Rs 6.84 lakh crore, HDFC Bank's home loan book closes gap with SBI's

      Rs 6.84 lakh crore, HDFC Bank's home loan book closes gap with SBI's : The largest private sector lender HDFC Bank on Thursday said its home loan book reached Rs 6.84 lakh crore in the December quarter, closing the gap with its public sector rival State Bank of India. SBI, the country's largest lender, has a home loan book of Rs 6.94 lakh crore. SBI overtook HDFC in home loan assets in February 2021 when its book crossed the Rs 5 lakh crore-mark with a market share of 23.5 per cent as against HDFC's 17 per cent. Before merger, HDFC Bank's parent firm HDFC was the market leader in the segment for several decades. In the December quarter, SBI added 13.6 per cent to its home loan book on-year to reach Rs 6.94 lakh crore, and 3.22 per cent sequentially from Rs 6.72 lakh crore. - economic times.

🍒           HDFC Bank to launch home saver and home refurbishment loans : HDFC Bank plans to launch the Home Saver product in April and Home Refurbishment loans in the coming months, said a senior bank official speaking to the media on Thursday.  The Home Saver product is like an overdraft facility and will directly compete with the State Bank of India’s Maxgain home loan scheme. HDFC Ltd offered a Home Refurbishment loan before its merger with HDFC Bank, and it will be relaunched soon. Both the products will be offered to the existing and new customers, Arvind Kapil country head – mortgage banking, home loan, and LAP at HDFC Bank told media persons. The Home Refurbishment loan is likely to be 100 basis points higher than the rate at which the bank charges home loans, he said. HDFC Bank currently charges between 8.55% and 9.10% on home loans linked to the external benchmark lending rate (EBLR). - economic times.

🍒           City Union Bank wins IBA’s banking technology awards : Old private sector lender City Union Bank (CUB) has won seven awards in various categories in the recently concluded ‘19th Banking Technology Conference, Expo & Citations 2023’ by the Indian Banks Association (IBA) in Mumbai. The awards aim at recognising the best technology providers in the banking industry and instill competition to demonstrate their state-of-the-art innovative products, and sense of purpose and bring huge value addition in Best Practices for serving the bank’s clientele, said a statement. - Business Line.

🍒           South Indian Bank gets Best Technology Bank of the year award : South Indian Bank has been honoured with the title of Best Technology Bank of the Year Award at the 19th IBA Annual Banking Technology Conference, Expo, & Citations. The bank’s outstanding performance was recognised with a total of six prestigious awards. In three categories, the bank emerged as the winner, secured the runner-up position in one, and received special mentions in two others. The awards were presented to PR Seshadri, MD & CEO of South Indian Bank, by T Rabi Sankar, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, in Mumbai. - Business Line.

🍒           RBI and Nepal Rastra Bank to integrate their respective fast payment systems : he Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) are planning to integrate their respective fast payment systems for facilitating cross-border remittances between India and Nepal. Towards this end, the two central banks on Thursday signed and exchanged Terms of Reference. The fast payment systems (FPSs) of India and Nepal are called the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) of India and the National Payments Interface (NPI). - Business Line.

🍒           RBI suspends Mastercard, Visa’s card-based commercial payments\: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked Mastercard and Visa to suspend commercial payments made by companies through cards. According to a letter issued on February 8, the banking regulator directed these firms to suspend all business payment solution providers’ (BPSP) transactions till further notice. These players, including some bankers, approached RBI on Wednesday (February 14) to clarify the business model to be followed in case corporate card-to-business account money transfer transactions, said reports. - financial express.

🍒           Axis Bank, Max Life say got all approvals for stake buy; fraud allegations “unfounded” : In response to a public interest writ petition filed in connection with Axis Bank’s stake acquisition in Max Life Insurance, the private sector lender clarified that it has obtained all necessary regulatory approvals and that the allegations are “unfounded”. The petition was filed by former Rajya Sabha member and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy before the Delhi High Court, against the Union of India, Axis Bank, Axis Securities, Axis Capital and others. The case will next be heard on March 13. “Axis Bank has obtained all necessary regulatory approvals in connection with these transactions. We will also take required steps to defend Axis Bank against any unfounded allegations,” it said in a statement. - Business Line.

