Tag: reserve bank of india

Indian crypto exchanges flounder as banks cut ties after RBI frown

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Indian cryptocurrency exchanges are scrambling to secure viable, permanent payment solutions to ensure seamless transactions after banks and payment gateways started cutting ties with them, six industry insiders said.

The exchanges are struggling to cope after the Central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which has said it does not favour digital currencies, out of concern over their impact on financial stability, informally asked banks to steer clear.

Customer complaints have inundated all India’s key exchanges as the pull out by major payment gateways has hit transactions, according to social media and users.

Also read: Cryptocurrency-related cyberattacks are on the rise: Report

“Banks are reluctant to do business,” said Avinash Shekhar,a co-chief executive of ZebPay, one of India’s oldest crypto exchanges that is not offering immediate settlement. “We have been talking to several payment partners but the progress has been slow.”

Options being resorted to include tying up with smaller payment gateways, building their own payment processors, holding back on immediate settlements or offering only peer-to-peer transactions, the heads of five crypto exchanges said.

At least two exchanges have tied up with smaller payment processing firm, Airpay, as its larger peers have cut ties.

There is no official data, but India has nearly 15 million crypto investors, who hold more than ₹100 billion ($1.34 billion), according to industry estimates.

The alternative

Some crypto exchanges, such as WazirX, are forced to stick only to peer-to-peer transactions on certain days, while others, such as Vauld, allow bank transfers with manual settlement as they hunt for a payment processor, backing up settlements.

Also read: Even gold-obsessed Indians are now pouring billions into crypto

Even major payment gateways, such as Razorpay, PayU and BillDesk have severed ties, as they too are dependent on banks to process transactions and the pull out by large banks has left them reeling.

The three payment processors did not respond to a request for comment.

Some others, such as Coinswitch and WazirX, have signed up with a smaller Mumbai-payment processor, Airpay, for instant transfers.

The payment gateway is backed by venture capital fund Kalaari Capital and billionaire stock investor, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, who has been vociferous in his opposition to cryptocurrencies.

Jhunjhunwala did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.

Also read: Cryptocurrency: Investors can wait till clarity emerges

Smaller payment gateways have not proved very successful in executing high volumes of transactions, leading to failures that have resulted in a flood of user complaints.

The lack of support from banks means that smaller firms, like larger counterparts, are also backing off from crypto activities.

“Partnership with the smaller payment processors has not emerged as stable yet, and is more of a temporary solution,”said the founder of an Indian crypto exchange, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Others, such as Bitbns, have built their own basic payment processor, allowing some essential transactions since the systems does not require prior approval from the Reserve Bank of India, the central bank.

Also read: ED issues show cause notice to WazirX, directors under FEMA

“These are only stop-gap arrangements and not a solution to the problem the industry is facing,” said Gaurav Dahake, chief executive of domestic exchange Bitbns.

Prohibition has not augured well, as it has forced customers to opt for peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions that allow buyers and sellers to engage directly.

“Predictably, alternate transaction methods such as P2P have increased, which makes the market more inefficient and also exposes customers to the risk of fraud,” said the chiefexecutive of another crypto exchange.

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Indian banks better placed to withstand future shocks -report, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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MUMBAI – The dent to Indian financial institutions’ balance sheets has been much less than earlier projected and banks have sufficient capital and liquidity buffers to withstand future shocks, according to a report released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The Financial Stability Report is published bi-annually by the RBI on behalf of the Financial Stability and Development Council, an umbrella group of regulators which gives a detailed overview on the health of the Indian financial system.

Banks’ gross non-performing assets could rise to 9.8% by March 2022 from around 7.48% as of the end of last March under the baseline scenario and to 11.22% under a severe stress scenario, the report said.

The projections are far less dire compared to the report released in January in which the RBI had indicated that bad loans could double in a severely stressed scenario.

“Capital and liquidity buffers are reasonably resilient to withstand future shocks, as the stress tests presented in this report demonstrate,” RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, wrote in the foreword to the report.

However, he added that there are new risks which have emerged on the horizon including the risks of future waves of the coronavirus pandemic, international commodity prices and inflationary pressures, global spillovers amid high uncertainty and rising instances of data breaches and cyber attacks.

