Tag: budget

PSU banks likely to get capital support in Q4 to meet regulatory requirements, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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New Delhi, The government is likely to pump capital in public sector banks during the last quarter of the current financial year to meet the regulatory requirements. The government in the Budget 2021-22 has made an allocation of Rs 20,000 crore for the capital infusion in the state-owned banks.

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In the current fiscal so far, all 12 public sector banks have posted a profit, which is being ploughed back to bolster the balance sheet of the banks, sources said.

Going forward, they said, the rise in stressed assets would determine capital requirement.

If numbers are anything to go by, the sources said, the financial health of public sector banks are showing gradual signs of improvement across the spectrum.

Last month, the Reserve Bank removed UCO Bank and Indian Overseas Bank from prompt corrective action framework (PCAF), following improvement in various parameters and a written commitment that the state-owned lender will comply with the minimum capital norms.

However, the only public sector lender left under the PCA framework is Central Bank of India. PCA is triggered when banks breach certain regulatory requirements such as return on asset, minimum capital, and quantum of the non-performing asset.

PCA restrictions disable the bank in several ways to lend freely and force it to operate under a restrictive environment that turns out to be a hurdle to growth.

Last financial year, the government infused Rs 20,000 crore in the five public sector banks. Out of this, Rs 11,500 crore had gone to three banks under the PCA — UCO Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, and Central Bank of India.

The government infused Rs 4,800 crore in Central Bank of India, Rs 4,100 crore in Indian Overseas Bank and Kolkata-based UCO Bank got Rs 2,600 crore.

The government has infused over Rs 3.15 lakh crore into public sector banks (PSBs) in the 11 years through 2018-19. In 2019-20, the government infused Rs 70,000 crore capital into PSBs to boost credit for a strong impetus to the economy.



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DICGC moves to engage CA firms to complete depositor verification at 55-odd UCBs

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The Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) has set in motion the process of engaging Chartered Accountant (CA) firms to complete the Herculean task of verification/ certification of claims list and books of records of about 55 insured urban co-operative banks (UCBs), which are currently under the Reserve Bank of India’s All Inclusive Direction (AID).

This is aimed at ensuring that the first list of depositors get paid by the corporation within the stipulated time frame of 90 days from the date (September 1, 2021) when the provisions of the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2021 came into force.

The DICGC Act was amended last month with a provision in Section 18A allowing depositors access to up to ₹5 lakh within 90 days of a bank being placed under moratorium/ AID.

So, depositors of UCBs such as Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank (Mumbai), Sri Guru Raghavendra Sahakara Bank (Bengaluru), Rupee Co-operative Bank (Pune) and Kapol Co-operative Bank (Mumbai) can hope to receive payments up to the insured deposit amount of ₹5 lakh on or before November 29, 2021.

Before the amendment to the DICGC Act, the Corporation would pay depositors the deposit insurance amount, subject to a maximum of Rs 5 lakh, only in the event of the winding up or liquidation of an insured bank. This process would take a few years.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her Union Budget 2021-22 speech, had said amendments to the DICGC Act will streamline its provisions so that if a bank is temporarily unable to fulfil its obligations, its depositors can get easy and time-bound access to their deposits to the extent of the deposit insurance cover. This would help depositors of banks that are currently under stress.

Claim verification: Racing against time

Claim verification/ certification of depositors, including KYC (know-your-customer) verification, by the CA firm is to ascertain their traceability for payment of claims by DICGC and verifying their willingness to receive insurance claim amount from DICGC.

After the first list is cleared, the Bank, which is under AID, will submit a second and final list, following the above procedure. This list will be verified within a maximum of 15 days of receipt from the bank by CA and certified.

“As the payments to depositors who are willing to receive the insured amount have to be made within statutory time limits, it is emphasised that time is of the essence and verification and the ascertainment process has to be completed within the period specified by the Corporation at the time of giving the claim lists.

“As such, the CA firms while applying, must ensure that they have the adequate manpower to carry out the task in a timely manner,” DICGC said.

