Lender posts highest ever quarterly profit at Rs 3,133 cr, up 86% YoY, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Axis Bank on Tuesday reported an 86 per cent year-on-year (YoY) rise in net profit at Rs 3,133 crore for the September quarter compared with Rs 1,683 crore in the same quarter last year. This was the highest ever quarterly profit for the bank, the lender said in a BSE filing.

Net interest income (NII) for the bank rose 8 per cent YoY to Rs 7,900 crore compared with Rs 7,326 crore in the year-ago quarter. Net interest margin (NIM) for the recently concluded quarter came in at 3.39 per cent.

Specific loan loss provisions for the September quarter stood at Rs 927 crore compared with Rs 2,865 crore in the June quarter and Rs 724 crore in the year-ago quarter. Total Provisions & contingencies for the quarter fell to Rs 1,735 crore from Rs 3,302 crore in the preceding quarter and Rs 4,343 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

More to come…

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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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Axis AMC partners with Inversion to raise Rs 3500 crore buyout fund, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Axis Asset Management Co Ltd, promoted by Axis Bank, and Inversion Advisory Services, today announced that they have entered into a partnership to invest in underperforming companies.

They plan to raise upto Rs 3,500 crore for the proposed new fund under its Alternative Investment Fund registration. The plan is to acquire controlling stake primarily in pre-stressed, stressed, distressed and other underperforming assets.

Chandresh Nigam, MD & CEO, Axis AMC said, “With our entry into the exciting space of turnaround investing, we believe we have created a unique proposition for investors looking to participate and benefit from the India growth story.”

The new partnership aims at helping potential companies with strong performance and operational capabilities which may be facing temporary headwinds owing to special circumstances including unsustainable debt, temporary disruptions, among others to get on a credible turnaround path.

The Investment Manager will employ a team to evaluate potential opportunities. Inversion would provide management support to acquired companies with its team of functional & industry experts.

Akhil Gupta, Chairman, Inversion Advisory Services said, “The combination is ideal to not just exploit large untapped potential in this space but also serve an important social purpose in saving a large number of jobs and capital already invested by shareholders, lenders and vendors in such companies”.



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Axis Bank bets big on merchant acquiring

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Private sector lender Axis Bank has outlined an ambitious strategy for merchant acquisition and onboarding and has begun small ticket lending to them.

Axis Bank is now the third-largest point of sale (PoS) acquiring bank in the payments acceptance business in the country with an installed base of 7.09 lakh PoS devices. The bank processes around ₹20,000 crore of volumes per month as on August 31, 2021. Sanjeev Moghe, EVP and Head, Cards and Payments, Axis Bank said the bank has about 15 per cent market share in terminals and expects it to grow further. “Every terminal comes with a current account for the merchant and that means that at some ratio, we can lend to the merchant,” he said in an interaction with BusinessLine.

Also read: Axis Bank unveils open APIs to help customers use integrated services

While, earlier the bank focussed on lending above a particular ticket size to merchants, it has now started giving smaller ticket loans as improved data has reduced the cost of lending. “We have a lot of partnerships on the issuing side such as the co-branded card with Flipkart. On the acquiring side, we are growing our business organically as well as through partnerships,” said Moghe. The bank has now partnered with BharatPe for installing PoS devices and also has tie-ups with Bijlipay and PineLabs, he further said.

The bank also has acquiring partnerships with several e-commerce and consumer-facing platforms such as Amazon, Google Pay for Business, CRED, PhonePe, Razorpay, PayU, Zerodha, Swiggy, Freecharge, Dream11, BigBasket, Uber and Ola.

Flipkart co-branded card

Axis Bank has now moved its popular Flipkart co-branded card to Visa after the Reserve Bank of India barred Mastercard from onboarding new customers on its domestic card network. The card continues to do well, Moghe said, adding that on a temporary basis, the bank has launched a free-for-life offer for the months of September and October. “This offer has given a very big upside. It has nothing to do with the payment platform,” he said.

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Axis Bank launches gears up for festive season, launches ‘Dil Se Open Celebrations’, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Axis Bank has launched ‘Dil Se Open Celebrations’ to offer deals and discounts on shopping, restaurants and various other retail loan products.

Axis Bank customers can avail discounts on several brands across e-commerce, lifestyle, electronics and fashion platforms by purchasing through the Bank’s debit and credit cards.

The Bank will also offer loan products to its customers for the festive season. It is offering waivers of 12 EMIs on select home loan products and providing on-road finance with no processing fees for two-wheelers customers.

For business owners, the Bank will be offering benefits on term loans, equipment loan and commercial vehicle finance.

