IndiGo, Kotak Mahindra Bank tie up for co-branded credit card, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Mumbai, Budget carrier IndiGo and private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank on Monday announced a strategic partnership for a co-branded credit card, Ka-ching, under the 6E Rewards programme. Managed and operated by IndiGo, the Rewards Programme is linked to a co-branded card wherein members can earn rewards by using such card on IndiGo and other merchants and redeem them for availing the benefits.

6E is the airline code for IndiGo.

Scheduled to be launched next month, the co-branded card will be available in two variants– 6E Rewards and 6E Rewards XL — offering exclusive travel benefits to the cardholders keen on domestic or international travel, IndiGo said in a release.

This collaboration will create value for customers in the form of a powerful product proposition offering a premium rewards experience to customers, it said.

Customer research reveals that travel has emerged as the most sought-after redemption category in terms of reward programmes. Customers prefer to receive travel-associated offers and benefits such as free flights while redeeming their reward points – a trend that is expected to accelerate as air travel reaches pre-pandemic levels, the airline said.

The credit card will allow customers to accrue accelerated 6E Rewards on their spends and redeem these points for airline tickets anytime with no blackout dates on redemptions.

Furthermore, customers will have access to other special benefits on IndiGo including complimentary air ticket, discounted convenience fee, priority check-in, choice of seat and a complimentary meal, the airline said.

“We are excited to indulge our customers with 6E Rewards on flight bookings, dining, entertainment and other spends that can be redeemed for IndiGo flight tickets and on other products and categories with our commitment to provide a great engagement to our members,” said William Boulter, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo, on the collaboration.

“We have immense conviction in our partner Kotak Mahindra Bank, with its vast reach to complement IndiGo’s network within the country, while offering unique experiences to our customers. It’s a perfect partnership as we believe in consistently enhancing our engagement to deliver great customer experience,” he said.

The cardholders will also be able to earn additional 6E Rewards on dining, shopping, transport, medical bill spends, utilities, fuel and other major categories with Feature Partners of 6E Rewards Programme, IndiGo said. PTI IAS ANU ANU



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Gold loans shine the brightest in banks’ loan portfolio, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Gold loans have emerged as the fastest-growing major loan segment as people have pawned their jewellery and lenders look at avenues of low-risk growth. Outstanding loans against gold jewellery stood at Rs 62,926 crore as on August 27, up 66% on a year-on-year basis, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data.

Gold loans are often used to finance consumption spending, such as children’s education, weddings, illnesses or to meet household expenses during distress.

Public sector banks have also entered the segment to further grow their retail business. Despite regulatory arbitrage of higher loan-to-value lending in March 2021, banks have continued aggressively disburse gold loans.

Gold loans were up 1% on month in August 2021 as restrictions during COVID-19 eased and economic activities grew.

Loan demand picked up from the beginning of July as COVID-19 cases started declining. Gold loans via non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) had reported higher customer walk-ins.

LTV impact

However, gold loans have grown a mere 3.6% YTD, which is in contrast with the 54% CAGR seen in gold loan growth over the past two years.

RBI had raised the LTV of 90% on gold loans, which allowed banks to lend up to 90% of the value of the collateral.

However, it withdrew special allowance for banks from April 2021, impacting loan growth.

The average ticket size of loans that customers are opting for is Rs 55,000-60,000, which are rising for many lenders, showed growing signs of distress.

Gold loan NBFCs saw higher competition in the gold loan business last fiscal as banks grew their portfolio taking advantage of the special LIV allowance given to them by the RBI.

The expansion

With growth returning, gold financiers are now gearing up to tap the expected surge in gold loans.

Muthoot FinCorp has expanded its physical network by more than 100 new branches, mainly in the north, east and west regions of India, most of which were in rural and semi-urban areas. The NBFC had opened 70 branches in FY20.

Muthoot’s gold asset under management (AUM) grew at a compound annual growth rate of 12% between FY15 and FY20. In FY21, the portfolio grew 27%.

