IMF gets briefing on probe into China rankings at World Bank

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The International Monetary Fund said Monday its board of directors has been briefed by attorneys from the law firm whose investigation found that current IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and other officials pressured World Bank employees to alter data affecting the business rankings of China and other nations.

The IMF said the 190-nation lending agency’s board of directors met with representatives of the WilmerHale law firm as part of an on-going review of the issues raised by the firm’s investigation into the World Bank’s “Doing Business 2018” report.

The Doing Business report evaluated a country’s tax burdens, bureaucratic obstacles, regulatory system and other business conditions, and its rankings was used by some governments to try to attract investment.

The IMF said in a statement that the board board would soon meet with Georgieva as part of its review of the matter. The statement said the IMF’s board “remains committed to a thorough, objective and timely review” of the issues raised by the report.

The investigation prompted the World Bank to end the annual Doing Business reports. The report found that Georgieva, then the chief executive of the World Bank, and other senior World Bank leaders had pressured the bank’s economists to improve China’s 2018 ranking at a time when she and other officials were attempting to persuade China to support a boost in the World Bank’s funding resources.

The incident has led to calls for Georgieva to resign from the IMF’s top job. It has also served to underscore complaints that China has too much influence over global financial institutions.

Georgieva has denied all wrongdoing. “Let me be clear. The conclusions are wrong. I did not pressure anyone to alter any reports,” she said in a statement issued after the report came out last month.

Georgieva said she was looking forward to meeting with the IMF board to brief them on her actions.

The controversy is coming ahead of the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank, which will take place next week in Washington. (AP) MRJ

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Reserve Bank of India – Press Releases

Press Releases

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April 14, 2015




Dear All




Welcome to the refurbished site of the Reserve Bank of India.





The two most important features of the site are: One, in addition to the default site, the refurbished site also has all the information bifurcated functionwise; two, a much improved search – well, at least we think so but you be the judge.




With this makeover, we also take a small step into social media. We will now use Twitter (albeit one way) to send out alerts on the announcements we make and YouTube to place in public domain our press conferences, interviews of our top management, events, such as, town halls and of course, some films aimed at consumer literacy.




The site can be accessed through most browsers and devices; it also meets accessibility standards.



Please save the url of the refurbished site in your favourites as we will give up the existing site shortly and register or re-register yourselves for receiving RSS feeds for uninterrupted alerts from the Reserve Bank.



Do feel free to give us your feedback by clicking on the feedback button on the right hand corner of the refurbished site.



Thank you for your continued support.




Department of Communication

Reserve Bank of India


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PFRDA expects addition of 1 crore new subscribers to APY in FY22

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Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) expects to add about one crore new subscribers to the government’s Atal Pension Yojana (APY) pension scheme this fiscal.

The Atal Pension Yojana, a guaranteed pension scheme of the Government of India and administered by PFRDA, continues to attract new enrolments supported by aggressive canvassing by intermediaries such as public sector banks, private sector banks, regional rural banks, small finance banks and co-operative banks among others on the back of growing awareness about future financial planning among the people.

“Total enrolments have crossed more than 30 million. In this fiscal alone, we have added a little over 4 million new customers to the APY scheme. Every day we see the numbers go up. On an average, we add 30,000–35,000 subscribers on a daily basis. Looking at the kind of growth we are getting, we feel we can add 10 million new customers under APY in 2021-22,” Supratim Bandyopadhyay, Chairperson, PFRDA, told BusinessLine.

Changing mindsets

The APY scheme has seen a growth of about 27 per cent as of September. Last year was also good and this year it was even better. In NPS, the growth is significantly higher at about 60 per cent, Bandyopadhyay said.

Also see: Improved revenue structure for NPS’ Point of Presence coming soon, says PFRDA Chief Bandyopadhyay

“Over the years, the mindset of people has changed positively towards pension schemes. Now people are really thinking about post-retirement and financial plans. I think the Covid-19 pandemic has also been a trigger for people to think seriously about the need to save for a rainy day. In the past couple of years, including the worst pandemic phase, our on-boarding rate didn’t drop. There was no negative rate in any month,” he added.

Unorganised sector

To a question on coverage for the unorganised sector, he said that with the APY scheme, which allows people in the age group of 18–40 years to join through the bank or post office branches through a savings bank account, a decent progress has been made to cover workers in the unorganised segment.

