Category: Banking & Finance

HDFC Bank, HDFC Securities invest $1 million in Borderless Softtech, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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HDFC Bank and HDFC Securities invested USD 1 million (about Rs 7.4 crore) in Borderless Softtech, which runs global investment platform Stockal, as part of Pre-Series A funding. Borderless Softtech is a subsidiary of US-based Borderless Investing Inc.

This partnership will widen the company’s subscriber base by expanding growth opportunities to allow Indian investors to get access to over 5,500 US-listed companies fractional stocks and ETFs, according to a release issued by Stockal on Thursday.

The company is planning to utilise the funding to turbocharge its growth, making it a platform of choice for Indian investors.

“This funding will enable thousands of Indian investors to get exposure to opportunities offered by the global markets as we further expand our capabilities to markets in South-East Asia and Europe,” Vinay Bharathwaj, Co-CEO and co-founder of Stockal, said.

Smita Bhagat, Country Head, HDFC Bank, said the funding decision was based on the strength and resilience the Stockal platform has shown in India, especially in the past few months.

Borderless Investing Inc’s brand Stockal has revolutionised the US investments space by offering seamless digital trading solutions to Indian investors since its inception.

In terms of volumes, Stockal processed about USD 550 million in transactions during this financial year and by March 2021, the platform processed more than USD 50 million in monthly transactions. PTI SP BAL BAL



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ICAs signed for all assets going to NARCL in first tranche: SBI

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State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Dinesh Khara

Inter-creditor agreements (ICAs) for all the assets identified for transfer to the National Asset Reconstruction Company (NARCL) in the first round have been signed, State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Dinesh Khara told FE in an interview.

In terms of the shareholding of NARCL, private-sector banks have come forward and they are in the process of obtaining the requisite approvals in order to invest in the entity, Khara said.

“So they are fully on board and in all those accounts where ICAs have been signed, there is a consensus among banks that all such accounts will move into NARCL,” Khara said, adding that irrespective of ownership, assets would get aggregated. “All those who have signed ICAs would be happy to have the assets aggregated and move them towards resolution,” he said.

An ICA is an agreement signed between the lenders to a company as a sign of their commitment to ensure a common resolution of the stress built up in that company.

The NARCL has been set up with a paid-up capital of Rs 149 crore, all of which has come from eight public-sector banks. Banks are understood to have identified 22 accounts with a total outstanding of Rs 89,000 crore for transfer to the NARCL in the first tranche. Eventually, the bad bank is expected to acquire assets worth Rs 2 lakh crore from lenders. Sector analysts say that the aggregation of the exposures of several lenders is the chief advantage of the NARCL.

“The chances of resolution improve when you club together all the piecemeal exposures of each bank into a single asset. The assets identified in the first tranche are very old ones where private banks have anyway made an exit. So aggregation shouldn’t face too many challenges,” said an analyst.

“One of the challenges for resolution was that each bank had a different kind of charge attached to the same asset. Aggregation through the NARCL takes care of that problem,” said Ashvin Parekh, managing partner, Ashvin Parekh Advisory Services (APAS). “We must hope now that the NARCL is steered competently by the management so that there is actual resolution of stress,” he added.

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Dhanlaxmi Bank shareholders reject appointment of statutory auditors

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Shareholders approved the ‘Profit &Loss Account’ for the year ended and the re-appointment CK Gopinathan as a director.

Shareholders of Dhanlaxmi Bank have rejected the appointment of statutory central auditors in the annual general meeting (AGM) held on Wednesday, the bank said in a regulatory filing. Incidentally, the Kerala High Court has refrained the bank from concluding the AGM and has adjourned it to a day after one month from September 29th.
The shareholders also rejected the resolution of authorizing the board of directors to appoint and fix the remuneration of branch auditors.

In a show of strength and defiance to the current board, the shareholders passed two resolutions while voting against the other two. Shareholders approved the ‘Profit &Loss Account’ for the year ended and the re-appointment CK Gopinathan as a director.