Pune-based Bajaj Finance has increased its gold loan branches from 480 to 700 in the last financial year and plans to add 100 plus branches this fiscal.

Its loan book grew 52% last year to Rs 2,300 crore, while it saw an increase in ticket sizes from Rs 75,000 to Rs 85,000 last year.

Shriram City Union Finance is also looking to ramp up its gold financing business this financial year, changing its strategy of focusing on other loan portfolios.



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T20 world cup, a major spin for crypto products

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Heightened marketing and advertising campaign for different cryptocurrency assets during Sunday night’s T20 World Cup match has underlined the regulatory vacuum for cryptos.

During the India-Pakistan clash on Sunday, viewers were bombarded with advertisements by CoinSwitch, BitBns, CoinDCX. CoinDCX — which roped in actor Ayushmann Khurrana — and CoinSwitch Kuber played up the high-visibility quotient with popular Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh as brand ambassador for their ad campaigns on TV and digital platform. In almost all ads for crypto assets whose value is suspect, disclaimers were too small and read out far too rapidly for viewers’ comprehension.

Chandrima Mitra, Partner, DSK Legal, said since crypto assets are currently unregulated and the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has not set out any specific guidelines for advertisement of crypto assets, such platforms are vulnerable to legal issues and consumer complaints. “While we await guidelines and regulations, currently we advise our clients to ensure that the advertisements promoting the crypto platforms contain specific and clear disclaimers mentioning that crypto assets are unregulated digital assets and not legal tender, subject to market risks, etc,” Mitra said.

Area of concern

Experts feel there is a need for ASCI to step in. According to Lloyd Mathias, Business Strategist and Angel Investor, ASCI should keep a close watch as the cryptocurrency space is fast-evolving.

“It should take suo motu cognisance to come out with guidelines for cryptocurrency-related ads in the interest of consumers,” he said. The ASCI seems to be pondering over the matter. “We understand that cryptocurrencies and their advertisements are an area of increasing concern; we are already consulting different stakeholders to protect the interests of consumers,” said Manisha Kapoor, Secretary-General, ASCI.

The high-decibel campaign and market movement has evoked a renewed cry for a regulatory framework. Former Finance Secretary SC Garg, who had led an inter-ministerial panel that recommended that all private cryptocurrencies except any virtual currency issued by the State should be prohibited, told BusinessLine that the Government must look at a comprehensive framework for cryptocurrency and treat it as a separate asset class (including as a currency).

‘RBI should step in’

He, however, felt that the widely expected Cryptocurrency Bill was unlikely to be introduced in the upcoming Winter Session. The RBI, which is looking to introduce a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) as a legal tender in digital form, may introduce a pilot project by December, this year.

According to former RBI Governor D Subbarao, the central bank cannot shy away from regulating cryptocurrencies. “Central banks around the world are getting concerned about the increasing popularity of cryptocurrencies. There is also the issue of financial stability and if banks are exposed to cryptocurrencies, they will be taking unacceptable levels of risk” he said at a recent NCAER webinar.

RBI had, in 2018, issued instructions to banks to stop providing services to crypto trading platforms. This has led to uncertainty about the status of virtual currencies in India. However, the Supreme Court, in March 2020, struck down the RBI’s instructions.

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CSB Bank Q2 net jumps 72% on income growth

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CSB Bank reported a 72 per cent year-on-year (yoy) jump in second quarter net profit at ₹119 crore due to healthy growth in net interest income and other income, and write-back in total provisions.

The Thrissur (Kerala)-headquartered bank had recorded a net profit of ₹69 crore in the year ago quarter.

Net interest income (the difference between interest earned and interest expended) was up 21 per cent yoy at ₹278 crore (₹229 crore in the year ago quarter).

Other income, including fees earned from providing services to customers, commission from non-fund based banking activities, earning from foreign exchange transactions, selling of third-party products, profit on sale of investments (net), etc., rose about 36 per cent yoy to ₹60 crore (₹44 crore).

The bank saw a write-back of ₹9.2 crore in total provisions, including towards non-perfoming assets (NPAs) in the reportng quarter. In the year ago quarter, it made provisions aggregating ₹26.90 crore in the year ago quarter.