Satish Marathe, Founder-Member, Sahakar Bharati, and Director, Central Board of RBI, emphasised that the five-fold increase in the deposit insurance amount to ₹5 lakh (with effect from February 4, 2020), coupled with the amendment to the DICGC Act will provide much-needed relief to depositors of UCBs under Directions.

However, revival of such UCBs may become difficult as their deposit base would have dwindled substantially due to settlement of deposit insurance claim by DICGC and the banks would have to repay to DICGC the amount disbursed by it out of the amount realised from their assets.

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Delay in legislation on crypto boosts lobbying, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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NEW DELHI: The delay in the government finalising the legislation on cryptocurrency has prompted intense lobbying, with agencies worried over the risks emanating from an unregulated segment with extreme price volatility, posing a threat to investors, many of whom do not understand the instrument.

Besides, there are concerns over the instrument being used for money laundering and terror funding, an issue that has been flagged by other agencies across the globe, sources told TOI.

While the Supreme Court had lifted the ban imposed by the RBI, the government had listed a bill on cryptocurrency to be introduced during the Budget session of Parliament but with the session cut short, the legislation could not make it.

During the monsoon session, the government remained silent on the future of the proposed bill with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently saying that it has been sent for clearance by the Union Cabinet before it can be introduced in Parliament. The next session is at least two months away.

But crypto exchanges have used the interim period to launch a massive lobbying initiative with several governments and regulatory agencies, raising concerns. The exchanges have argued that a ban on digital currency transactions will result in job losses.

While there are fears that a ban will lead to investors getting locked into the instrument, sources indicated that a three-six month window will be provided for investors to exit.

Several officials have junked the argument that crypto currencies are an asset class. Besides, there are worries over the legal basis for the presence of some of the exchanges, which remain outside the jurisdiction of either Sebi or the RBI. “There has to be global coordination to combat the challenge posed by cryptocurrencies. They are not a currency as only the sovereign can issue currency. There is a grave danger in allowing these instruments,” said a source.



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FM to launch National Monetisation Pipeline, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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New Delhi: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday will launch the National Monetisation pipeline (NMP), which will list out the government’s infrastructure assets to be sold over the next four-years, an official statement said.

“The NMP comprises a four-year pipeline of the central government’s brownfield infrastructure assets. Besides providing visibility to investors, NMP will also serve as a medium-term roadmap for the asset monetisation initiative of the government,” the Niti Aayog said in a statement on Sunday. Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey had earlier this month said that the government is finalising Rs 6 lakh crore worth infrastructure assets, including national highways and power grid pipelines, which would be monetised.

“A national monetisation plan of about Rs 6 trillion is in the offing which will have a range of assets from pipelines to power grid pipelines to national highways, ToT (toll-operate-transfer) and so on,” Pandey had said.

The Union Budget 2021-22, laid a lot of emphasis on asset monetisation as a means to raise innovative and alternative financing for infrastructure.

In her Budget speech, Sitharaman had said that monetising operating public infrastructure assets was a very important financing option for new infrastructure construction. agencies



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Now, depositors can withdraw up to ₹5 lakh if bank placed under moratorium

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Parliament has given its approval to a Bill to amend the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation Act, 1961.

The amendment to the Act will enable depositors to access their deposit up to sum prescribed under deposit insurance, which is ₹5 lakh, in case the bank is placed under moratorium, and that too within 90 days. The Rajya Sabha gave its nod to this Bill last week and on Monday, Lok Sabha cleared it. Now, the Bill will be sent to the President for his assent post which it will become law.

New DICGC Bill will take care of PMC depositors’ woe: FM

Depositors of PMC Bank are likely to be covered under the new mechanism.

As of now, depositors have to wait for liquidation or passage of resolution to get the benefit of deposit insurance. This takes 8-10 years. Now, this will not be the situation. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has already said that payment is to be made within 90 days. “First 45 days will be taken by the banks for collecting the information and next 45 days for checking. Then on 91st or 92nd day or around that, payment will be made,” Sitharaman had said while announcing the Cabinet decision on July 28.