According to the regulatory filing, 65.44% of the shareholders present in the AGM voted against the proposal to appoint P B Vijayaraghavan & Co, Chartered Accountants, as statutory auditors and appointment of branch auditors.
The order by the HC came following a writ petition filed by KN Madhusoodanan, a shareholder of the company, P Mohanan and Prakash DL, seeking a direction to the respondents — the RBI and Dhanlaxmi bank — to discharge their statutory responsibilities under Section 160 of the Companies Act to inform the members about the candidature of the petitioners for the office of the director as mandated under Section 160(2) of the Companies Act.
Sherry Samuel Oommen, a corporate lawyer, told FE that it would have augured well for the shareholders of Dhanlaxmi to adjourn the AGM in its totality.

“The Ministry of Corporate Affairs in a circular in 1974 had permitted companies to adjourn the AGM where accounts were not ready for laying at the concerned AGM. Perhaps, in the interests of the public, the matter concerning adoption of accounts and appointment of auditors could have been adjourned to the ensuing AGM. I am quite certain that this matter would be further litigated in the next month,”he added.

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Customers to face disruption as only 60% banks are auto debit norm ready

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With the Reserve Bank of India’s new auto-debit norms coming into effect from Friday, consumers may face some disruption as only about 60 per cent of the banks are ready with a new system.

Industry experts say that most public sector banks are still working to meet the RBI requirement. For example, auto debit on State Bank of India’s debit card will go live only by mid-October while its credit card system is set up to meet the norms starting tomorrow.

Private lenders, including HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Citibank, IDFC Bank and Axis Bank, are ready, while others such as IndusInd Bank, Bank of Baroda, RBL Bank and YES Bank are geared to meet the deadline.

Shashank Kumar, CTO and co-founder, Razorpay, said, “In the long run, the RBI norms are good for the ecosystem and will benefit the consumer. But, in the short term, the September 30 deadline can cause a lot of confusion for existing mandates. Where the cards have not migrated to the new system or banks that have not complied, the mandates will not be processed.”

Sounding off customers

Banks and credit card companies have already sent communications to customers informing them about the changes and their state of readiness. Customers of banks, which are yet to comply, will face disruption in payment of utility bills, OTT subscriptions, etc. However, mandates for SIPs, mutual funds and EMIs, set up through bank accounts, will not be affected.

To ensure a smooth transition for customers, the Payments Council of India has requested the RBI to extend the norms for auto debit mandates for recurring transactions by one to two months.

Extension sought

“We have written to the RBI for a short extension of one or two months to ensure a smooth transition to the new norms. All ecosystem players have been working hard but it will take some more time,” said Vishwas Patel, Chairman, Payments Council of India and Executive Director, Infibeam Avenues Limited.

Mandar Agashe, Founder, Vice-Chairman and MD, Sarvatra Technologies, said, “With the new regulations, customers will now be required to re-register each of their payment instruments — be a debit or credit card or UPI for service under the recurring mandate. Post-re-registration, the first transaction will have to be executed via additional factor authentication (AFA) by approving the auto-debit request beforehand. Transactions above ₹5,000, will require OTP verification every time.”

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Housing credit fintech Homeville raises $7 million

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Homeville, a financial technology company in the housing finance space, has raised $7 million funding with participation from 9Unicorns, Varanium NexGen Fund, JITO Angel Network, CREDAI Members Network, BlackSoil and Earlsfield Capital, among other investors.

Founded by IIM alumni Lalit Menghani, Madhusudan Sharma and Prasad Ajinkya, the startup offers technology-enabled solutions for home buyers.

The technology architecture is based on open banking principles and designs.

Home loans may build up momentum as consumers dare to dream ‘big’

Homeville’s three platforms include HomeCapital for down payment assistance — it has facilitated $250 million worth of housing sales; Bharat Housing Network for co-lending infrastructure in affordable housing finance; and HomeNxt, a business-to-consumer platform, currently in beta stage, which uses technology for mortgage underwriting and delivery.

The company is building the software stack for the digital mortgage platform.

Co-founder Sharma said, “We pioneered India’s first down payment assistance programme to accelerate housing for first-time home buyers. With our digital mortgage product and co-lending platform for affordable home finance, we are deepening our commitment to home buyers and India’s housing finance ecosystem.”

Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Founder, 9Unicorns and Venture Catalysts, added, “The company is building the missing credit network and fintech rails in the massive Indian housing ecosystem. This will accelerate the housing-for-all mission and create a massive social impact.”