As of September-end, total advances grew 12.57 per cent yoy to ₹15,097 crore.

Growth in advances

The growth was mainly on the back of increase in agriculture & microfinance industry loans, gold loans, corporate loans, two-wheeler loans, new MSME loans. However, retail loans, MSME general loans and assignment loans saw a decline.

Total deposits were up 9.09 per cent to ₹19,055 crore. The proportion of low-cost current account, savings account (CASA) deposits in total deposits improved to 32.60 per cent (29.39 per cent as at September-end 2020). During the reporting quarter, fresh slippages were lower at ₹205 crore (of which ₹170 crore is on account of gold loans) against ₹435 crore in the first quarter.

Non-performing asset (NPA) reduction, including via upgradation and recoveries, was higher at ₹305 crore (₹142 crore in the preceding quarter).

CVR Rajendran, Managing Director & CEO, said: “…in terms of profitability, Q2 is a much better quarter than Q1FY22…Lot of good work has gone in managing the portfolio stress both in gold and non- gold portfolios and SMA (special mention accounts)/NPA levels were kept under control.”

He observed that CSB Bank saw return of demand in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME), SME and Whole Sale Banking segments during the last part of the quarter. Further, visible growth is also happening in Gold loan portfolio.

As the impact of Covid is not fully ascertained, the bank decided to continue with the accelerated provisioning policy for stressed and NPA accounts, Rajendran said.

BK Divakara, CFO, emphasised that this is the first time that the bank has posted over ₹100 crore profit in a quarter. Net interest margin improved to 5.22 per cent, from 4.48 per cent in the year ago quarter.

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PhonePe gives up exclusive claim by withdrawing injunction: BharatPe

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In the ongoing tussle between PhonePe and BharatPe over the alleged misuse of the term ‘Pe’, BharatPe has said that by withdrawing its injunction from the Bombay High Court PhonePe has given up its claim for exclusivity over the word by consent.

In the court order dated October 22, the Bombay High Court noted that PhonePe has no registration of the word ‘Pe’, instead it has a label with the devanagari word Pe. BusinessLine has reviewed a copy of the order.

“If the plaintiff (PhonePe) has no exclusivity over the mark ‘Pe’, I do not see how it can claim this exclusivity indirectly in paragraph after paragraph of the plaint. It is one thing to say that the defendants’ (BharatPe) mark, taken as a whole, is close to the PostPe, also taken as a whole.

“It is quite another to take an element of each, which cannot possibly be the subject of exclusivity, and then claim injunctions on that basis,” the court added.

‘An infringement’

PhonePe has claimed that while the word ‘Phone’ is not unique, the word ‘Pe’ is a distinctive and memorable part of its name. It then claimed that use of the word ‘Pe’ in BharatPe’s new ‘buy now pay later’ offering PostPe is an infringement.

In response to this, the court said that “if the law is that the mark must be taken as a whole, then one must look at PhonePe as a whole and then set it against PostPe. Then one would test for visual, structural and phonetic similarity.”

‘To file a fresh suit’

In a statement released by PhonePe last week, the company said that “to address certain observations made by the Court in the pleadings filed by PhonePe, the suit was withdrawn with liberty to file a fresh suit challenging the adoption of mark PostPe/postpe by Resilient Innovations. Accordingly, while allowing the withdrawal of the suit and keeping the rights and contentions of the parties open, the Hon’ble Court granted PhonePe the liberty to file a fresh suit. We will, accordingly, file a fresh suit and continue to ardently oppose the use of the PostPe/postpe marks.”

The PhonePe spokesperson had earlier also claimed that the “hon’ble Court observed that the mark PostPe adopted by Resilient Innovations is so phonetically, structurally and visually similar to PhonePe mark that he also thought that PostPe/postpe is a natural evolution of the word PhonePe and emanated from PhonePe.”

