Tag: Kerala

Kerala to send delegation to Centre over RBI guidelines on cooperative sector, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Banking & Finance

[ad_1]

Read More/Less


The Kerala Cabinet on Wednesday expressed deep concern over the Reserve Bank of India‘s statement cautioning the public against cooperative societies using ‘bank’ in their names as well as accepting deposits from people who are not their members.

The Cabinet meeting, held under Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan here, has decided to send a delegation to meet all those concerned at the Centre to see that similar statements should not be put out as they create panic in the state, where the cooperative sector is flourishing.

State Cooperative Minister V.N. Vasavan has already gone on record to state that this move will “destroy” the flourishing cooperative sector in the state and it will be dealt with strongly using all means like discussions with the Centre, holding protests and considering seeking legal redress.

The RBI order that came out on Tuesday stated that after the amendment in the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, effective September 29, 2020, cooperative societies cannot use the words “bank”, “banker” or “banking” as part of their names, except as permitted under the provisions or by the RBI.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah also holds the portfolio of the Cooperative Minister. The Ministry was created in July this year with the aim to strengthen the cooperative movement in the country.

–IANS

sg/svn/bg



[ad_2]

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Leave a comment , , , , , ,

CSB Bank posts 72pc rise in Q2 net profit at Rs 118 cr, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Banking & Finance

[ad_1]

Read More/Less


CSB Bank on Monday reported a 72 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 118.57 crore in the second quarter ended September. The Kerala-based private sector lender had reported a net profit of Rs 68.90 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

Total income during July-September in FY22 rose to Rs 555.64 crore, as against Rs 513.77 crore in the year-ago quarter, CSB Bank said in a regulatory filing.

On the asset front, the bank’s non-performing assets (NPAs) rose to 4.11 per cent of the gross advances as of September 2021, as against 3.04 per cent a year ago.

In absolute terms, gross NPAs stood at Rs 586.83 crore, higher than Rs 387.42 crore.

Net NPAs or bad loans stood at 2.63 per cent (Rs 370 crore) as against 1.30 per cent (Rs 163.52 crore).

Stock of CSB Bank traded 1.41 per cent up at Rs 310.10 apiece on BSE. PTI KPM RUJ RUJ

Follow and connect with us on , Facebook, Linkedin



[ad_2]

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Leave a comment , , , ,

Kerala Finance Minister holds talks with CSB MD ahead of employees strike, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Banking & Finance

[ad_1]

Read More/Less


Thiruvananthapuram, Ahead of the three-day strike from October 20 called by the employees of the CSB bank, Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal on Monday held discussions with the bank’s Managing Director C V Rajendran. The CSB employees have planned to go on strike from October 20-22 and in support of this stir, all Bank employees in the state have planned a one-day strike on October 22.

The meeting was attended by Finance Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh also.

The MD has agreed to hold a discussion with the United Forum of CSB bank unions today itself, the Finance Minister’s office said in a release.

The CSB employees are demanding wage revision and halting ‘anti-labour’ policy. PTI RRT BN BN

Follow and connect with us on , Facebook, Linkedin



[ad_2]

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Leave a comment , , , , ,

Digitization will be over in 3 months, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Banking & Finance

[ad_1]

Read More/Less


Thiruvananthapuram: The digitization work at Kerala Bank will be completed in three months. Once that is over, Kerala Bank would be able to offer all services offered by new-generation banks to their customers.

Kerala Bank has already disbursed agri loans worth Rs 2,648 crore from April to August. The bank also recorded an increase of Rs 5,658 crore in cash deposits during that period. The bank’s performance was reviewed at a meeting chaired by cooperation minister VN Vasavan on Wednesday.

There was a Rs 387.95 crore decrease in its non-performing assets. The bank’s NPA stood at 14.7% of the total loans disbursed, said an official statement from the office of the minister.

The bank, during the last quarter, carried out business worth Rs 1,06,397 crore. The revenue of the bank increased to Rs 61.96 crore during the period. Till March 31, 2021, Kerala Bank gave loans to the tune of Rs 5,295 crore. This showed an annual increase of Rs 507 crore. The agri loans that had earlier been offered at an interest rate of 7% is now given at 6%.

Even during the pandemic, Kerala Bank sanctioned Rs 2,000 crore to primary cooperative societies as a liquidity fund. The review meeting also decided to give loans, up to Rs 60 lakh, in the food processing industry at a lower interest rate. Subsidy up to 35% or Rs 10 lakh would be given for such loans.

The bank is already giving low-interest loans to gulf-returnees, farmers, medium/small scale industrial units. The bank also decided to launch new attractive deposit schemes that would be useful to a cross section of the society. Kerala Bank is fast completing the facilities and arrangements insisted by RBI.



[ad_2]

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Leave a comment , , , , ,

Four ex-board members arrested, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Banking & Finance

[ad_1]

Read More/Less


The crime branch team probing the fraud at the CPM-ruled Karuvannur Cooperative Bank on Monday arrested four former director board members, including former president K K Divakaran.