(Reporting by Swati Bhat and Nupur Anand; editing by Jonathan Oatis)



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How corporates gorged on RBI’s easy money, shunned banks?, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Corporates took the advantage of liquidity offered by Reserve Bank‘s special liquidity windows to raise funds from the bond market, reducing their dependence on bank loans during the quarter

While the corporate bond market is still dominated by financial companies, non-financial companies have increased borrowing in the last one year.

The corporates tapped the long-term repo operations (LTRO) funds, and targeted LTRO offered by the RBi last year, raising funds for up to three years. Firms raised funds aggressively during the third and fourth quarters of the last year for deleveraging high-cost debt.

The fundraise

Corporates raised Rs 2.1 lakh crore in December ended quarter and Rs 3.1 lakh crore in the fourth quarter from the corporate bond markets. In contrast, the corresponding year-ago figures were Rs 1.5 lakh crore and Rs 1.9 lakh crore, respectively.

Bonds were mostly raised by top-rated companies at 150-200 basis points below bank loans. Most of the debt was raised by government companies as they have top-rated status.

For AAA-rated corporate bonds, the yield was 6.85 per cent in May 2020, which fell to 5.38 per cent in April 2021 and to 5.16 per cent in May 2021.

Debt reduction

The corporate world focused on deleveraging high-cost loans through fundraising via bond issuances despite interest rates at an all-time low. This has led to muted credit growth for banks.

According to data analysis by the SBI research wing, the top 15 sectors with more than 1,000 listed entities reported over Rs 1.7 lakh crore of debt reduction in 2000-21.

Refineries, steel, fertilizers, mining & mineral products, and textile alone reduced debt by more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore during FY21.

Fertilizers, mining and minerals, FMCG, cement products, consumer durables, and capital goods were among the sectors where loan reduction of 20 per cent or more was reported during FY21.

According to data from the Reserve Bank of India, loan growth fell to a 59-year low of 5.6% on year as of March 31. Credit was logging a 6.4% in the previous fiscal.

Low interest rates

As interest rates drop to an all-time low, corporates reduced their loan liabilities to facilitate a lower finance cost, which resulted in the primary issuance of bonds increasing by nine per cent.

The spread of AAA bonds for a 10-year tenor declined from 124 bps in April 2020 to 70 bps in April 2021.

Similarly, the spread for 5 year and 3-year bonds declined from 89 bps and 147 bps in April 2020 to 9 bps and 30 bps in April 2021 respectively.

This trend is continuing in FY22 also.

These companies not only reduced their loan liabilities at lower finance cost but also increased their cash and bank balance by around 35% in March, as compared to March 2020, suggesting a conservative approach to conserve cash during uncertain times.

Corporate willingness for new investments also remains tepid as the economy is still recovering from the second wave.



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RBI imposes penalties on 4 cooperative banks, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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The Reserve Bank on Tuesday said it has imposed penalties on four co-operative banks, including a Rs 112.50 lakh fine on Hyderabad-based Andhra Pradesh Mahesh Co-operative Urban Bank, for contravention of certain regulatory directions. A penalty of Rs 62.50 lakh has been imposed on The Ahmedabad Mercantile Co-operative Bank, Ahmedabad; Rs 37.50 lakh on SVC Co-operative Bank, Mumbai; and Rs 25 lakh on Saraswat Cooperative Bank, Mumbai.

The penalty on Andhra Pradesh Mahesh Co-operative Urban Bank was for non-compliance with directions issued by RBI contained in Master Directions on ‘Interest Rate on Deposits’ and ‘Know Your Customer’.

The Ahmedabad Mercantile Co-operative Bank has been penalised for violation of norms contained in Master Directions on ‘Interest Rate on Deposits’.

As per the RBI, it imposed penalty on SVC Co-operative Bank for non-compliance with directions on ‘Interest Rate on Deposits’ and ‘Frauds Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism’.

Saraswat Cooperative Bank was penalised for non-compliance with directions on ‘Interest Rate on Deposits’ and ‘Maintenance of Deposit Accounts’.

The penalties, the RBI said, have been imposed for based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and are not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the banks with their customers.



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RBI sets July 30 deadline for banks to move current accounts, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has set a deadline of July 30 for banks to give up current accounts of all companies where their exposure is below a cut-off decided by the regulator.

RBI communicated this in a letter to banks a fortnight ago, two senior bankers told ET.

The move, initiated more than a year ago, could trigger a migration of many lucrative current accounts – which lower a bank’s fund cost and cash management business – from MNC banks to public sector lenders and some of the large private sector Indian banks.