“It is an ongoing process. Because the number of people in the unorganised sector is so huge — about 45 crore. I think we have reached a little over 3 crore people. It may be low. But what gives us hope is that intermediaries such as banks, RRBs, SFBs have taken it as a mission to bring more people under APY coverage. They are doing a great job,” he added.

Different stratergies

He pointed out that while RRBs in Kerala were following different strategies to reach more people, Airtel Payment has done impressive work and has enrolled more than 1 million subscribers. Banks have engaged self-help groups and banking correspondents to reach out to more people.

Also see: Pension fund sponsors: PFRDA to open ‘on tap’ window next year, too

On the Amendment Bill, PFRDA was hoping that it would be considered during the winter session of the Parliament. It is with the Cabinet as discussions with all stakeholders are over and inputs have been incorporated.

We hope it will be taken up during the winter session, added Bandyopadhyay.

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2 Stocks To Buy As Suggested By Sharekhan As Covid Gradually Disappears

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Buy Inox Leisure stock, says Sharekhan

Sharekhan says that it expects Inox Leisure’s business to recover in H2FY2022 as quality content has lined-up for festive season and COVID-19 restrictions to ease across many states.

“Expect a larger portion of eligible population will be vaccinated by end of December 2021. We expect both footfalls and occupancy rate would be around 26 lakh and 12% in Q2FY2022 compared to 8 lakh and 12%, respectively, in Q1FY2022. We estimate net loss to be at Rs 71 crore in Q2FY2022 versus a net loss of Rs 122 crore in Q1. As new movies failed to excite OTT audiences during the pandemic, we believe most of movie producers will continue to depend on theatrical releases, which would drive occupancy rates of multiplexes going ahead,” the brokerage has said.

Inox Leisure: Buy the stock with a price target of Rs 470

Inox Leisure: Buy the stock with a price target of Rs 470

According to Sharekhan, Disney announced the discontinuation of the simultaneous theatrical and digital release of movies and there will be an exclusive theatrical window for 45 days. This indicates the relevance of theatrical releases and also reduces concerns around the potential structural threat from OTT.

“As most of new movies (including some big-starrer movies) fail to excite OTT audience, we believe most of movie producers will continue to depend on theatrical releases, which would help to increase the occupancy rate of multiplexes going ahead. We maintain a Buy on Inox Leisure with a a revised target price of Rs. 470, given meaningful recovery in 2HFY22, healthy pent-up demand and lower structural risk from the OTT segment,” the brokerage has said.

Buy Indian Hotels, says Sharekhan

Buy Indian Hotels, says Sharekhan

Another stock the brokerage is recommending is the stock of Indian Hotels. According to Sharekhan, the rapid vaccinations lifted domestic leisure travel, helping occupancies to scale up to close to 60% in July 2021 and further improve in August.

“International properties (in the UK and US) are recovering as these markets open up. Hotel occupancies in the US are above 60%, while London hotels occupancies are trending at 55-56%,” the brokerage has said.

Indian Hotels: Price target of Rs 215 on the stock

Indian Hotels: Price target of Rs 215 on the stock

Sharekhan has set a price target of Rs 215 on the stock of Indian Hotels. According to it, a strong recovery in domestic leisure travel would help Indian Hotels in posting better performance in the coming quarters.

“Further, a recovery in the business travel and permitting foreign tourist to travel in India would further give a boost to the occupancies in the quarters ahead. Strong focus on building an asset-light model and recovery in the business environment will help Indian Hotels to recover 80% of pre-COVID levels in FY2023 with strong growth in profitability. Further the company is focusing on strengthening its balance sheet. The stock trades at 29x/22x its FY2023E/24E EV/EBIDTA. We maintain a Buy recommendation on the stock with revised price target of Rs. 215,” the brokerage has said.

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

The investment ideas are picked from the brokerage report of Sharekhan. Investors should note that investing in stocks is risky and neither the author, nor Greynium nor the brokerage would be responsible for losses based on a decision from the above article.



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Federal Bank Q2 deposits, advances grow 10%

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CASA is seen at Rs 62,191 crore during the second quarter, a y-o-y increase of 18%.

Federal Bank’s deposits and advances grew by 10 % year-on-year (y-o-y) during the second quarter of the current fiscal, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

The Kerala-based lender said that at the end of the September 2021 quarter, total deposits stood at Rs 1,71,995 crore, as against Rs 1,56,747 crore in the year-ago period. Meanwhile, advances at the end of the second quarter stands at Rs 1,37,309 crore, compared to Rs 1,25,209 crore in the second quarter of the last fiscal.

