesperson quoted Junaid Ahmad as saying that in today’s context of increased economic, climatic, and health shocks, building resilience of economies is a policy imperative.

The World Bank is investing in Kerala’s capabilities to respond to shocks to the state economy and, importantly, prevent as much as possible the loss of lives, assets, and livelihoods. The objective is not to finance schemes but partner with the State government to improve the state’s financial health.

The programme also seeks to invest in sectors like health, water resources, social protection and agriculture, and address the drivers of natural disasters, climate change, and pandemic risks.

Multi-sectoral approach

For instance, in the Pamba River Basin, a multi-sectoral approach will be tested in Idukki, Kottayam, Pathanamthitta, and Alappuzha districts which represent a microcosm with tropical monsoon forests, dense urban settlements, and a rice bowl. Its success will have a demonstration impact across the state.

This is part of a programmatic series of World Bank-financed operations in the state. The First Resilient Kerala Development Policy Operation approved in June 2019 undertook several initiatives, the spokesperson said.

It helped the state draft a River Basin Conservation and Management Act, which will conserve and regulate water resources and ensure their sustainable management, allocation, and utilisation. It also introduced climate-resilient agriculture, risk-informed land use, and disaster management planning.

State Partnership Framework

The programme laid the foundations for a five-year State Partnership Framework and will focus on two key areas. First, it will incorporate disaster risk planning in the master plans of urban and local self-governments to ease financial constraints on the State government when faced with unexpected shocks.

Second, it will help make the health, water resources management, agriculture, and road sectors more resilient to calamities. Meanwhile, the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, stated that the state has shown resilience against the impacts of natural disasters and climate change.

It has been undertaking comprehensive shifts in policies, institutions, and programmes to address challenges. The Resilient Kerala Programme will help institutionalise disaster preparedness across sectors to ensure a resilient recovery and sustainable development pathway for the state.

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Private banks too want the bad bank pie, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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With public sector banks queueing up to buy a bad bank stake, private lenders are also looking to invest in it.

Some private banks are seeking approvals to buy into National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (NARCL) or bad bank, though their stake will be lower than the PSBs.

Having secured a licence from the Registrar of Companies, the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) will soon move an application to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to set up a Rs 6,000-crore National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (NARCL) or bad bank.

The process

With the registration of the company, the process for putting an initial capital of Rs 100 crore is on as per the guidelines, the sources said adding that the next step will be audit and then move an application to the RBI seeking a licence for the asset reconstruction company.

The RBI in 2017 raised the capital requirement to Rs 100 crore from the earlier level of Rs 2 crore keeping in mind the higher amount of cash required to buy bad loans.

Legal consultant AZB & Partners has been engaged for seeking various regulatory approvals and fulfilling other legal formalities.

The initial capital would come from eight banks who have committed, and the NARCL would expand the capital base to Rs 6,000 crore subsequently after the RBI’s nod.

Other equity partners would join after the RBI’s licence and even the board would be expanded.

SBI veteran to steer

IBA, entrusted with the task of setting up a bad bank, has put a preliminary board for NARCL in place. The company has hired P M Nair, a stressed assets expert from the State Bank of India (SBI), as the managing director. The other directors on the board are IBA Chief Executive Sunil Mehta, SBI Deputy Managing Director S S Nair and Canara Bank‘s Chief General Manager Ajit Krishnan Nair.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Budget 2021-22 announced that the high level of provisioning by public sector banks of their stressed assets calls for measures to clean up the bank books.

Several banks are moving to divest their stake from Asset Reconstruction Companies (ARCs) to free up capital in preparation to launch the bad bank.

Three public sector banks—Union Bank of India, Indian Bank, and Bank of India—said they jointly intend to sell up to 88.4 million shares, constituting up to 90.31 per cent of the total equity share capital of ASREC India Ltd, a Mumbai based ARC.



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U GRO Capital, Bank of Baroda in tie-up for ₹1,000-crore MSME co-lending

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U GRO Capital on Wednesday announced the launch of a co-lending partnership for micro, small and medium enterprises with Bank of Baroda.

