Surprise credits: Thousands of UCO Bank accounts opened around transfer dates under CBI scanner

 🙏Good Morning All.... 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧🌻💐🙏

☕🥯 0812.2023 : Today's Banking / Financial News at a Glance 

🍒           Surprise credits: Thousands of UCO Bank accounts opened around transfer dates under CBI scanner :  The CBI investigation into surprise credits totalling Rs 820 crore in the accounts of UCO Bank customers has brought under the agency's scanner thousands of recipient accounts which were opened around the dates the transfers took place, officials said Wednesday. The CBI is probing a case where over 41,000 UCO Bank customers received surprise credits of varied amounts in their accounts during November 10-13 without any corresponding debits in the originating accounts, they said. Among various leads, the agency's needle of suspicion has also gone on "thousands of accounts" which were opened around the time the transactions started and received the transfers, the officials said. - economic times.

🍒           Reliance ARC onboards Credgenics' debt recovery tech platform :  Reliance Asset Reconstruction Company has onboarded a newly-launched debt recovery platform built for ARCS by Credgenics, the company said in a press release on Wednesday. The platform is built to help ARCs with comprehensive digital and insights-driven capabilities which can help in efficient debt resolution in retail and SME segments, the company said. The Credgenics platform designed for ARCs offers detailed insight into every phase of overdue cases, including the communication history. This empowers ARCs to reconsider debt recovery approaches. The utilization of AI/ML models allows ARCs to assess the efficiency of communications and adjust outreach strategies to enhance recovery outcomes. - economic times.

🍒           PNB Housing Finance to increase the share of loans for affordable housing segment : PNB Housing Finance is looking to take the affordable housing segment share in overall loan disbursal to 40% in 3-4 years from the current 10%, as the company witnesses a continuous increase in demand, Girish Kousgi, MD & CEO, PNB Housing Finance told ET. The affordable housing segment of the company called Roshni achieved Rs 1,000 crore loan book in less than a year of its launch. It offers low ticket-size loans ranging from Rs 5-35 lakh for home buying, plot purchases, construction and renovation. - economic times.

🍒           Financial Fraud: Centre gets into pro mode to check digital cons : The government has started discussions on building new filters and safeguards for digital financial transactions amid rising concern over burgeoning cases of fraud. The Ministry of Finance, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and National Payments Corporation (NPCI) of India are examining mandatory filters above a certain monetary threshold, including one-time passwords (OTP) for digital payments, a top government official told ET. “We are also discussing how to create intelligence within the payment systems that can be used to filter out or block such transactions,” the official said. - economic times.

🍒           SMBC picks Sandeep Chopra to head India corporate coverage : Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) has picked Sandeep Chopra to head the Japanese bank’s coverage of corporate clients in India, according to a press release. Chopra is a career corporate banker with close to 30 years of experience and was previously with DBS Bank. He will be based in Mumbai and report to SMBC’s chief business officer, Rakesh Garg. - economic times.

🍒           Microfinance Q2 disbursals at ₹76,054 crore, AUM grows 25% to ₹3.8-lakh crore : Microfinance loan disbursals rose to ₹76,054 crore in Q2 FY24 from ₹71,916 crore in the year ago period. However, the number of loan disbursements fell to 1.69 crore in Q2 from 1.81 crore loans in the previous year, indicating an increase in the ticket size, MFIN (Microfinance Institutions Network) said in its quarterly report. Overall microfinance loan portfolio grew 25 per cent y-o-y to ₹3.8-lakh crore as of September 30, covering 7.1 crore unique borrowers with 13.9 crore loan accounts, up 13.9 per cent on-year. “Growth momentum of the microfinance industry has continued in Q2 FY24, and the portfolio quality has also come near pre-Covid levels with PAR (portfolio at risk) 30 days to 180 days at 2.0 per cent,” said CEO and Director Alok Misra. - Business Line.

🍒           Deposit rates could peak over the next two quarter: Kotak Securities : Deposit rates could peak over the next two quarters as the re-pricing cycle is still not fully complete, according to a Kotak Securities Ltd (KSL) report. “Comparison of current-term deposit interest rates and the headline rates offered by banks suggests that we are moving closer to peak deposit rates for the system. It is still not complete and we probably have a couple of quarters before rates have peaked,” said KSL analysts M B Mahesh, Nischint Chawathe, Ashlesh Sonje, Abhijeet Sakhare, Varun Palacharla and Sidham Jain, in the report. - Business Line.

🍒           Razorpay POS records 60% growth in FY23 after acquiring Ezetap : Fintech unicorn Razorpay reported a 60 per cent growth in its POS Business in FY23 following the acquisition of Ezetap (Razorpay POS) in 2022.  Razorpay POS witnessed a 40 per cent growth in its total payment volume (TPV) from April to October 2023 compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. The company said that 91 per cent of the cumulative TPV for this timeframe was attributed to UPI transactions at doorstep, while SMS Pay contributed 9 per cent. Another trend was the 21 per cent increase in the conversion of cash on delivery to digital payments, surpassing the transaction volume recorded from April to October 2022. - Business Line.