CASA is seen at Rs 62,191 crore during the second quarter, a y-o-y increase of 18%. CASA ratio is reported at 36.16 %. Liquidity coverage ratio is reported at 225.94 % for the September quarter, compared to 266.27 % for the year-ago period and 215.96% for Q1 of the fiscal.

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Rupee Co-op Bank seeks govt intervention to resolve problems

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The Rupee Cooperative Bank has notified the scheme of the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) to refund account holders up to Rs 5 lakh.

The administrator of the Rupee Cooperative Bank, CA Sudhir Pandit, met Union minister for state for finance & banking Bhagwat Karad, urging him to intervene to resolve issues being faced by the bank.

According to Pandit, although 99% depositors will get a refund of their entire deposits as per the amended Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) Act, high-value depositors with deposits of more than Rs 5 lakh will lose 65% of their deposits if the bank goes into liquidation. “A majority of these depositors are senior citizens and entire liquidity of around Rs 800 crore will be exhausted once deposits below Rs 5 lakh are fully refunded,” he explained. If the bank’s liquidity is exhausted, no other bank will come forward for a merger, he pointed out.

“A resolution plan or revival will ensure that larger depositors do not lose most of their money, because if the bank is liquidated, large depositors may collectively lose Rs 375 crore,” said Pandit.

Significantly, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has refused to sanction the merger of the Rupee Cooperative Bank with the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSSB). The proposal of merger with the MSCB was submitted in view of the latter’s wish to diversify into the retail business. MSCB is the apex cooperative bank that lends money mostly for agriculture and agri-businesses.

The Rupee Cooperative Bank has notified the scheme of the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) to refund account holders up to Rs 5 lakh. Rupee Cooperative Bank administrators said they will forward all claims made under the scheme to DICGC by October 15, 2021, after which approved claims will be settled by the DICGC within a period of 90 days.

“The DICGC told us to maintain expenses to run the bank for the next six months, within which hopefully there will be a resolution plan for the bank whether it is a merger with a larger bank, or its revival. We even met Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman,” he said.

Get live Stock Prices from BSE, NSE, US Market and latest NAV, portfolio of Mutual Funds, Check out latest IPO News, Best Performing IPOs, calculate your tax by Income Tax Calculator, know market’s Top Gainers, Top Losers & Best Equity Funds. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

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Buy This Banking Stock For Up To 32% Gains, Says This Broking Firm

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Federal Bank: Transforming into next generation private bank

According to Emkay Global, Federal Bank is transforming itself into a next-generation private bank via its neo-banking tie-ups across assets, liabilities, and payments businesses. This should not only help the bank thrive in the new era of banking, but also reduce the incremental cost of business and garner better fees/revenues in the long run.

According to Emkay Global better margins are being driven by change in portfolio mix and the moderation in credit cost to boost RoA

“The bank has long struggled to cross the 1% Return on Assets hurdle due to lower margins, sticky & higher opex and the recent surge in credit costs due to Covid-induced exogenous factors. However, we expect margins to improve gradually as the bank focuses on high-yielding products such as commercial vehicles, MFI, persona loans and Cards. Re-pricing of mortgage book in a rising interest cycle will provide back-end support. This, coupled with steady moderation in operational expenditure on the back of digital adoption and credit costs, should drive up Return on Assets on a sustainable basis beyond 1% by FY24E,” the brokerage has said.

Federal Bank: Buy the stock with a price target of Rs 110

Federal Bank: Buy the stock with a price target of Rs 110

According to Emkay Global Federal Bank remains its preferred pick in the small/mid-cap space, apart from Equitas, given its better liability/asset quality profile, management stability, digital adoption and expected improvement in return ratios.

“We retain a Buy on the stock with a target price of of Rs 110,” the brokerage has said.

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

The above stock is picked from the brokerage report of Emkay Global. Investing in equities poses a risk of financial losses. Investors must therefore exercise due caution. Greynium Information Technologies, the author, and the brokerage house are not liable for any losses caused as a result of decisions based on the article. The above report is for informational purposes only.



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BoB step up on super app play, faces a tough competition, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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The race for financial super apps in India is getting hotter.