According to the new rule, a bank with less than 10% of the total approved facilities – which include loans, non-fund businesses like guarantees, and daylight overdrafts (or intra-day) exposure – to a company is barred from having the client’s current account.

“RBI is probably upset that banks are taking a long time to shift the accounts. But the delay may also be because several PSU banks may not be ready with the technology. Now, RBI can’t direct companies which have been doing business with a bank for years to move to another bank. At one point many MNC banks and companies had opposed it, but they have realised that it’s fait accompli,” said a banker.

Notified in August 2020, the regulation after a review was expected to be implemented by January 31, 2021.

Backed by a former chairman of the country’s largest lender State Bank of India and some of the PSU bankers, the regulation stems from the belief that errant corporate borrowers will find it tougher to divert funds if their current and collection accounts lie with lending banks.

Regulation doesn’t cover MFs, insurers
It’s aimed at curbing the practice of companies who run current accounts to collect sale proceeds and other receivables with banks outside the lending consortium to delay loan servicing.

Over the years, some of the MNC banks, without being large lenders, had put in place technology to integrate fund flows between a large company and its customers, vendors and associates. Besides enjoying the float, the relationship with the corporate opened an opportunity to cross-sell products to group companies. Significantly, it was a strategy to earn fees without committing larger capital for loans, and the risk of some turning into NPAs.

However, the present rule, said another banker, could also impact a few smaller Indian banks, including state-owned lenders. Some large private banks, who are in favour of the rule, have been raising their exposure above the 10% threshold to retain the current accounts. As per the rule, a bank having a current account with less than 10% exposure will be required to move funds to another bank which meets the exposure rule. The 10% rule does not pertain to regulated entities like mutual funds and insurers.



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Global banks announce bumper dividends, but Indian peers face a cap, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Global wall street banks are hiking dividend payouts after US Federal Reserve gave them go-ahead last week after annual stress test results. However, the Indian bank shareholders have to wait has curbed banks’ dividend-paying ability in the financial year 2020-21 citing the impact of an ongoing second wave of coronavirus.

Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo said on Monday they were hiking their capital payouts after the US Federal Reserve gave them a clean bill of health following their annual “stress tests”.

Analysts and investors had expected the country’s largest lenders to start issuing as much as $130 billion in dividends and stock buybacks from next month after the Fed last week ended emergency pandemic-era restrictions on how much capital they could give back to investors.

Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley delivered the biggest surprise to investors, saying it would double its dividend to 70 cents a share in the third quarter of 2021.

The Wall Street giant also said it would increase spending on share repurchases.

Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman said in the announcement that the bank could return so much capital because of the excess it has accumulated over several years. The action, he said, “reflects a decision to reset our capital base consistent with the needs we have for our transformed business model.”

Bank of America

Bank of America Corp said it will hike its dividend by 17% to 21 cents a share beginning in the third quarter of 2021, and JPMorgan Chase & Co said it will go to $1.00 a share from 90 cents for the third quarter.

Goldman Sachs Group said it planned to increase its common stock dividend to $2 per share from $1.25.

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Co, which has built up capital more rapidly than rivals due in part to a Fed-imposed cap on its balance sheet, said it plans to repurchase $18 billion of stock over the four quarters beginning in September.

The repurchase target amounts to nearly 10% of its stock market value and is line with expectations from analysts.

Wells Fargo, which for years has been trying to move past a series of costly mis-selling scandals, said it was doubling its quarterly dividend to 20 cents a share, consistent with analyst expectations.

“Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, we have built our financial strength … as well as continuing to remediate our legacy issues,” CEO Charlie Scharf said in a statement.

“We will continue to do so as we return a significant amount of capital to our shareholders,” Scharf added.

Citigroup

Citigroup, meanwhile, confirmed analysts’ estimates that a key part of its required capital ratios had increased under the stress test results to 3.0% from 2.5%.

A hike of that size will limit Citigroup’s share buybacks, versus its peers, a report from analyst Vivek Juneja of JPMorgan shows. Juneja expects Citigroup will have the lowest capital return of big banks he covers.

Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser said the bank will continue its “planned capital actions, including common dividends of at least $0.51 per share” and buying back shares in the market.

In India

The Reserve Bank of India has curbed banks’ dividend-paying ability in the financial year 2020-21 citing an ongoing second wave of coronavirus that comes with an economic cost.