Called Pratham, it is under Reserve Bank of India’s revised co-lending guidelines.

It is a ₹1,000-crore co-lending programme that will allow MSMEs to avail customised lending solutions at a competitive rate of interest with a significant reduction in turn-around time, U GRO Capital said in a statement.

U GRO Capital launches GRO Micro, adds 25 branches

The loan amount ranges from ₹50 lakh to ₹2.5 crore and will be offered at an interest rate starting from 8 per cent with a maximum tenure of 120 months.

Accessible at nine locations

“We believe that forging such partnerships is the way forward and collaborative efforts leveraging individual entities’ expertise are of utmost importance to take co-lending to MSME segment to the next level,” said Vikramaditya Singh Khichi, Executive Director, Bank of Baroda.

MSMEs including the recently added wholesale and retail traders under priority sector can avail credit through this programme, which is accessible at nine locations.

A call to preserve the ‘value’ of MSMEs at any cost

“The partnership is a reiteration of the value and trust that the bank places on our ability to leverage sectoral expertise and technology to solve the unsolved credit need of the MSMEs,” said Shachindra Nath, Executive Chairman and Managing Director, U GRO Capital.

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Stocks to Buy: Motilal Oswal Says These 4 Stocks Can Deliver Good Returns

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Motilal Oswal Says These 4 Stocks Can Deliver Good Returns

Motilal Oswal Target Price Rating CMP

(Returns

Bajaj Finance 6,750 BUY 5,937.90 ICICI Prudential 700 BUY 603.00 HCL Tech. 1,180 BUY 977.30 EPL 320 BUY 239.15

ICICI Prudential

ICICI Prudential

India’s life insurance industry is well positioned to generate sustainable long-term growth. Insurers should expect good company growth thanks to a growing share of financial savings, higher discretionary incomes, and favourable demographics.

Indian insurers are expected to trade at a premium to their global counterparts, according to Motilal Oswal.

“The share of banca (excluding ICICI Bank) increased to ~11% v/s 5% in FY18. Persistency rate has improved, reflecting strength in business quality. We expect this trend to continue, aided by a higher mix of the Non-Linked Savings/Protection business, both of which have a higher persistency rate. Howe ver, profitability has been affected due to higher settlement of COVID-19 claims (3.2x rise over FY21) and increased provisions. We estimate IPRU to deliver ~32%/36% CAGR in new business APE/VNB growth over FY21-23E, led by improving margin (29% by FY23E), thus enabling an improvement in operating RoEV to ~17%. We maintain our Buy rating with a TP of INR700/share (2.6x FY23E EV),” Motilal Research report said.

ICICI Prudential

ICICI Prudential

Large corporations have a significant opportunity to offer Group term plans because employee immunization rates have improved dramatically. Credit Life has also recovered to pre-COVID levels. As a result, while short-term difficulties in Retail persist, the share of Group Protection has climbed.

CMP: Rs 605

TP: INR700

Upside: 16%

Rating: BUY

Equity Shares 1,435
M.Cap.(INRb)/(USDb) 868.9 / 11.6
52-Week Range (INR) 635 / 398

HCL Tech

HCL Tech

HCLT grew by 0.7 percent QoQ (CC), falling short of our forecast of 2.4 percent, due to weak growth in IT Services. EBIT margin was down 80bp QoQ in 4QFY21, excluding the impact of a one-time bonus, and missed our forecast by 130bp due to COVID-related charges of 90bp, according to Motilal Oswal research report.

“We downgrade our FY22E/FY23E EPS estimate by 4%. We factor in a revenue miss and lower growth in the Products and Platforms business. We have reduced our margin estimate to factor in higher sales and marketing investments in FY22E. We maintain our Buy rating as we expect traction in the Services business in 2HFY22E and FY23E, driven by higher IMS/Cloud focused deals. Our TP of INR1,180 per share implies 20x FY23E EPS.” Motilal Oswal said in its research report.

HCL Technologies

HCL Technologies

Broad-based sequential growth, coupled with healthy deal wins and a robust pipeline, indicates an improved outlook. We estimate strong performance in the Products business, led by HCLT’s capabilities to rightly align and sell these products in the long run, added further.