Are festive home loan offers worth it?

Jaxay Shah, MD of Savvy group, investor in JITO Angel Network and former national president of CREDAI added, “Homeville’s platforms address the challenges faced by millennial home-buyers and the real estate market. The company aims to help accelerate the $100-billion housing industry, poised to reach approximately $500 billion by 2025. With their disruptive technology and the strong founding team, Homeville aims to broaden the entire housing finance market.”

“Housing is a priority for government and regulators across the world. The long-term and safe nature of housing finance assets create a large opportunity for new-age technology companies for building interesting fintech models. Homeville is uniquely positioned to be a market leader in the technology business driving home finance digitally,” Aparajit Bhandarkar, Partner, Varanium Capital, added.

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Indel Money ties up with IndusInd Bank for gold loan co-lending partnership

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Indel Money has tied up with IndusInd Bank for a gold loan co-lending partnership to offer gold loans at competitive rates.

“Under the co-lending partnership agreement, Indel Money will originate and process gold loans based on mutually formulated credit parameters and eligibility criteria. The company will service customers through the entire lifecycle of the loans, including sourcing, documentation, collection and loan servicing,” it said in a statement.

IndusInd Bank will take into its book 80 per cent of the gold loans generated by the co-lending arrangement, while the remaining 20 per cent will be funded by Indel Money.

“The co-lending partnership places greater responsibility on us to excel in managing the gold loan lifecycle and underscores the trust and value that the bank has on our expertise and technology capability to meet unsolved credit needs of the underserved segments of borrowers. The partnership will help us serve an extensive range of customers across geographies and ticket-size,” said Umesh Mohanan, Executive Director and CEO, Indel Money.

The partnership will start on a pilot basis before expanding across the country.

Srinivas Bonam, Head of Inclusive Banking Group, Induslnd Bank said, “We are pleased to partner with Indel Money for extending gold loans. They have strong presence in the southern region with plans to expand across India.”

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Payback India launches Pay feature on its app, powered by BharatPe

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Multi-brand loyalty programme Payback India, which was recently acquired by BharatPe, has launched the Pay feature on its mobile app that integrates QR-based UPI payments and loyalty in a single app.

“Payback Pay will enable Payback India’s over 100 million members to make payments by scanning the UPI QR at any retail store or merchant outlet by using the Payback app and earn loyalty points on every transaction,” it said in a statement on Thursday.

Payback will soon be adding the feature of redemption of points at BharatPe’s QRs at more than 75 lakh merchant outlets and launching the feature on the ioS app, it further said.

“Payback Pay will put customers in habit of scanning and paying on UPI QRs. Eventually, all redemption and earning of Payback points will happen automatically at BharatPe QRs. Payback points will be a currency as it will be universally accepted,” said Ashneer Grover, Co-Founder and Managing Director, BharatPe .

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Financial services company FIS to hire 10,000 people in India

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Global financial services provider FIS on Thursday announced plans to hire 10,000 people in India in the next one year amid increasing investment and growth prospects.

As part of its 12-month recruitment drive across India, the company plans to onboard more than 10,000 people at all levels and there will be a special focus on hiring graduates from tier II and III cities.

India is a strategic centre of employment for FIS with nearly one-third of FIS employees living and working within the country’s borders and it will invest heavily in this market, it said.

The company will focus on hiring new recruits through leading educational institutes spread across different parts of the country, including Gurugram, Jaipur, Nagpur, Mangalore, Kanpur, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram, Jalandhar, Solapur, and Guwahati.

The successful applicants will be staffed across FIS offices in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Indore, Mohali, Gurugram. “FIS has had a presence in India for more than two decades, and this recruitment drive underscores our continued commitment to providing rewarding career opportunities for India’s top talent,” Amol Gupta, Chief Human Resources Officer — India & Philippines — at FIS told reporters during a virtual press conference.

He also said the company continues to innovate with its technological services and given the demand scenario, people are being hired.

According to FIS, it is offering a hybrid working mode allowing the employees flexible working hours for the past one-and-a-half years due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The hybrid work model is a good fit for some for improved work-life balance, which in return maintains a healthier and more productive workforce, it added.