“In view of the continuing uncertainty caused by the ongoing second wave of Covid-19 in the country, it is crucial that banks remain resilient and proactively raise and conserve capital as a bulwark against unexpected losses, the Reserve Bank of India said in April.

“Banks may pay dividend on equity shares from the profits for the financial year ended March 31, 2021, subject to the quantum of dividend being not more than fifty percent of the amount determined as per the dividend payout ratio prescribed,” it said.

Private lender HDFC Bank has announced that the board has declared a dividend of Rs 6.50 per share for the year ended 31 March 2021.



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Investors’ interest in 2030 G-Sec wanes

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Bond market players seem to have lost interest in the so-called 10-year benchmark Government Security (G-Sec) as the central bank has accumulated a chunk of this paper, reducing its attractiveness for trading.

The number of trades in the 2030 G-Sec (carrying 5.85 per cent coupon rate) has shrunk drastically from 993 on May 28 to 31 on June 29.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been mopping up this paper via Special Open Market Operations (OMO) and G-Sec Acquisition Programme (G-SAP).

This is aimed at keeping G-Sec yields on a leash as the government has a huge borrowing programme of ₹12.10 lakh crore in FY22. RBI has been focussed on buying this paper to ensure a stable and orderly evolution of the yield curve.

New benchmark

Given that the central bank is holding almost three-fourth of the ₹1.20 lakh crore outstanding amount in the 5.85 per cent 2030 G-Sec and liquidity has dwindled in this paper, market experts say it’s time the government introduced a G-Sec maturing in 2031, which will become the new 10-year benchmark.

They emphasised that at the weekly auctions of the 5.85 per cent 2030 G-Sec over the last one month or so, RBI has either devolved it on primary dealers (PDs) or rejected all the bids as investors want to buy it at a lower price (or higher yield).

Referring to the tug-of-war between institutional investors and RBI, experts say investors want the yields to go up, but the central bank wants to suppress the yields to ensure that the government can borrow at a cheaper rate.

Marzban Irani, CIO-Fixed Income, LIC Mutual Fund, said: “They (Government) may float a new 10-year G-Sec after a week or two. Nobody has interest in the 5.85 per cent 2030 G-Sec.

“About three-fourth of this paper is with RBI and the rest is with nationalised banks. So, who will trade in it? There is no tradability in this paper.”

Madan Sabnavis, Chief Economist, CARE Ratings, observed that the market is still demanding more (in terms of yield) from the government given the large borrowing programme as well as the rising inflation trend.

Since the 5.85 per cent 2030 G-Sec was first introduced on December 1, 2020, its price has declined by ₹1.455 to Rs 98.67 on Tuesday, with its yield rising about 20 basis points to about 6.04 per cent. Bond price and yields are inversely related and move in opposite directions.

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SBI Chairman, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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MUMBAI: Although the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic again brought businesses and economic activities to a standstill, Chairman of the State Bank of India (SBI), Dinesh Kumar Khara has expressed hope that the country’s economy would recover in the ongoing financial year.

The Chairman noted that the global economy contracted by 3.3 per cent in 2020 with the pandemic causing significant loss of lives and livelihood.

The GDP in India contracted by 7.3 per cent in FY2021 and the country experienced a second wave of infections with cases rising rapidly since March 2021, he said while addressing the 66th Annual General Meeting of the bank.

He, however, said that policy measures and the coordinated efforts of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Centre were directed towards enabling growth on a more durable basis during these difficult times.

“Notwithstanding the second wave of Covid-19, Indian economy, through its resilience, is poised for a recovery in FY2022,” the SBI chief told the shareholders of the bank.

Speaking on the performance of the bank in FY21, he said that although the last fiscal was an exceptionally challenging year for the entire world, the state-run bank was able to function against all odds with minimal disruption for the customers.

“The business continuity plans that were chalked out have worked well for the Bank and this is reflected in various parameters of the Bank’s performance in FY 2021.”

Notably the bank has achieved high level of digitization with share of Alternate Channels in total transactions increasing to 93 per cent in FY2021, thereby converting a challenging situation into an opportunity, the Chairman said.

He said that in the current financial year, SBI will continue to accelerate its digital agenda, adding that the scope and reach of YONO will be expanded further.

“With the rollout of pre-package insolvency for resolution, resumption of courts and formation of National Asset Reconstruction Company, efforts will be in full force to keep the momentum in stressed asset recovery in the current financial year.”