CMP: INR1,000

TP: INR1,18

Upside: (+18%)

Equity Shares (m) 2,714
M.Cap.(INRb)/(USDb) 2714.2 / 36.2
52-Week Range (INR) 1062 / 620

EPL

EPL

The results and significant initiatives in the Personal and Oral Care categories are highlighted in EPL’s FY21 Annual Report. The research also examines company performance and trends in each of the four geographies: AMESA stands for Americas, EAP stands for Europe, and Europe stands for Europe.

“We expect a revenue/EBITDA/PAT CAGR of 13%/17%/24% over FY21-23E. With the impact of COVID-19 gradually subsiding, we expect Personal Care products to gain traction across geographies, particularly in Americas. We value the stock at 26x FY23E EPS. A steady increase in revenue share from the Personal Care segment (higher margin business and lower sensitivity to RM cost) and new product launches is expected to aid growth. Our TP of INR320 per share implies a 34% upside. We maintain our Buy rating” Motilal Oswal said in its report.

EPL

EPL

The earnings momentum would continue on the back of:

a) higher revenue sustainability owing to long-term contracts in the Oral Care segment

b) a steady increase in revenue contribution from the Personal Care product category,

c) growing traction in the volume of recyclable tubes (viz. Platina), along with an increasing shift toward Laminated Tubes (from plastic/aluminumtubes), and

d) a volume uptick across product segments and geographies (with the impact of COVID-19 gradually subsiding).

CMP: Rs 238

TP: Rs 320

Upside: (+34%)

Rating: Buy

Equity Shares (m) 316
M.Cap.(INRb)/(USDb) 75.2 / 1
52-Week Range (INR) 319 / 185

Bajaj Finance

Bajaj Finance

Bajaj Finance’s (BAF) 1QFY22 PAT was up 4% YoY but down 26% QoQ to INR10 billion (27 percent miss). Opex was generally in line, with NII at INR37b (5 percent miss) up 12 percent YoY. Provisions came in at INR17.5 billion, compared to our expectation of INR15 billion. The company wrote off INR9.2 billion in loans while keeping COVID overlay provisions at INR4.8 billion, resulting in significant provisions, Motilal Oswal said.

“We estimate ~4.8% RoA / 23% RoE over the medium term. BAF’s return ratios have not only been consistent but are also the highest in our Coverage Universe (ex-gold financiers). Given the strong recovery in Jul’21 and the healthy progress made in the digital transformation program (including wallets/payments), we reiterate Buy, with Target Price of INR6,750 (7x 1HFY24 BV), Motilal Oswal said in its research report.

Bajaj Finance

Bajaj Finance

The Auto Finance (AF) division was the hardest hit, accounting for the majority of the asset quality decline during the quarter. Auto finance is a type of secured loan in which the item can be repossessed. As a result, it expects to be able to reclaim asset quality in the AF market if there are no additional lockdowns. Even in this area, the 3W business (30 percent of the AF market) has been the most badly damaged.

CMP: Rs 5,938

TP: Rs 6,750

Upside: 14%

Rating: Buy

Equity Shares (m) 600
M.Cap.(INRb)/(USDb) 3583.9 / 48
52-Week Range (INR) 6340 / 3009

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

These four stock picks are from a Motilal Oswal Research report; however, before betting on any of the stocks, investors should conduct their own analysis and research. The brokerage recommendation made here should not be interpreted as investment advice.



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what will separate the winners from also-rans?, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Asia is emerging as the most dynamic market for Digital Challenger Banks. At last count, there were around 250 digital challenger banks globally. Of them 13 were profitable and 10 of those were in Asia. A digitally literate young population combined with the structural need to accelerate the penetration of financial services has fueled the growth.