PMC Bank receives 1,229 applications for deposit withdrawal

Last year, the Government raised the deposit insurance to ₹5 lakh from ₹1 lakh. Sitharaman said that with this, 98.3 per cent in terms of number of deposit accounts and 50.9 per cent in terms of deposit value will be covered. Globally, these numbers are 80 and 20-30 per cent respectively.

Time-bound access

This Bill is a follow-up to the Budget announcement. Finance Minister had said that amendments to the DICGC Act would aim to streamline the provisions, so that if a bank is temporarily unable to fulfil its obligations, the depositors of such a bank can get easy and time-bound access to their deposits to the extent of the deposit insurance cover.

According to the legislative agenda prepared for the Monsoon session, the purpose of this Bill is to instil confidence in depositors about the safety of their money. The objective is to enable depositors access to their savings through deposit insurance in a time-bound manner in case there is suspension of banking business of the insured bank under various provisions of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.

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IBA to soon move application to RBI for setting up Rs 6,000-cr bad bank, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Having secured 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, according to sources.

With 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 application to the RBI seeking licence for the asset reconstruction company.

The RBI in 2017 raised capital requirement to Rs 100 crore from the earlier level of Rs 2 crore keeping in mind 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, the sources said.

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

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 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.

“Asset Reconstruction Company Limited and Asset Management Company would be set up to consolidate and take over the existing stressed debt,” she had said in the Budget Speech. It will manage and dispose the assets to alternative investment funds and other potential investors for eventual value realisation, she had said.

Last year, IBA made a proposal for the creation of a bad bank for swift resolution of non-performing assets. The government accepted the proposal and decided to go for an asset reconstruction company and asset management company model in this regard.

Meanwhile, state-owned Canara Bank has expressed its intent to be the lead sponsor of NARCL with a 12 per cent stake.

The proposed NARCL would be 51 per cent owned by PSBs and the remaining by private sector lenders.

NARCL will take over identified bad loans of lenders. The lead bank with an offer in hand of NARCL will go for a ‘Swiss Challenge‘, wherein other asset reconstruction players will be invited to better the offer made by a chosen bidder for finding higher valuation of a non-performing asset on sale.

The company has picked up those assets that are 100 per cent provided for by the lenders. Banks have identified around 22 bad loans worth Rs 89,000 crore to be transferred to NARCL in the initial phase.



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Canara Bank to be lead sponsor of bad bank, to pick up 12% stake, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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NEW DELHI: State-owned Canara Bank on Tuesday said it will be the lead sponsor of National Asset Reconstruction Company Limited (NARCL) or bad bank with 12 per cent stake in the entity.

Bad bank refers to a financial institution that takes over bad assets of lenders and undertakes resolution.

“The Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), vide their letter dated May 13, 2021 requested Canara Bank to participate in NARCL as sponsor. The board of Canara Bank has given in-principle approval for taking stake in NARCL,” Canara Bank said in a regulatory filing.

Following the board nod, it said, the bank has sought the approval from the Reserve Bank of India for participating in NARCL as sponsor contributing 12 per cent stake.

Various public sector banks (PSBs) have also announced that they have earmarked a signification portion of their NPAs to be transferred to NARCL.

For example, Punjab National Bank (PNB) said that it has identified non-performing assets of Rs 8,000 crore to be transferred to NARCL.

The proposed NARCL would be 51 per cent promoted by PSBs and remaining by private sector lender.

Banks have identified around 22 bad loans worth Rs 89,000 crore to be transferred to the NARCL in the initial phase.

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.

“An Asset Reconstruction Company Limited and Asset Management Company would be set up to consolidate and take over the existing stressed debt,” she had said in the Budget speech. It will then manage and dispose of the assets to alternate investment funds and other potential investors for eventual value realisation, she added.

Last year, the IBA had made a proposal for creation of a bad bank for swift resolution of non-performing assets (NPAs). The government accepted the proposal and decided to go for asset reconstruction company (ARC) and asset management company (AMC) model for this.

The IBA was appointed nodal agency to constitute the Asset Reconstruction and Asset Management Companies designated as NARCL and India Debt Management Company Ltd (IDMCL) respectively.