The probe team identified the other three arrested persons as Chakrampulli Jose, Thaivalappil Byju and Vakkayil Veettil Lalithan. While Divakaran, Jose and Byju are CPM activists and local-level leaders, Lalithan is a CPI activist. However, CPM has expelled Divakaran from the party and has suspended Byju for six months.

The party has not announced any action against Jose, so far. The CPI has also not announced any action against Lalithan.

The probe team led by K S Sudarshan, crime branch SP, had earlier arrested five persons, including the bank secretary Sunilkumar. The total number of persons arrested has risen to nine. However, Kiran, who is suspected to be the key accused in the case, is yet to be arrested.

The arrested people were the director board members since 2011. The crime branch team found that the financial fraud had started in the bank in 2011. Huge loans were sanctioned in the names of relatives of the arrested director board members, the SP said in a press release.

The bank authorities granted loans to people staying outside the operational area by giving membership on fake addresses, and by inflating the price of the land submitted as surety. Multiple loans were sanctioned on the same property submitted as surety, and on land against which property attachment notices were issued, Sudarshan said.

There were altogether 13 members on the dissolved director board; among them, former vice-president T R Bharathan has died. The probe team had listed all the remaining 12 members of the director board, apart from the office staff, as accused in the fraud estimated to be Rs 100 crore.

The charge against the director board members is that they connived with office staff in illegally sanctioning loans and siphoning off bank funds. The probe team indicated that the remaining eight director board members are also likely to be arrested soon.



[ad_2]

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Leave a comment , , , , , , ,

Aceware Fintech launches Acemoney UPI/QR code payments in Kerala

Banking & Finance

[ad_1]

Read More/Less


Aceware FinTech Services, a fintech start-up mentored by the Kerala Start-up Mission and registered with Start-up India, has launched QR-based unified payments interface (UPI) payments in Kerala. Aceware FinTech Services, a subsidiary of Aceware, is the first Kerala-based company to launch UPI/QR payments.

Registered in 2020, the Kochi-based start-up offers ATM to home and neobanking services, beside UPI/QR payments. Aceware FinTech Services plans to take on its larger counterparts by providing better services and cashback offers to the merchants as well as the public.

“In case of other UPI/QR payments, settlement with the merchant is done only on the next day. But we offer the same day, two times a day, settlement to the merchants. Also, we offer coupons to the merchants for every ten payments made by customers using Acemoney QR code. The merchant can redeem the coupons when he makes a purchase from the wholesale dealer as we have tied up with some of the leading wholesale dealers in Kerala,” said Nimisha J. Vadakkan, Managing Director, Aceware FinTech Services.

Also read: Aceware launches first neobank in Kerala

For the personal users, the company has been offering cashback offers. “One of our main highlights is that the customers can redeem the cashback from any of the partner merchants within his or her 10 km radius,” she said.

Customer service points

Positioned as Kerala’s own UPI system, Aceware FinTech Services, is planning to set up Acemoney customer service points (CSPs) at all the 972 panchayats in the State by December this year. The company already has its CSPs in 120 panchayats. “One of the main issues faced by the merchants as well as individual customers is stuck payment. If a payment is stuck, both the merchant and the public do not know whom to contact. In our case, the individual customer and merchants can approach CSPs in their panchayat for resolving the issue,” Vadakkan said.

Aceware Fintech Services is also planning to provide loans to the merchants depending on the number of transactions they have made using Acemoney UPI/QR payments. The company is also the authorised partner of PM Street Vendor’s Atma Nirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi), a special micro-credit facility for street vendors.

Acemoney Neo Bank

Acemoney Neo Bank, which was launched in April this year, has been mainly targeting retail customers. The company has been offering value added services such as door step pick-up and delivery of cash. “We are offering cash pick-up and delivery services for our customers from 9am to 9pm. Under the service a merchant can deposit his daily collection after closing the shop every day. Our customer executive will collect the cash and deposit the amount in the merchant’s neobank account in his presence itself,” she added.

[ad_2]

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Leave a comment , ,

Federal Bank board clears IFC’s Rs 916 crore investment, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Banking & Finance

[ad_1]

Read More/Less


Mumbai: The International Finance Corporation (IFC) Group has invested Rs 916 crore in Federal Bank. In a notice to the stock exchange, the Kerala-based bank said that the board approved the decision in its meeting on July 23.

The board approved the allotment of 10.5 crore shares of face value Rs 2 to the IFC Group at an issue price of Rs 87.4. With this allotment, the paid-up capital of the bank has risen from 199.6 crore shares to 210.1 crore of Rs 2 each. The bank said in a statement that the decision by IFC to acquire 4.9% in the bank was a testimony to its belief in the brand and its operational efficiency.

As of end June 2021, mutual funds held 35.6% in the bank followed by foreign investors (24%) and insurance companies (10.8%). Individual shareholders and others held the remaining 29.3%. The investment from IFC comes at a time when the bank’s CEO Shyam Srinivasan received RBI’s approval for a three-year extension.