Global historical perspective. Digital Banks are not new. Studying their history informs new entrants about the experiments that have been already carried out. First-generation of Digital Banks were the children of dot-com ear – often referred to as Internet Banks. Their central premise was that customers don’t need branches. The cost savings resulting from a branch-less bank can be shared between the customer and the bank. Some of these banks struggled with adverse selection. They attracted overly price-sensitive customers. Some examples are Egg, Wingspan. The second generation of Digital Banks were sub-brands of mainstream banks. They were essentially digital channels or digital products targeted towards a specific segment. There were two hypotheses. One: digitally savvy customers needed to be served through digital channels. Two: moving transactions out of branches to the internet and mobile banking would reduce operating expenses. Both these hypotheses have worked well so far.

Current insights. The latest iteration of Digital Bank is a completely new breed. There are three fundamental differences.

  • Finance-as-a-feature. Financial services are getting embedded into customer journeys. The argument being a customer wants to buy a car – not take a car loan.
  • Segment-of-one. Using digital footprint of a customer, it is possible to know the customer as an individual. Therefore, the banking experience can be customized to an individual’s needs leading to very high customer engagement. See Exhibit – A.
  • Exponential scale. Technology can scale exponentially thereby turbocharging penetration of financial services and market share shifts from incumbent financial institutions to modern players.

All these three arguments hold promise but as data has shown, it’s easier said than done.

The challenges. There are three.

  • What is the path to profitability?
  • How to reach critical mass?
  • Where to create and capture value – balance sheet and / or technology?

Path to profitability. At last count, 13 out of 250 digital challenger banks were profitable. See Exhibit B. Profitable digital banks do three things:

  1. Price the product for positive unit economics: core portfolio of products should generate economic value over hurdle rate; even hook products used to acquire customers should break-even; crucial to incorporate loss rates in lending business besides the opex
  2. Compress cost of acquisition: acquire customers through partnerships with players who have strategic synergies; be open to revenue and risk-sharing arrangements if it helps acquire higher-quality customers
  3. Focus on product per customer: focus on building an exceptional understanding of the customer and monetize that through higher products per customers – best in class number in India tends to be 3+ for NBFCs organizations; for banks its higher

Critical mass. If we treat 5% penetration of the addressable market as a threshold, very few Digital Challenger Banks have been able to clear it and go beyond niche. See Exhibit-C. Those who scale show three characteristics:

  1. Strong brand recognition: important to drive virality, referrals and most importantly trust
  2. Ecosystem advantage: crucial to drive network effects through a strong partner ecosystem so that a customer can engage with the platform throughout the lifecycle
  3. Strong in-house technology capabilities: control the technology destiny through captive tech stack leading to flexibility and reliability with scale

Role of balance sheet and technology. Whether to create and capture value on the balance sheet or in the technology stack or both is an important discussion. It’s not a binary choice. One needs to prioritize and understand the role of each as the business matures. Especially in the context of lending, the quality of the balance sheet is a strong indicator of the quality of data science and technology. Ability to originate, underwrite, and manage risk with high precision at low cost is invaluable. Over time, once the technology stack is proven on the parent balance sheet, it can be spun-off to unlock value.

India in relation to rest of SEA. Because of its large revenue pool (USD 100 Bn) and ready digital infrastructure (India Stack), India is extremely important for domestic and foreign players. The revenue pool is 6-10x larger than other South East Asian markets. Three types of plays are emerging in India. First, banks are launching their captive challenger entities. There aren’t yet any pure challenger banks with a full universal banking license. Second, are players who provide a completely modern customer experience in partnership with other banks. Third are existing digital ecosystem players with large customer base who focus on finance as an added feature. While the jury is out on who will win, the time is right for well-funded players with modern capabilities to capture this space.

The blog has been authored by Yashraj Erande, Managing Director and Partner, BCG and Aniket Kulkarni, Principal, BCG.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETBFSI.com does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETBFSI.com shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organisation directly or indirectly.



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EU to tighten rules on cryptoasset transfers, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Companies that transfer bitcoin or other cryptoassets must collect details of senders and recipients to help authorities crack down on dirty money, EU policymakers proposed on Tuesday in the latest efforts to tighten regulation of the sector.

The law proposed by the European Commission, the EU executive, would apply what is known as the travel rule to crypto transactions to make them traceable.