FIS also promotes an inclusive work culture for people from all types of social backgrounds, including the differently abled and LGBTQ communities.

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NTPC REL signs first green term loan pact of Rs 500 cr with Bank of India, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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State-run power giant NTPC on Thursday said its arm NTPC Renewable Energy Ltd (NTPC REL) has signed the first green term loan agreement of Rs 500 crore with Bank of India. The green term loan agreement is for its two solar projects in Rajasthan and Gujarat.

NTPC REL has signed its first Green Term Loan agreement of Rs 500 crores at a very competitive rate with a tenor of 15 years with Bank of India on September 29, 2021 for its 470 MW solar project in Rajasthan and 200 MW solar project in Gujarat, a company statement said.

A green loan is a type of loan instrument that enables borrowers to finance projects that have an environmental impact.

NTPC REL, a 100 per cent subsidiary of NTPC Ltd, currently has a renewable project portfolio of 3,450 MW of which 820 MW projects are under construction and 2,630 MW projects have been won for which PPAs (power purchase agreements) are pending to be executed.

NTPC had incorporated NTPC Renewable Energy Ltd with the Registrar of Companies, NCT of Delhi & Haryana on October 7, 2020, to undertake renewable energy business.

NTPC is taking various steps to make its energy portfolio greener by adding significant capacities of renewable energy sources.

By 2032, the company plans to have 60GW capacity through renewable energy sources constituting nearly 45 per cent of its overall power generation capacity as per its official portal.



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NPCI is estimating 25 million new mandate registrations for recurring payments by the end of fiscal

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The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is estimating a run rate of 25 million new mandates for customers getting registered every month for recurring payments by the end of this fiscal. The federal fintech firm is also looking at a target of processing one billion UPI transactions per day over the next three years.

Speaking at The Global FinTech Fest 2021, Dilip Asbe, Managing Director and CEO, NPCI said, “Last year we had about 22 billion UPI transaction volumes and this year we are expecting that to touch 40-42 billion. And annually the value is over one trillion dollars. There is still a possibility of 10X growth in digital payments. We should process about 50 billion transactions on a monthly basis and one billion per day over the next three years. There is a lot to be done, we have just started.”

“While I would assess that we would touch the one billion mark by the next five years, given that the government and regulators are keen on growing digital payments ecosystem at scale, we should aspire to reach one billion transactions a day in three years,” Asbe added.

Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Sequoia India & Surge, who was conducting the chat with Asbe added, “We should make a national mission to get UPI to a hundred countries. That would make world a better place and that will create a massive number of global Indian payments companies.”

Recurring Payments

One of the initiatives NPCI is actively working on is to make recurring payments safe and secure by adding two-factor authentication and creating the right mandate for the customers.

Also read: Auto debit norms: Payments Council of India seeks extension for smooth transition

“We call it a layer of ‘auto pay’ wherein NPCI’s three-four existing companies are fighting for a share in that space. We have an auto pay layer on UPI, Rupay, NACH and Bharat Bill Payment System. These systems will compete with each other to get the mandate share in the market. We have been receiving 2 million new mandates registrations from customers for auto pay on UPI every month. NACH is also getting around 2 million. Rupay and BBPS are just starting in a month or so,” Asbe said.

“We want to exit the financial year with a run rate of 25 million new mandate registrations per month. I strongly believe the regulator believes in long-term gains,” he added.

Need for MDR

According to Asbe, there needs to be reasonable charges for MDR. As the volumes are growing, as an ecosystem they must set up a path.

He said, “We need to make it more cost effective for the ecosystem. While the government has been trying to make digital payments accessible to smaller local merchants by making MDR zero during the demonetisation phase in good faith, we are constantly having conversations with all the ministries involved, asking to set a reasonable charge and thankfully the finance minister announced some incentives in the budget.”

“The 10x growth will come through investments in customer onboarding, spreading awareness and customer protection. The merchant base needs to grow from 50 million active merchants to 100 million. Everybody in that supply chain needs to make money, at least to fund their IT investments and banks have to create scalable CBS (core banking solutions) processes to allow huge volumes of UPI transactions. We are hoping the government will very soon make an announcement on this,” he added.

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