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Centre may front load capital provisioning for PSBs this year, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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New Delhi, As the Central government draws a plan to privatise at least two public sector banks (PSB) this fiscal, it has also decided to front load capitalisation of state-owned banks so that the balance sheets of some of these entities are strengthened ahead of possible sale.

Sources said that PSBs may be provided this year just after their first quarter results before October. This would be a departure from the practice of previous year when bank capitalisation was undertaken late in the year and towards the end of fiscal.

Even in FY21, a substantial portion of capital was released right at end of the fiscal year in March.

“Front loading of capital will help PSBs to strengthen their financials that may again get impacted this year with weak lending and stress coming back on a lot of their credit assets with Covid pandemic continuing to disrupt businesses. This could also help in taking out weak banks out of the PCA (prompt corrective action) framework that would be helpful in their possible privatisation this year,” said an official source on the condition of anonymity.

The Budget 2021-22 has allocated Rs 20,000 crore towards recapitalisation of PSBs to help them consolidate their financial capacity.

Source said that more than two-third of this capital may be provided by the second quarter.

The government had earlier indicated that banks under prompt corrective action (PCA) framework or weaker banks would be kept out of privatisation as it would be difficult to find buyers for them. This would have left three PSBs, Indian Overseas Bank, Central Bank and UCO Bank, out of the government’s disinvestment plan.

But now the thinking is that they could be brought out of PCA as there are visible signs of improvement in some of the key parameters such as profitability and asset quality (in net NPA terms as they have stepped up provisioning) in the last 3-4 quarters. This could allow them to be considered for privatisation.

Provision of capital earlier in the year will give the necessary boost to them.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced in her Budget speech this year that two state-run banks along with IDBI Bank would be privatised in FY22.

She also said that one general insurance company would be sold off in the current fiscal.

The recapitalisation roadmap is being redrawn for the PSBs in the current fiscal as the institutions are expected to face stress from the pandemic disruptions with fears that asset quality may further weaken like last year.

Also, the changes in valuation norms AT1 bonds has made the instrument less attractive for banks to raise their capital.

SEBI, though has amended the valuation rule of perpetual bonds in line with objections raised by the finance ministry, it still has said that from April 2023 onwards, the residual maturity of AT-1 bonds will become 100 years from the date of issuance of the bond. This will make the most used route of raising capital by banks less attractive.

Sources said that the Finance Ministry has already started a preliminary exercise to determine the capital requirement of banks in wake of limitations on fund raising norms and expected rise in bad assets during the time of the pandemic. Based on the inputs received by banks, additional capital may be provided to them from budgetary resources at the earliest.

On its part, government is strengthening the banking segment by merger and amalgamation of PSBs.

Since 2017, this exercise has resulted in seven large and five smaller PSBs.

The measures (based on bad loans and regional factors) were intended to help manage capital more efficiently. But emerging regulatory needs and pandemic affected businesses continue to pose challenges for banking segment.



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Bad bank to kick off with 80 NPAs worth Rs 2 lakh crore, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Banks are likely to transfer about 80 large NPA accounts for the resolution to National Asset Recons­tru­ct­ion Com­pany (NARCL), which is expected to be operational by next month.

NARCL is the name coined for the bad bank announced in the Budget 2021-22. A bad bank refers to a financial institution that takes over the bad assets of lenders and undertakes resolution.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the 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. “An Asset Recon­struction Company Limited and Asset Management Com­pany would be set up to consolidate and take over the existing stressed debt,” she had said in the Budget speech.

Last year, the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) had made a proposal for the creation of a bad bank for swift resolution of non-performing assets (NPAs). The government accepted the proposal and decided to go for ARC and asset management company (AMC) model for this.

The process

The size of each of these NPAs accounts is over Rs 500 crore and the banks have identified about 70-80 such accounts to be transferred to the proposed bad bank, sources said. It is expected that NPAs over Rs 2 lakh crore will move out of the books of the banks to the bad bank.

The company will pick up those assets that are 100 per cent provided for by the lenders. It will then manage and dispose of the assets to alternate investment funds and other potential investors for eventual value realisation.