In an updated statement released by BharatPe on Monday, the company challenged the above statement by PhonePe and said: “We were rather surprised by the statements made by spokespersons of PhonePe on Friday on the outcome of Friday’s proceedings in the Bombay High Court, which did not reflect the correct outcome of the Friday’s proceedings in Court. We had earlier refrained from commenting on the order of the Hon’ble Bombay Court because the actual wording of the actual order would demonstrate how misleading PhonePe’s earlier statements to the press were.”

“We will bring such misconduct by PhonePe to the attention of the Hon’ble Bombay High Court as well. We are happy that BharatPe’s (Resilient’s) stand is again vindicated regarding its use of PE.

“We will continue to take all legal remedies in law, not only to defend ourselves against any ill-conceived actions taken by PhonePe, but also to protect our rights in law,” the BharatPe spokesperson added.

This is not the first legal tussle between BharatPe and PhonePe over trademark infringement. Earlier in 2019, PhonePe filed a case against BharatPe in the Delhi High Court over the alleged misuse of the suffix ‘Pe.’ Later, in April 2021, PhonePe’s plea to issue an injunction against BharatPe was rejected by the Delhi High Court. Following that, PhonePe appealed the Delhi High Court’s order, but later withdrew it in June.

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Crypto exchanges look beyond trading

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Cryptocurrency exchanges in the country are moving beyond trading services to include other options such as lending, fixed deposit and SIPs.

Exchanges such as ZebPay, Coin DCX, Bitbns and Vauld provide options for lending of crypto deposits that enable users earn interest.

“The crypto ecosystem essentially has all the products that the equity ecosystem has. We have been trying to make our users aware that they don’t need to go in just for crypto trading, but can go for products that suit their risk profile,” said Gaurav Dahake, Founder and CEO, Bitbns. The company offers fixed deposits as well as an SIP option called Bitdroplet to customers, and Dahake said there is ample investor interest in them. “Over 1.25 lakh people have explored the fixed income plan or fixed deposit product since it went live over a year ago. Typically, the average ticket size is ₹3,000,” he said. The SIP has over 2.5 lakh active folios, he said.

Two types of customers

Darshan Bathija, CEO, Vauld, said the company onboards two types of customers – those who are keen to buy and sell crypto – and those who want to hold capital for the medium to long term and earn interest on their deposits.

Over the next 12 months, the company plans to add more touchpoints of banking into the crypto world such as account issuing, cards, and get bank accounts deeply integrated into the Vauld platform.

Bathija told BusinessLine that licensing and regulatory permissions vary from country to country.

“We are a licensed applicant in Singapore, and it allows us to issue accounts ourselves. In India, we are going through the partnership route, looking to partner with banks and PPI route.”

Explaining the plans for the card, he said the customer can use the Vauld card at any merchant outlet and while the merchant will receive money in INR through the card network, Vauld would debit the customer’s balance in bitcoin. “It feels like they are spending their crypto, we are making this a more spendable asset,” he said.

Meanwhile, CoinSwitch Kuber, which recently raised $260 million in Series C funding round, plans to utilise parts of the launch of new crypto products and services such as lending and staking, among others, to enable users benefit the most out of this decentralised technology.

New asset classes

Ashish Singhal, co-founder and CEO, CoinSwitch Kuber, said the company also wants to diversify and add new asset classes such as mutual funds and insurance and create a financial well-being platform.

Coin DCX also has a lending option on its platform that enables users earn interest on their cryptocurrencies. Similarly, Zeb Pay’s lending platform also enables users lend the company their cryptos for either an open term or a fixed term.

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ICICI Bank overtakes HUL in m-cap to occupy 5th spot

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Private sector lender ICICI Bank on Monday crossed the market capitalisation of Hindustan Unilever to become the fifth largest company by market value.

According to BSE data, ICICI Bank’s market capitalisation (m-cap) stood at ₹5.83 lakh crore, just above HUL’s ₹5.76 lakh crore. This follows the bank posting its highest ever quarterly net profit in the July to September 2021 quarter.