The rule, which is one of the recommendations of the inter-governmental watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), already applies to wire transfers.

“Today’s amendments will ensure full traceability of crypto-asset transfers, such as bitcoin, and will allow for prevention and detection of their possible use for money laundering or terrorism financing,” the Commission said in a statement.

A company handling cryptoassets for a customer must include the customer’s name, address, date of birth and account number, and the name of the person who will receive the cryptoassets.

The recipient’s service provider must also check if any of the required information is missing.

Providing anonymous crypto-asset wallets will also be prohibited, just as anonymous bank accounts are already banned under EU anti-money laundering rules.

“These proposals have been designed to find the right balance between addressing these threats and complying with international standards while not creating excessive regulatory burden on the industry,” the European Commission said.

“On the contrary, these proposals will help the EU crypto-asset industry develop, as it will benefit from an updated, harmonised legal framework across the EU.”

EU states and the European Parliament have the final say on the proposals, meaning it could take two years for them to become law.



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RBI launches two key surveys, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday launched its quarterly Industrial Outlook Survey (IOS) to assess the performance of the manufacturing sector.

The central bank also announced the launch of the next round of the quarterly Services and Infrastructure Outlook Survey (SIOS) for the current quarter.

The 95th round of IOS of the Indian manufacturing sector will assess business sentiment for the current quarter and expectations for the ensuing quarter (Q3:2021-22) based on qualitative responses on a set of indicators pertaining to demand conditions, financial conditions, employment conditions and price situation.

“The survey provides useful insight into the performance of the manufacturing sector,” the RBI said.

The SIOS survey will assess the business situation for the current quarter from selected companies in the services and infrastructure sectors in India and their expectations for the ensuing quarter.

It is based on responses on a set of indicators pertaining to demand conditions, financial conditions, employment conditions and the price situation.



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RBI imposes Rs 1 lakh penalty on Melur Co-operative Urban Bank, Madurai, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Mumbai, Jul 20: The RBI on Tuesday imposed a penalty of Rs 1 lakh on Melur Co-operative Urban Bank, Melur, Madurai for contravention of certain provisions concerning board of directors. The RBI said statutory returns submitted by the bank for the period ended March 2020, revealed, inter alia, “contravention of / non-compliance” with the directions on Board of Directors – UCBs.

A show cause notice was issued to the Tamil Nadu-based bank.

After considering the bank’s replies, the RBI came to the conclusion that the charges of non-compliance with the extant RBI directions were substantiated and warranted imposition of monetary penalty.

The central bank, however, said the penalty is based on the deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the bank with its customers.

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Videocon resolution may be back to square one after NCLAT stay, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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After NCLAT stayed the order of the NCLT of Mumbai Bench, the process of Videocon Industries’s liquidation case may start all over again. Legal experts also believe that SBI-led creditors may not do anything but the bid winner Anil Agarwal’s Twin Star may appeal in Supreme Court against the NCLAT order.

“As of now, NCLAT has stayed the order. The creditors (appellant) were possibly challenging the entire bidding approved by NCLT on the grounds that some procedures might not have been followed, opinions not being considered. Now there are high chances that the entire process can restart,” said Vikas Tomar, Partner, Indian Law Partners.

There are 35 financial creditors of Videocon, of which 19 major creditors, including SBI, Union Bank, IDBI, Central Bank, BOB and ICICI Bank approved the resolution, which includes the 95.85% haircut. But three minority shareholders, Bank of Maharashtra, SIDBI and IFCI rejected the resolution on the ground of low resolution and filed an appeal in NCLAT.

Large versus Minority Creditors versus Bidder

The plea of minority shareholders is heard and the whole case will move in a direction to get more benefits for the financial creditors.

“Banks are normally prepared to take a 60-70 per cent haircut on payments if an insolvency process is initiated. The bid was also rejected on the grounds that they should be compensated upfront and in cash rather than through NCDs. Accepting this bid will just increase the banks’ losses, and now their only option is to call for bids from interested parties,” said Sonam Chandwani. Managing Partners, KS Legal and Associates.

The main ground of the minority shareholders was the low resolution amount.