Sr No Loans Offers
1 Personal Loan
  • Interest rate starting at 10.25% p.a.*
  • Flat processing fees of Rs. 4999/*- + GST
2 Education Loans
  • Interest rates starting at 8.99% p.a.* for universities in India & Abroad
  • Unsecured loan up to Rs. 40 lakhs, for 15 years
  • 100% funding of cost of education
3 Gold Loans
  • Interest rate starting @9%p.a.*
  • 0.25% processing fees*
  • Funds in 60 minutes
4 Overdraft Against Fixed Deposit
  • Overdraft of up to 85% of Fixed Deposit amount
5 24×7 Personal Loans
  • Pay EMI as low as Rs 2,249 per lakh*
  • Flexible tenure of up to 60 months
  • Instant paperless disbursal**
  • Multiple e-income assessment options
  • Loans up to 10 lacs
  • Digital KYC verification
6 Working Capital and Term Loan
  • Flat 50% off on processing fees
  • Avail loan up to ₹5 crore, loan to value of upto 100% of collateral

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Five banks may bid for Citi’s India consumer businesses, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Five top lenders, including HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank, are expected to submit binding bids for the Citi India consumer businesses before the October 26 deadline, two officials aware of the development told ET.

Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank and DBS India are also in contention for the businesses Citi is exiting in India. Although the US lender is seeking a valuation in excess of $2 billion, the bids could be more circumspect after Citi lost significant market share in its retail and credit card books, one of the executives cited above said.

HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank, two of India’s top three most valued private sector lenders, are considered front-runners to win the business that generates about $1 billion in revenue.
“While Citi’s retail franchise remains excellent, the book has shrunk. It has lost significant market share and due to the exit plans, it has not been able to focus on enhancing the existing book and adding quality customers,” said an official involved in the bidding process.

“Still, Citi has received multiple bids from domestic banks. Plus, it is also expected to receive bids from global suitors that may be looking to pick up consumer assets in several markets the bank has exited,” the official said.

Citi India said it has received strong interest from bidders.

“We are pursuing consumer franchise sales with a focus on optimising results for our people, our clients and our shareholders,” a spokesperson for Citi India said in a mailed response to ET’s queries. “Conversations with potential buyers continue in these markets, including India, with strong interest from a broad range of bidders.”

HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, DBS India, Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank did not respond to ET’s mailed query.

Citibank, under its first woman CEO Jane Fraser, decided to exit retail businesses in 13 markets to conserve capital and focus on higher yielding revenue streams. The Citi management has indicated that the exit process is currently on and that while it will look to complete the exits in a timely manner, the retreats wouldn’t be anything akin to so-called fire sales.

Citi’s consumer portfolio contributes about a third to the India business on profitability while the total India business contributes 1.5% in profits to the lender’s global book.

The Indian retail basket includes credit cards, deposit accounts, wealth management and a mortgage portfolio. Overall, Citibank’s India unit had a market share of advances and deposits of 0.6% and 1.1%, respectively. In India, Citibank has more than 2.5 million retail customers, 1.2 million bank accounts and nearly 2.6 million credit cards. It lost more than 100,000 customers since announcing its exit.

The Right Mix
Although Citi is India’s sixth-largest card issuer, it has lost market share on card spends – from 20% a decade ago to 4% now. However, it has consistently logged 15-25% higher expenditure per card against the industry average, an analysis by Macquarie showed. A mix of premium cards and corporate salary account cards in the portfolio makes the Citi business attractive for bidders. “We have done due diligence on the book; it’s a good franchise for banks that don’t have an existing credit card or wealth book and it only makes sense at a good valuation. We will have to see how aggressively we bid,” said a top official at a bank that is likely to submit its bid.



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Axis Bank launches open APIs for customers to use integrated services, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Axis Bank has launched open APIs (Application Programming Interface) to facilitate banking services integrated across platforms for its retail and corporate customers.

The API banking portal has a range of products, covering over 200 retail APIs across cards, deposits, accounts, loans, 51 corporate APIs across payments, trade, collections, bill payments, and cross-cutting APIs, the bank said in a statement.

The corporate API product suite will allow companies across e-commerce, food delivery, payment solutions and other businesses to offer financial settlements and other secure financial transactions from their own ERP platforms, it added.

APIs will cover banking transactions that corporates do with their partners and customers on a daily basis pertaining to payments, refunds, payout reconciliation & account management and trade finance, besides other transactions. This will allow banking solutions to get embedded directly in customers’ digital systems.