Bank of Baroda will position its new digital platform bob World as the main bank and all banking channels will be an adjunct to the primary platform. The public sector lender is adopting a strategy similar to SBI, which is working to integrate all services on its Yono platform.

Bank of Baroda MD & CEO Sanjiv Chadha has said that post-pandemic, the bank has seen a surge in digital transactions and twice the number of branch visits are happening on the app. “So rather than being an adjunct to the bank, it will be the bank and the other parts of the lender will become an adjunct. The thought was to enable everything that can be done in the branch within the app,” said Chadha.

Here are other few banks and companies that are building up the super app.

Tata Group

BoB step up on super app play, faces a tough competition

Tata Group is planning to come up with its own super app and bring its various consumer businesses under one digital umbrella and offer a seamless omnichannel experience. It is also making acquisitions such as Bigbasket and 1mg to bolster its digital presence.

“It will be a super app, a lot of apps in apps and so on … We have a very big opportunity … How do we give a simple online experience connecting all of this, and at the same time a beautiful omnichannel experience? That is the vision,” N Chandrasekaran, chairman, Tata Sons had said.

The company is looking to leverage its huge consumer base which is spread across various categories and build a “world-class platform out of India to serve the Indian consumer”.

Tata Group has a host of consumer-facing brands that include grocery items, fashion brands, and electronics brands.

In terms of financial services, Tata Group has an insurance company as well as a consumer finance arm, which can be easily integrated into its super app.

Paytm

BoB step up on super app play, faces a tough competition

Paytm, which lacks services such as ride hailing, food delivery, and online groceries, is the leader in the race at present. The app had 85.49 million monthly active users in March 2020. The company has launched a mini-apps store and partnered with companies like Ola, Domino’s, and Decathlon.

It plans to have a million such apps on its store by 2021. Mini apps are custom-built web apps that give users an app-like experience without needing to download one. The listing and distribution of these mini apps within the Paytm app is free of charge, and users can use the Paytm wallet, Paytm Payments Bank, UPI, or net banking for payments at no charges, and credit cards at a 2% fee. These apps are low-cost and quick to build, using HTML and JavaScript.

The company claims it has 325 million registered wallets, which is higher than the 200 million active UPI handles that have been created in the country.

Now the company has set its sights on using the platform to sell multiple financial services such as digital gold, mutual funds, insurance, and consumer and business loans.

SBI Yono

BoB step up on super app play, faces a tough competition

State Bank of India (SBI) is looking to build its super app Yono into a wider platform that can be used by rival lenders. The bank’s plans to create a platform for Yono that will be integrated with regional rural banks or cooperative banks. The plan is to turn the app into a platform where all banks, including SBI, can offer their products and services. The bank feels that the product will be more valuable to investors once the app is fully built out as a platform.

Yono user base has nearly doubled to 32 million at the end of December 2020 from 17 million a year ago.

SBI disbursed personal loans worth Rs 15,996 crore through more than 1 million Yono loan accounts between April and December 2020. It is now looking to extend it to home loan customers and make the entire process online. It is also planning to go big with its multi-lingual Yono Krishi platform that offers services such as Yono Khata, Yono Bachat, Yono Mitra and Yono Mandi to its farm customers. It wants to expand Yono Business through which it has made it easier for corporate customers to apply for letters of credit and bank guarantees.

Reliance Retail

BoB step up on super app play, faces a tough competition

Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd’s acquisition of a controlling stake in business-to-business (B2B) search engine Just Dial (JD) will provide it with access to a large merchant base for its new commerce platform JioMart. It will also allow it to harness JD’s evolution into a super app that will help book flights, train and bus tickets, cabs and hotel rooms and pay bills, as well as provide other services.

Reliance Retail plans to onboard 10 million merchant partners for its new commerce initiative over the next three years. The acquisition will allow RRVL to leverage JD’s database of 30.4 million business listings and its consumer traffic of 129 million quarterly unique users as on March 31, 2021.

JD’s B2B platform, JD Mart, matches wholesalers and manufacturers with retailers and industrial buyers, according to Credit Suisse.

Also, Facebook and telecom giant Reliance Jio are coming together to figure out the possibility of a super app, similar to the multipurpose Chinese platform WeChat. They are reportedly hoping to develop the app using the WhatsApp platform as well as its huge user base.

The platform would be a place for users to chat, while also letting them shop for groceries from Reliance Retail stores, for clothes and apparel and make digital payments using JioMoney.