“The large financial creditors like SBI and others may prefer to keep quiet and wait for the court to do its process. But there are high chances that Anil Agarwal’s Twin Star Technologies may appeal in Supreme Court against NCLAT order,” said a legal expert who did not want to be identified.

There were 11 bidders for Videocon but only three had bid for the whole Videocon’s group assets. The majority of them had bid for only a particular division of the company. Hence on one side, there is a big hope that minority shareholders will recover more, but on the other side there the whole process may take a long time.

The Videocon resolution case has been one of the most dramatic in the IBC process. Starting from Chanda Kochchar, former MD and CEO, ICICI Bank losing her job and facing trials with investigative agencies for irregularities in the giving loans to the group, to the fresh challenge to the resolution process, it has been a bumpy road.



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NPCI begins pilot for voice-based payments, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which has developed key digital payments railroads such as the Unified Payments Interface, Fastag and Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS), is now testing a voice-based payments service for feature phone users in low connectivity zones, sources aware of the matter told ET.

The service is likely to be rolled out on top of the interoperable UPI protocol. The key differentiator would be that the feature phone users won’t need a third-party app or stable internet connection to complete their transactions.

The ‘Interactive Voice Response’ (IVR) payments project is currently in beta-testing mode with the Reserve Bank of India closely monitoring the pilot as per provisions laid under the central bank’s Regulatory Sandbox (RS), the sources said. A larger rollout would be subject to approvals from RBI after the culmination of the first phase of testing.

The solution has been created by Bengaluru-based fintech Ubona Technologies with a private sector bank currently enabling transactions on the backend, sources added. ET couldn’t independently verify the name of this lender.

Both NPCI and RBI are learnt to be testing various feature phone-based payment solutions that cut the need to have an internet connection or an expensive authentication device like biometric scanner or point of sale (PoS) device, a source said.

NPCI didn’t respond to ET’s mailed queries. A spokesperson from Ubona couldn’t be immediately contacted.

As envisaged by the NPCI the service will allow users of feature phones to make merchant payments as well as peer-to-peer (p2p) transactions by simply generating an authentication PIN linked to their bank account and debit card as well as the registered mobile number.

This is similar to how UPI PINs are generated. However, instead of a smartphone through third party internet apps, feature phone users will be able to generate authentication PIN through a common dial-in service which may be operated by NPCI.

The PIN can be then used at merchant points enabled for such transactions wherein the account holder can use their feature phones to select the payment size and merchant details through a Dual Tone Multi Frequency (DTMF) system which will likely guide the user through the two-factor authentication (2FA) flow in local languages.

DTMF is a technology used with touch tone phones to allow callers to use keypads that correspond to the number of the menu option and select preferred options.

The other leg of this system involves acquirer banks enabling their merchants with a proxy identity number that can be used to authenticate the acceptance part of the transaction. The existing interoperable standards between banks on UPI network allow two or more banks to communicate and vet small-ticket payments in real time.

“There are several legs of this payment system which need to be solved for mass adoption, such as strengthening security and access, as well as enabling banks with concurrent calling infrastructure that can handle thousands of calls at a time,” said a source cited above. “However, these considerations are for the future when NPCI and RBI allows a larger rollout of this service. The initial results are promising,” the person added.

“Another pressing concern is that millions of cards have expired under RBI’s chip-and-pin rules. For such a service, these cards would not be valid anymore,” the source added.

As part of NPCI’s pilot, several leading payment acquirers have been shown demos of this service for feedback, the sources added.

ET had exclusively reported in December 2020 that RBI was testing offline payments through feature phones in a handful of villages in coastal Karnataka in partnership with global card network Visa, private lender Yes Bank and digital wallet venture Yuva Pay.

There are at least four other such experiments in the work as well under RBI’s first RS cohort, all largely focusing on developing an offline payments network for feature phone users to make payments without an internet connection.

As defined by RBI, an RS refers to live testing of new products or services in a controlled/test regulatory environment for which regulators may permit certain relaxations for the limited purpose of the testing. RBI had introduced this concept in 2019 with live experimentations starting in 2020.



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