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Banks set for a sharp earnings rise in Q2, may face asset quality jitters, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Indian banks’ earnings are likely to pick up in the September quarter, led by a recovery in business growth, fee income and a gradual reduction in credit costs.

However, they may be tempered by higher provisioning in the retail and small and medium enterprises (SME) loan segments that have seen higher delinquencies.

Earnings growth

Private banks are likely to report PPoP growth of 9% YoY (3.8% QoQ) and net profit growth of 14% YoY (17.3% QoQ). Earnings are likely to pick up, led by recovery in business growth / fee income and a gradual reduction in credit costs.

“Loan growth would pick up, led by revival in economic activity and the opening up of the economy. Demand going into the festive season and commentary around the FY22 outlook would be key monitorables. Retail and SME segment is likely to show strong recovery; though growth in the Corporate segment is likely to remain soft and recovery within this segment would be another monitorable,” according to Motilal Oswal Securities.

Banks are likely to report earnings growth of 41% in the fiscal year 2021-22, it said.

PSBs to report improved operating performance, supported by modest business growth and a gradual reduction in provisions. Opex is likely to remain elevated on account of the revised guidelines on pension provisions.

SBI NPAs may decline

As per analyst estimates, State Bank of India could post a further decline in bad loans and could see a moderation in credit costs. Private lender ICICI Bank appears firmly placed to deliver healthy sustainable growth, led by its focus on core operating performance. It may utilise higher buffers in case of a possible asset quality impact.

Exchange filings have shown HDFC Bank has posted strong credit growth in the September quarter and after the embargo being lifted on sanctioning credit cards, the bank is poised for a healthy revival in retail loans.

Estimates suggest that ICICI Bank could deliver 16.6% year-on-year loan growth, while Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank could grow over 9% each.

For state-run banks, operating expense is likely to remain elevated on account of the revised guidelines on pension provisions.

Asset quality

Asset quality could pose challenges with near-term slippages expected in the retail, SME and microfinance segments. Though analysts said there could be a decline over the June quarter.

Slippages would remain elevated, led by the Retail and SME segment; however, the quantum is likely to moderate, keeping asset quality in check – barring mid-sized banks, which could see marginal deterioration. Corporate slippages could see an uptick due to the downgrade of SREI Infra which is likely to get offset by the recoveries from DHFL resolution



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Ezetap partners with Axis Bank to bring ‘My Vyappar’ for retail segment, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Ezetap, a digital payments leader, has joined hands with Axis Bank, who has been at the forefront of driving innovation in retail acquiring, to introduce the latest offering My Vyappar to retail businesses in India. Through My Vyappar, Axis Bank will introduce a host of services enabling effective digital payments management for the merchants across the country. As part of the partnership, over 50,000 smart POS devices have already been deployed with My Vyappar across 1600+ cities.

The medium and small-sized retailers of the country have been at a financial disadvantage to compete against the large businesses. The pandemic worsened the situation further as the sales plummeted and customers shifted to digital mode of transactions owing to the fear of contracting the virus. There was a significant movement from cash to digital payments with an increasing number of Indian businesses accelerating their digital transformation journey. While India surpassed the world with an astonishing 25 billion real-time online transactions in 2020, the relatively smaller merchants didn’t have the bandwidth or budget to pivot as quickly as large businesses.

Through My Vyappar, Axis Bank brings in a wide array of attributes curated specifically for the retail segment in India. My Vyappar offers a full suite of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) options that can boost revenue. EMI facilities would be available for ticket sizes as small as even INR 3000. The app also aims at motivating the merchants to increase the use of digital payments, by incentivizing them with exciting rewards, upon achieving bank goals. My Vyappar app provides businesses with a single view of all credit transactions that can be accessed anytime anywhere. This would help merchants to go paperless and access their digital records even at home.

My Vyappar also provides the much-needed multilingual capability by adding Hindi as an additional language to help retailers understand digital payments better and speed up their tech adoption. To ensure seamless user-experience for merchants, My Vyappar app offers a simplified interface, similar to existing mobile platforms. To make retailers more agile and flexible with digital payments, the app ensures complete handholding in the form of in-app training. It also establishes a direct channel through which banks can communicate directly with merchants and offer personalized plans including loan options and reward schemes.

Speaking about the role of My Vyappar in improving digital payment adoption, Byas Nambisan, Chief Executive Officer, Ezetap, said, “We, at Ezetap, took a deep look at the pain-points of the merchants using digital payments and were determined to solve the challenges that still limit the business benefits of adopting the digital route. Through My Vyappar app, we aim to solve these issues while providing the merchants with effective ways to expand their businesses. With all its features including in-built training and support functions, we are confident that the app will provide the much-needed efficiency in managing and tracking digital payments. This also serves as a testament to our commitment to provide innovative solutions to simplify digital payments for banks as well as businesses.”