The bank’s scrip touched a 52-week high of ₹859.70 on the BSE on Monday before ending at ₹841.05, registering a gain of 10.8 per cent over the previous day’s close.

Second bank in top 5

ICICI Bank becomes the second lender after HDFC Bank to break into the top five companies on the BSE in terms of m-cap. The lender posted a near 30 per cent increase in its second quarter standalone net profit at ₹5,510.95 crore compared to ₹4,251.33 crore in the same period last fiscal. Net interest income rose 25 per cent y-o-y while net non-performing assets at 0.99 per cent was the lowest since December 2014.

Analysts said the bank has been performing well on all fronts. “The bank has been delivering strong retail growth (20 per cent year-on-year), while the SME/business banking growth is also robust now (albeit on a low base). Corporate growth should revive soon too,” said a report by Emkay Global Financial Services, adding that asset-quality outcomes amid the pandemic were better than expected.

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HomeFirst Finance Q2 net profit up 213%

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HomeFirst Finance posted a 213 per cent jump in its net profit for the second quarter of the fiscal to ₹45 crore from ₹14 crore in the same period last fiscal.

For the July to September 2021 quarter, its total income jumped up by 34.3 per cent on year on year basis to ₹146 crore.

Total disbursements increased by 111.9 per cent to ₹515 crore in the quarter ended September 30, 2021 from ₹243 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

Gross stage 3 assets rose by 80 basis points to 1.7 per cent as on September 30, 2021 from 0.9 per cent a year ago. However, it was down 20 basis points from 1.9 per cent as on June 30, 2021.

Manoj Viswanathan, MD and CEO, HomeFirst Finance said, “Our second quarter 2021-22 performance was better than our expectation, with disbursals crossing ₹500 crore for the first time. We recorded an assets under management growth of 23.8 per cent year on year and a sequential growth in profit after tax of 27.8 per cent.”

Bounce rates improved in October 2021 to 15 per cent from 16.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2021-22 and 18.3 per cent in the first quarter.

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Profit may jump 80%, NIM likely stable at 3.5%, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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NEW DELHI: Axis Bank is likely to report up to 80 per cent surge in September quarter profit on a late single-to-double-digit growth in net interest income (NII).

Analysts have estimated net interest margin (NIM) to fall in the 3.4-3.5 range. All eyes are on slippages, restructuring and accounts rated BB or below.

ICICIdirect said retail-oriented banks such as Axis should see meaningful reduction in stress accrued in the last quarter. The recent management commentary has also indicated that. It said credit cost should decline as a result of better show on the asset-quality front, while anticipating the bank profit at Rs 2,997 crore, up 78 per cent YoY. “NII is expected to grow 10 per cent to Rs 8,047 crore, driven by 11 bps expansion in NIM. Loan growth is expected to come in at 11 per cent YoY, led by traction in the retail segment. Within the retail book, growth should be driven by home loans. Deposits growth is expected at 17 per cent YoY with sequential 30 bps rise in CASA ratio,” it said.

Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities said the brokerage would log a 79.7 per cent YoY rise in net profit at Rs 3,023.60 crore. NII would grow 8.3 per cent YoY to Rs 793.11 crore but NIM would fall 27 basis points YoY to 3.4 per cent, it said. Credit cost was estimated to fall 100 basis points to 1.3 per cent.

The private lender has reported a 12 per cent rise in loans and advances at Rs 6,22,352 crore and a 15 per cent surge in deposits at Rs 7,30,772 crore.

Motilal Oswal Securities said the net profit would rise 64.2 per cent to Rs 2,760 crore and NII would go up 8.9 per cent to Rs 7,980 crore. NIM would remain stable at 3.5 per cent. On asset quality, gross NPA was seen at 4 per cent, compared with 3.9 per cent in June quarter and 4.2 per cent in the year-ago quarter. Axis Bank’s net NPA was seen at 1.2 per cent, the same as the June quarter, but higher than 1.1 per cent in the year-ago quarter.