Follow and connect with us on , Facebook, Linkedin



[ad_2]

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Leave a comment , , , , , , , , ,

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

Banking & Finance

[ad_1]

Read More/Less


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

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

Need for building resilience

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

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

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

Multi-sectoral approach

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

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

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

State Partnership Framework

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

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

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

[ad_2]

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Leave a comment , , , , ,

Ind-Ra, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Personal Finance

[ad_1]

Read More/Less


The imposition of stricter measures on mobility across states in the wake of the second wave of COVID-19, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) had opined in May 2021 that the overall microfinance sector’s collections could lead to a drop by a cumulative 10%-15% during the month compared to March 2021.

However, the collection lag in the second half of May 2021 was more severe than the agency’s initial estimates, and hence, collections during the month were down by 60%-70% for many microfinance institutions (MFIs). Accordingly, Ind-Ra has revised the MFI sector’s credit cost estimate range for FY22 to 5%-10% from 3%-6%, depending on the geographies of operations/concentration.

Nevertheless, Ind-Ra believes that most of the large MFIs rated by the agency would be able to absorb this through their income statement, with minimal impact on equity. The difference in the performance of the companies operating in this sector will be based on the funding available to them. Ind-Ra believes that larger MFIs with a diverse customer base are better placed to raise funding at competitive costs, and hence, reiterates its Stable Outlook for large and group-owned MFIs and a Negative Outlook for the rest for FY22.

During June 2021, with the lifting of restrictions in the first half of the month in the northern and western states of India, there was a modest improvement in the collection efficiencies of those regions. In the southern states, however, the restrictions began to ease very slowly only towards the second half of June 2021. In fact, the daily number of COVID-19 cases in Kerala is on an increasing trend again.

Overall, for a diversified portfolio, the collections in June 2021 are likely to have been higher by 5%-10% compared to May 2021. The restrictions continue to be tighter in the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu due to slow control over COVID-19 cases. Against this backdrop, Ind-Ra expects south India-based MFIs (including small finance banks) to witness larger shortfalls in collections in 1QFY22 compared to those operating in other regions.

Ind-Ra expects the collection efficiency trends to improve over July-August 2021 compared to June 2021, given that around 70% of the borrowers of most MFIs are in the essential goods and services segments, and also taking into consideration the trends witnessed during the first wave of COVID-19. That being said, the variations in the performance of MFIs could be wider, depending on their level of concentration in regions where the lifting of restrictions could be slow.

As far as fresh disbursements are concerned, MFIs significantly curtailed their disbursements during April-May 2021 and the initial two weeks of June 2021. However, Ind-Ra’s discussions with MFIs suggest that the operations are gradually picking up on the back of improved mobility, with the staff slowly regaining the confidence to venture into the field. This by itself would aid the recovery efforts for MFIs.



[ad_2]

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Leave a comment , , , , , , ,

Gold loan defaults within permissible limits, says Thomas John Muthoot

Banking & Finance

[ad_1]

Read More/Less


Gold auction notices by private lenders in regional dailies spread across more than one full page are becoming regular which, to the uninitiated, may point to the pandemic-induced financial stress among not just the economically weak sections but also the salaried class.

Leading NBFC Muthoot Fincorp recently ran a multi-page auction notice listing about 24,000 mortgage items for auctioning this July across its various branches since customers failed to pay up in time.

Statutory advertisements

But the lender would not attach significance to the advertisement and maintained that the “default cases continue to remain within acceptable limits”.

This is a statutory advertisement, he told BusinessLine. The actual auctions amount to just less than one per cent and is not a matter of concern since 99 per cent of customers redeem or renew their loans.

“We have to take these steps; otherwise, we would be breaching the NPA norms of the Reserve Bank which will not be seen good in the eyes of rating agencies, banks and the RBI as well.”

Extra time to pay up

On special request, the NBFC grants customers extra time to redeem their gold. “We would in fact want customers to save their gold. This is important for us, too. Because of Covid, we have a special scheme for customers to renew their loan at 11.99 per cent. Lot of these steps are being taken thoughtfully.”

In fact, John Muthoot noted that the gold loans portfolio witnessed healthy growth during FY 2020-21. Coupled with rescheduling of earlier auctions due to lockdowns, this had resulted in a higher number of loans going into auction.

Overall, this is a small percentage compared to the total disbursements of ₹39,500 crore during the period, he said. But John Muthoot did agree that the Covid-19 second wave and resultant lockdown did disrupt economic activities and compromised the financial position of customers.

Element of uncertainty

“But if we compare it with the first wave in March 2020, the element of uncertainty is evident. The community demonstrated resilience and preparedness to face the situation. The lockdown has been relaxed in most states. Normalcy will enable the common man to return to work and resume activities”.

According to him, gold loans continue to witness a healthy demand. “The common man is our customer and his financial needs continue to be our focal point. We are in constant touch with customers and our product research capabilities enable us to understand their needs. The demand for fresh loans is picking up post-relaxations in lockdown,” he added.

On business outlook for the next few quarters, Muthoot said: “We remain bullish on the growth story of Indian economy. The Centre as well as the Central bank has reiterated the commitment by announcing packages or capital investments to propel the growth. As businesses reopen and activities restart, we are sure that the economy will rebound. We expect to grow by 12-15 per cent as higher demand unfolds”.

[ad_2]

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Leave a comment , , , , , , ,
1 2