Commenting on the association, Sanjeev Moghe, EVP & Head – Cards & Payments, Axis Bank, said, “We have been continuously working on partnership led models & digital solutions to expand our offerings to the merchant community. In this endeavour, we are delighted to join hands with Ezetap to bring My Vyappar app for our retail merchant customers. The app would empower our customers to be more flexible and agile with digital payments thereby aiding their business growth. While adoption of digital payments has improved in the country in recent times, there has been much scope for improvement and simplification. My Vyappar app addresses all these gaps and will prove to be highly beneficial not only for the merchants, but also for us in improving our communication and engagement with our customers from the merchant community.”

Currently, Ezetap hosts about 3 lakh merchants on their platform. The company expects this base to grow by about 70 percent over the course of the year with My Vyappar being a critical element to aid that growth.

At Ezetap, veterans from payments, hardware, cloud, and SaaS industries have joined hands for the sole purpose of ushering in a new era of a frictionless digital payment ecosystem in India. Ezetap has deployed over 3,00,000 smart service points on its platform with customers ranging from brick-and-mortar retailers, e-commerce players, leading enterprises, and financial inclusion organizations. Ezetap processes over US$5 billion annually and has been ranked thrice in-a-row by CNBC in their Global Top 50 Disruptor List. Having raised $51 million in funding, investors include Social Capital, the Silicon Valley firm led by former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya, Helion Advisors, American Express, Li Ka-Shing’s Horizons Ventures, JS Capital (Jonathan Soros), and Prime Venture Partners.

Axis Bank is the third largest private sector bank in India. Axis Bank offers the entire spectrum of services to customer segments covering Large and Mid-Corporates, SME, Agriculture and Retail Businesses. With its 4,600 domestic branches (including extension counters) and 11,061 ATMs across the country as on 30th June 2021, the network of Axis Bank spreads across 2,628 centers, enabling the Bank to reach out to a large cross-section of customers with an array of products and services. The Axis Group includes Axis Mutual Fund, Axis Securities Ltd., Axis Finance, Axis Trustee, Axis Capital, A.TReDS Ltd., Freecharge and Axis Bank Foundation.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)



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Khara, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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-By Nidhi Chugh & Ishwari Chavan

Dinesh Khara

State Bank of India will soon roll out its Environmental, Social, and Governance structure, with an aim to increase its exposure to climate-change-mitigation companies, such as renewable energy, by extending credit relaxations, said Chairman Dinesh Khara.

For loans exceeding Rs 50 crore, borrowers are assigned scores on the basis of their performance on various ESG parameters, Khara said at the ESG India Leadership Awards 2021 on Thursday.

“The bank acknowledges the increasing risk of climate change that is embedded in its credit portfolio, and is in the process of devising a framework for climate risk management. We are also in the process of identifying and managing risk arising out of ESG practices, to increase our exposure to climate-change-mitigation companies, which includes relaxation in extending credit facilities to borrowers in the renewable energy sector,” Khara said.

Unless banks are able to provide adequate credit to green projects and measure risk in their portfolio, the bank’s depositors and shareholders will continue to carry ESG risk that can erode returns, Khara said.

According to experts, ESG investors are likely to face risks of small cap and single stock investments, and interest rate and inflation.

Khara spoke of the bank’s plan to embrace ESG investments.
Khara spoke of the bank’s plan to embrace ESG investments.

SBI aims to be carbon neutral by 2030, and in line with this target the bank has taken a number of initiatives to reduce its carbon impact, including installation of solar power plants, tree plantation, organic farming and banning the use of single use plastic, Khara said.

The bank has taken a two-fold approach to reach its 2030 goal – managing the impact of its own operations and directing its funding to climate-change-mitigation sectors, he added.

On India’s approach towards sustainable growth, Khara said the banking sector should accelerate green lending and report their ESG portfolio performance. India should define its green finance by combining international practices, developing its set of principles, and obtaining stakeholders’ views.

“To support acceleration in green financing, a number of structural changes will be needed in the traditional lending approach, including evaluation and certification of the green credentials of each project, understanding of the corporate roadmap to achieve net zero, and how projects will contribute to the achievement of net zero emissions,” he said.

Meanwhile, at the award function, Infosys emerged as a ESG leader across industries, while Axis Bank led the pack in transparency and disclosures, said ESGRisk.ai, the organiser, in a note.



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