NARCL will pay up to 15 per cent of the agreed value for the loans in cash and the remaining 85 per cent would be government-guaranteed security receipts.

The government guarantee would be invoked if there is a loss against the threshold value.

The loans identified by the Indian Banks’ Association include NPAs in a variety of industries — including oil, steel, cement and roads, with many admitted under the insolvency process. These loans are almost fully provided for over the years and they exclude the ones where there is fraud involved or those currently under liquidation. About 75% of the lenders by value need to approve to transfer the loans to an ARC.

No fraud loans

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that loans classified as fraud cannot be sold to NARCL. As per the annual report of the RBI, about 1.9 lakh crore of loans have been classified as fraud as of March 2020.

To facilitate the smooth functioning of asset reconstruction companies, the RBI last month decided to set up a panel to undertake a comprehensive review of the working of such institutions.

After enactment of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act in 2002, regulatory guidelines for ARCs were issued in 2003 to enable the development of this sector and to facilitate the smooth functioning of these companies.

Since then, while ARCs have grown in number and size, their potential for resolving stressed assets is yet to be realised fully.

The bad bank

Nine banks and two non-bank lenders, including the State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Bank of Baroda (BoB), are coming together to jointly invest Rs 7,000 crore of initial capital in a proposed bad bank that aims to help extract funds stuck in bad loans. Two other state-run financiers of power projects will also own stock in the bad bank.

Canara Bank, Union Bank of India and Bank of India will join their larger state-run peers as investors in the bad bank. ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Life Insurance Corp of India-owned IDBI Bank are also among the shareholders. State-owned Power Finance Corp and Rural Electrification Corp will also be equal shareholders in the new company.



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Govt may table amendment to DICGC Act in monsoon session, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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In a bid to ensure timely support to depositors of stressed banks, the government may bring amendment to DICGC Act in the monsoon session with the objective to provide account holders easy and time-bound access to funds to the extent of the deposit insurance cover.

Last year, the government raised insurance cover on deposit five-folds to Rs 5 lakh with a view to provide support to depositors of ailing lenders like Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank. Following the collapse of PMC Bank, Yes Bank and Lakshmi Vilas Bank too came under stress leading to restructuring by the regulator and the government.

The amendment to the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) Act, 1961 is the budget announcement made by the Finance Minister and the Bill is almost ready, sources said.

It is expected that the Bill will be tabled in the upcoming monsoon session after being vetted by the Union Cabinet, sources added.

Once the Bill becomes the law, it will provide immediate relief to thousands of depositors who had their money parked in stressed lenders such as PMC Bank and other small cooperative banks.

As per the current provisions, the deposit insurance of up to Rs 5 lakh comes into play when the licence of a bank is cancelled and liquidation process starts.

DICGC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India, provides insurance cover on bank deposits.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Budget speech in February said the government had approved an increase in the Deposit Insurance cover from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh for bank customers last year.

“I shall be moving amendments to the DICGC Act, 1961 in this session itself to streamline the provisions, so that if a bank is temporarily unable to fulfil its obligations, the depositors of such a bank can get easy and time-bound access to their deposits to the extent of the deposit insurance cover. This would help depositors of banks that are currently under stress,” she had said.

It could not be presented in the Budget session due to curtailment of the last session following the spread of second wave of COVID-19 pandemic.

It is to be noted that the enhanced deposit insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh is effective from February 4, 2020. The increase was done after a gap of 27 years as it was static since 1993. The cover is provided by the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the RBI.

With increased insurance cover, the banks are paying a higher premium of 12 paise against 10 paise per Rs 100 deposited without any additional burden on account holders.

The deposit insurance scheme covers all banks operating in India, including private sector, cooperative and even branches of foreign banks. There are some exemptions such as deposits of foreign governments, deposits of central and state governments, and inter-bank deposits.

It can be recalled that way back in 2009, the Raghuram Rajan committee on financial sector reforms had recommended strengthening the capacity of the DICGC, a more explicit system of prompt, corrective action, and making deposit insurance premia more risk-based.



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