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Federal Bank | Jhunjhunwala stock: Q2 was good; expect momentum to be strong Q3 onwards: Shyam Srinivasan, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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“Our platform is strong, our fintech arrangements are robust and improving and we will keep investing into that,” says Shyam Srinivasan, MD & CEO, Federal Bank.

Tell us a little bit about how the second quarter looked overall.
Q2 was a good quarter for Federal Bank. All of us know that the biggest test for a bank in very challenging times is the quality of the credit and I am quite pleased. For many quarters, we have been quite consistent about the underwriting and it is interesting that in a time like this, it shows up as a good portfolio. Our slippages were low and the recovery upgrades were higher than the slippages in this quarter. So, we had a writeback in provisions and there was no credit provision. Having said that, we increased our standard asset provision for the stress book or the restructured book. We just prudently built up coverage over a period of time.

Credit growth was modest. Deposit growth was excellent. Savings growth was excellent. Our other income did very well. So many bricks that we have been laying over many quarters are beginning to show up well. The most satisfying part is that in challenging times, we came out better than what many expected of us. It gives us confidence that we can perform even better from here. So on balance, Q2 was a good platform to spring into growth. Hopefully India and the economy is on a trend up. We think we can tap into that and start gaining share, which we have been doing consistently and hopefully Q3 onwards the trajectory and the momentum is strong.

How are the recoveries shaping up and how they are likely to pan out going forward?
I would think the earlier signs of a recovering economy are two things – one is how is our existing client servicing and their dues, particularly on products that are extremely important to them like home loans and vehicle loans; the second is how consumption is playing out. Both are showing good signs of recovery. People were clearing their dues and we saw a good pick up in retail and small business momentum. These are usually signs of optimism and activity happening in the economy. There are pockets like contact businesses which are still going through their own challenges,

I would say on balance there is a positive trend and as Gati Shakti and other big developments start kicking into the country and long-term infra kicks in, we would see even corporate credit growing. Once that goes, that snowballs into incremental growth across the chain. We have to be a little watchful of how the next two-three quarters play out but early signs of recovery are visible through better consumption, particularly in new-age segments. The recovery upgrades have been strong and one can see spends going up.

Debit card spends have picked up back to pre-pandemic levels. I would think the signs of recovering a healing economy is visible and suddenly with well over 100 crore people vaccinated at least one time, the worst fear probably is behind us.

Could you give us a sense of how that credit growth is likely to shape up? Do you anticipate it to be significantly higher based on the uptick in the consumption economy?
We should look at two things in credit growth; one is the aggregate credit growth which still is in the 6-7% year-on-year. But if one disaggregates the credit growth and looks at how some segments are growing, one begins to see pick up in retail, in small businesses as well as commercial banking. It is only the large ticket corporate credits that have not picked up. But that is heavily led by corporates who have access to cheaper money through other instruments and that is not showing as credit growth.

Second is that as the investment cycle picks up and which could be two to three quarters out, credit will come back to early teens.

How are you looking at the ROA as well as the ROE?
Firstly let me begin with digital. You have probably been watching our digital progress. I am not talking about digital in terms of the number of transactions that are digital; that is now a given and it is well over 80-85%. But what is important is how we as a bank have chosen to work with digital. We chose fintech partnerships as a very meaningful part of our incremental growth and we went out and created a super technology architecture which enables fintechs to plug and play with us fast. We have tied up with a couple of new banks, we have arrangements with some of the best brokerage houses, credit card platforms. All of that are beginning to give us momentum on new business building.

As I mentioned in our investor call, well over three lakh accounts have been built on the newer bank platforms. Of course, these are early days. There has been only 90-1,000 days since this started growing but it is evident that that platform is working and customers are able to onboard themselves literally unaided.

So the fintech journey of the bank is well and truly on and certainly in the passage of time, that will only get better. We are well capitalised. Thankfully our credit quality holds back. We grew 10% year-on-year in the first half and I would think the second half usually tends to be better. So, it should get somewhere in the early teens but we will have to watch out how the next two quarters play out. We are more optimistic about the opportunities ahead. Our platform is strong, our fintech arrangements are robust and improving and we will keep investing into that.



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