WhatsApp

BoB step up on super app play, faces a tough competition

WhatsApp has a vast user base in India, but it has too few services to offer and must build and maintain its fintech muscle. The variety of its product portfolio and the speed of implementation will determine whether it can topple the incumbents in India. It may also have to face regulatory hurdles in India.

Bajaj Finance

BoB step up on super app play, faces a tough competition

Bajaj Finance has recently stepped up its wallet business. Its cross-sell franchise has about 27 million customers with around 70% of all no-cost EMI loans given for offline consumer durable purchases being through it.

Bajaj has recently launched a payments app and looks to be on the way to build a super app. The launch of the digital wallet is part of a broader strategy by the consumer NBFC to expand its digital finance offerings. The company has been rolling out ‘Bajaj Pay’ in phases to expand into the payments segment.



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Banks step up credit card sales, offers in festive season as BNPL threatens, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Banking & Finance

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With the Covid pandemic weakening and consumer confidence rising, banks are betting on credit card spends this festive season. Lenders have launched a slew of new credit cards and offers to solidify their positions and grab a bigger share of the market.

The credit card push comes at a time when buy now-pay later (BNPL) products have become popular with consumers. BNPL essentially offers around 15 days of interest-free funds to small borrowers and are seen as competitors of credit cards.

SBI offering

Banks step up credit card sales, offers in festive season as BNPL threatens

SBI Card is luring consumers with 10% cashback up to Rs 10,000 across mobiles, consumer durables, laptops, kitchen appliances, home décor & furnishing, and fashion & lifestyle purchases, done at leading domestic e-commerce shopping sites. The offerings are not restricted to just one or two e-commerce portals

However, the offer will not be applicable on online spending in some categories such as insurance, travel, wallet, jewellery, education, healthcare, and utility merchants.

HDFC Bank

Banks step up credit card sales, offers in festive season as BNPL threatens

HDFC Bank and digital payments firm Paytm will launch a range of credit cards powered by Visa this month. The partnership aims to provide one of the widest range of offerings across customer segments, with special focus on millennials, business owners and merchants. Under the partnership announced in August, the two will build comprehensive solutions across payments gateway, point of sale machines, and credit products.

The cards announced today will be customised to meet the distinct needs of retail customers, from new-to-credit users to affluent users and offer rewards and cashback for users. The new cards offering will also facilitate small business owners.

Federal Bank cards

Banks step up credit card sales, offers in festive season as BNPL threatens

Kochi-based private lender Federal Bank entered the credit card business in September in association with card network Visa. The bank has partnered with National Payments Corp of India to launch ‘Federal Bank RuPay Signet Contactless Credit Card,’ according to a press release.

The card’s annual percentage rate starts from 5.88% per annum. Cardholders will gain access to a wide range of offers and deals across categories including travel, food, among others, the bank said. The card is currently being offered to existing customers of Federal Bank.

According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the total number of credit cards stood at 63.4 million at the end of July.



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RBI appoints advisory committee to assist administrator of 2 Srei group firms, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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After superseding the boards of Srei Infrastructure Finance Limited (SIFL) and Srei Equipment Finance Limited (SEFL) on Monday, the RBI has appointed a three-member Advisory Committee to assist the administrator of the two crisis-ridden firms. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) superseded the board of directors of SIFL and SEFL and appointed Rajneesh Sharma, ex-chief general manager, Bank of Baroda, as the administrator.

“The Reserve Bank…has constituted a three-member Advisory Committee to assist the Administrator in discharge of his duties,” the central bank said in a statement.

The members of the Advisory Committee are — R Subramaniakumar (former MD and CEO, Indian Overseas Bank), T T Srinivasaraghavan (former managing director, Sundaram Finance Limited), and Farokh N Subedar (former chief operating officer and company secretary, Tata Sons Limited).

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy (Insolvency and Liquidation Proceedings of Financial Service Providers and Application to Adjudicating Authority) Rules, 2019 provide for the concerned financial sector regulator appointing a Committee of Advisors to advise the administrator in the operations of the financial service provider during the corporate insolvency resolution process.

Srei group, which mainly caters to the MSME and infrastructure sectors, owes around Rs 18,000 crore to around 15 lenders, including Axis Bank, UCO Bank and State Bank of India, and another nearly Rs 10,000 crore of external commercial borrowings and bonds. PTI NKD ABM ABM



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