The bank is comfortably placed in terms of growth capital. Opportunities for lending in promising sectors will be explored to diversify the portfolio and contain risk.

“In conclusion, the bank adjusted to the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and is better positioned to tackle any subsequent wave. I am cautiously optimistic that the performance trajectory of FY2021 will continue in FY2022 as well.”



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RBI hunts for entity that can develop multimedia publicity material for awareness campaign, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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MUMBAI: Seeking to accelerate its general awareness campaign, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has started looking for an entity that can develop multimedia publicity material in 14 languages.

The pan-India campaign to educate the general public about the essential rules and regulations will be launched in Hindi, Assamese, Bangla, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu besides English.

The media mix, according to an RBI document, will include traditional as well as new media.

Besides newspapers, magazines, radio, television channels and cinema halls, the campaign will also cover digital media, web portals and social media, the RBI said while inviting applications from advertising agencies for designing the creatives for the awareness campaigns.

“The public awareness campaigns of RBI will be full-fledged multimedia, multilingual, pan-India level campaigns. The objective of the campaigns is to create general awareness among citizens of India about the RBI regulations and other initiatives,” said the request for proposal (RFP) in this regard.

Financial inclusion and education are two important elements in the RBI’s developmental role.

Towards this, the central bank has created a critical volume of literature and has uploaded on its website in 13 languages for banks and other stakeholders to download and use. As per the RBI website, the aim of the initiative is to create awareness about financial products and services, good financial practices, going digital and consumer protection.

The central bank runs a media campaign ‘RBI Kehta Hai’, is an initiative to educate the public about its regulations which are aimed at enhancing the quality of customer service in banks.

The number of followers of the Reserve Bank’s Twitter handle @RBI surpassed the one million mark touching 1.15 million as of March 31, 2021, signifying the “largest following among the central banks” of the world, said the RBI’s annual report.

During 2021-22, the apex bank aims to use public awareness programmes, social media presence and other channels of communication to further deepen engagement with the society.



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RBI restricts continuous tenure of UCB MDs to 15 years, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India has limited the maximum continued term of managing directors and whole-time directors (WTD) of urban cooperative banks (UCBs) to 15 years in a series of steps taken to ensure professional management of these institutions that have often been found undertaking non-transparent activities right at the top.

In the latest directions given by the RBI on appointment, re-appointment and termination process of MD and WTD of UCBs, the apex bank has said that an individual will be eligible for re-appointment as MD/WTD in the same bank even after finishing continuous 15-year tenure but only after a minimum gap of three years, subject to meeting other conditions.

Moreover, during this three-year cooling period, the individual shall not be appointed or associated with the bank in any capacity, either directly or indirectly.

In general, the RBI has directed that the tenure of MD/WTD shall not be for a period more than five years at a time subject to a minimum period of three years at the time of the first appointment unless terminated or removed earlier, and shall be eligible for re-appointment. The performance of MD/WTD shall be reviewed by the Board annually, the apex bank said.

The UCBs shall ensure that the following ‘fit and proper’ criteria are fulfilled by the person being appointed as MD. The MD shall function under the overall general superintendence, direction and control of the Board of Directors (BoD).

With regard to age, the RBI has said that the person at the top of UCBs should not be below the age of 35 years and above the age of 70 years at any time during his/her term in office. But, within the overall limit of 70 years, as part of their internal policy, individual bank Boards are free to prescribe a lower retirement age, the RBI said.

To run the operations professionally, the person should also have adequate educational qualifications. He/she should be a graduate, preferably, with Qualification in banking/ co-operative banking or Chartered/Cost Accountant/MBA (Finance); or Post-graduation in any discipline.

They must also have a combined experience of at least eight years at the middle/senior management level in the banking sector, including the experience gained in the concerned UCB, or non-banking finance companies engaged in lending (loan companies) and asset financing.

The person should not be engaged in any other business or vocation or beholding the position of a Member of Parliament or State Legislature or Municipal Corporation or Municipality or other local bodies. He/she should also not be a director of any company other than a company registered under section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013. The RBI has given a long list of propriety criteria to ensure only the right candidate is appointed for the post.

The RBI also said that UCBs shall constitute a “Nomination and Remuneration Committee (NRC)” consisting of three directors from amongst the Board of Directors (BoD) and nominate one among them as Chairman of the NRC.



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