🍒           Paytm to cut down on small-ticket loans after RBI tightens consumer lending norms, set to expand higher-ticket ones : After the Reserve Bank of India tightened rules on consumer lending, Paytm has decided to cut down on disbursing loans under ₹50,000, said the Indian digital payments firm on Wednesday. In addition to this, the bank is likely to expand to higher ticket ones.  The company is planning to reduce the proportion of small-ticket loans, also called postpaid loans, from its future loan distribution business. The move will lead to a near 40%-50% drop in the volume of loans disbursed through the platform's post-paid product, Bhavesh Gupta, President and chief operating officer of Paytm, said on a call with analysts, reported Reuters. - live mint.

🍒           Rs 10K crore AUM by Feb: Godrej Capital MD : Non-banking financial company (NBFC) Godrej Capital is on track to achieve Rs 10,000 crore as assets under management (AUM) by February 2024, MD & CEO Manish Shah has told FE.“Our first major goal was Rs 10,000 crore in three years or March 2024. We should reach Rs 10,000 crore in either January or February” he said. As of October end, the NBFC’s AUM stood at Rs 8,000 crore, split equally between housing and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) loans. The NBFC will aim to grow its AUM to Rs 30,000 crore by FY26 end and to Rs 50,000 crore by FY28, Shah said. He added the  split would likely change to 70% MSME loans and 30% mortgage loans.Moreover, the NBFC will require fresh capital to the tune of Rs 1,500 crore over the next couple of years and it would seek Rs 1,000 crore from the promoters Godrej Industries. The promoter group has infused Rs 2,000 crore into the NBFC in the last three years. - financial express.

🍒           NBFC-MFI assets rise 39% y-o-y : The assets under management of non-banking financial company – microfinance institutions (NBFC-MFIs) rose 39.2% year-on-year to Rupees 1.3 trillion as on September 30, a release from microfinance institutions network (MFIN) showed.  The AUM includes an owned portfolio of Rupees 1.1 trillion, and a managed portfolio of Rupees 24,501 crore. The gross loan portfolio of the overall microfinance industry rose 25% y-o-y to Rupees 3.8 trillion as on September 30. - financial express.

🍒           Paytm expands credit distribution business to focus on higher ticket loans in partnership with large banks, NBFCs : One97 Communications Limited (OCL) that owns Paytm, on Wednesday announced that it will expand its business to offer higher ticket personal and merchant loans, which would be targeted at lower risk and high credit worthy customers, in partnership with large banks and NBFCs. On the back of recent macro development and regulatory guidance, in consultation with lending partners, in line with its continued focus on driving a healthy portfolio, the company has recalibrated the portfolio origination of less than Rs 50,000, which is prominently the postpaid loan product and will now be a smaller part of its loan distribution business going forward, the company said.  - financial express

🍒           SBI shares trade higher on plans to pick up 20% more in SBI Pension Funds : Shares of State Bank of India climbed 1 percent to Rs 614 in early trade on December 6 after the bank announced its intention to acquire a 20 percent stake in SBI Pension Funds currently held by SBI Capital Markets. The state-run lender holds a 60 percent stake in SBI Pension Funds. The deal will raise its ownership to 80 percent. The acquisition, valued at Rs 229.52 crore, will result in SBI holding the majority stake, while SBI Funds Management will retain the remaining 20 percent stake in SBI Pension Funds. - moneycontrol.

🍒           Govt seeks Parliament nod to spend Rs 14,524 crore more on MGNREGA in FY24 : The central government on December 6 sought the Lok Sabha's nod to spend an additional Rs 14,524 crore on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in 2023-24 as part of its first batch of supplementary demands for grants. Tabled in the lower house of Parliament by Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, the first supplementary demands for grants for the current financial year is seeking permission to spend a gross Rs 1.29 lakh crore more than what was indicated in the Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, 2023. On a net basis, the additional spending anticipated is Rs 58,378 crore, with various ministeries and departments seen making savings to the tune of Rs 70,968 crore. - moneycontrol.

🍒           Rupee rises 5 paise to close at 83.32 against US dollar : The rupee appreciated 5 paise to close at 83.32 (provisional) against the US dollar on Decemeber 6, helped by a bullish trend in domestic equities and sustained foreign fund inflows. Forex traders said elevated American currency in the overseas markets and dollar buying by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) capped sharp gains for the local unit. The rupee consolidated in a narrow range as investors remained on the sidelines ahead of the RBI's monetary policy decision later this week. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened at 83.35 against the greenback. he rupee oscillated between an intra-day low of 83.37 and a high of 83.29 against the greenback and finally settled at 83.32 (provisional) against the dollar, higher by 5 paise from its previous close, even as domestic benchmark indices touched new lifetime peaks. On December 5, the rupee settled at 83.37 against the dollar. - Business Line.

🍒           Market update: Sensex jumps 290 pts; Nifty over 75 pts : In the early trade on Wednesday, Sensex jumped 303.25 points to fresh peak of 69,599.39 and Nifty rose by 100.05 points to hit record high of 20,955.15. Nifty is currently at 20,933.15, up by 78.05 points or 0.37 per cent at 9:43 am; while BSE Sensex is at 69,586.27, up by 290.13 points or 0.40 per cent at 9:46 am. Stocks that gained on the NSE earlier on Wednesday were Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, UPL, LTIMindtree, and Asian Paints. Major losers were Bajaj Auto, ICICI Bank, Eicher Motors, Hindalco, and Ultratech Cement. - 

🙏"All the Best…Have a Good Day "💐🌻👨‍👩‍👧‍👧🙏