🍒           CSB Bank NIM to moderate at 4.5-5% in FY25: MD : Thrissur-headquartered CSB Bank expects its net interest margin (NIM) to normalise between 4.5% and 5% in the next financial year, from 5.11% in Q3FY24, managing director and CEO Pralay Mondal told FE. The bank’s NIM, a key indicator of lenders’ profitability, has already moderated by 41 bps on a year-on-year basis to 5.11%, as low-yield loan segments grew faster than high-margin advances. Mondal said while the bank will retain the NIM above 5% this fiscal, the margins will likely squeeze to below 5% level once the share of low-yield loans grows and that of high-yielding gold loans declines. - financial express

🍒           RBI asks card networks to halt card-based business payments on KYC, fund-use concerns : RBI has asked card networks such as Visa and Mastercard to stop commercial card transactions under the Business Payment Solution Providers (BPSP) business, citing concerns about the legitimacy and inadequacy of merchant KYC and the end use of funds. The central bank has written to the networks on a sub-segment of B2B (business-to-business) payments called BPSP, with queries on how it works and the participants involved. Meanwhile, it has also barred any such incremental transactions, sources told businessline. - Business Line.

🍒           RBI may relax evergreening rules for strategically important AIFs : The Reserve Bank of India may create a carve-out for strategically important funds from the restrictions imposed by the evergreening circular issued in December.  This may include NIIF funds, SIDBI Fund of Funds, SBICap Venture’s Self Reliant India Fund (SRI) and SWAMIH Investment Fund (SIF) and any new funds that the government may launch in the future or considered as “strategically important”, said a person in the know.Equity funds are expected to see some leeway but not much relaxation may be granted to debt funds. A cap on the exposure of an NBFC into an AIF may also be introduced.  - Business Line.

🍒           Only one card network has unauthorised BPSP operations: RBI : The Reserve Bank of India cracked down on unauthorised payments through business cards, saying that it has observed that one card network has arrangements to allow such payments through intermediaries. “It has come to the notice that a card network has an arrangement that enables businesses to make card payments through certain intermediaries to entities that do not accept card payments.” While the central bank did not name the card network, it said that “only one card network” has operationalised this arrangement in the country so far” and that the matter is under detailed examination. - Business Line.

🍒           ED questions Paytm executives, gets documents on latest RBI action : The Enforcement Directorate has questioned senior Paytm executives and taken submission of documents from them following the recent RBI action of barring Paytm Payments Bank Ltd from accepting deposits or top-ups in any customer account, official sources said Thursday. The central agency, according to the sources, is conducting preliminary examination of documents before it decides to launch a formal investigation into the RBI-flagged alleged irregularities at the fintech company under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). - financial express

🍒           NARCL, Omkara ARC in fray for Wind World debt : State-owned National Asset Reconstruction Company (NARCL) and Manish Lalwani-promoted Omkara Assets Reconstruction Company (ARC) are in the fray to acquire the debt of wind turbine manufacturer Wind World (India) that has been under corporate insolvency process for over five years.  NARCL has offered ₹670 crore to lenders, which mainly includes government-owned banks, while Omkara ARC has offered ₹550 crore as upfront cash, people aware of the developments told ET. - economic times.

🍒           PayU, NPCI join hands to roll out Credit Lines on UPI’ feature : Payments solution provider, PayU on Thursday announced collaboration with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for rolling out of the ‘Credit Lines on UPI’ feature on its platform, which will create avenues of financial security and growth for the merchants. "The enablement of pre-sanctioned Credit Lines by banks through UPI will empower businesses and consumers alike, fostering India’s financial inclusion agenda," the company said in a media release. - economic times.

🍒           New home for Shriram Housing Finance: Private equity funds close in on deal : Bain Capital, Advent International and CVC Capital are among the private equity funds that are competing to buy Shriram Housing Finance Ltd (SHFL), an arm of Chennai-based non-banking finance company (NBFC) Shriram Finance, said people with knowledge of the matter.  These three, along with Warburg Pincus, have been shortlisted after non-binding bids were submitted by potential buyers in mid-December. They are currently engaged in conducting due diligence. Binding bids are due in a fortnight. - economic times.

🍒           ICICI Bank branch manager duped depositors of crores for years to meet targets : An ICICI Bank branch manager and his aides managed to meet their business performance targets for years by withdrawing money out of the bank accounts of unsuspecting account holders of the branch. They withdrew this money to create an illusion of opening new FD, current and savings accounts. However, someone got to know about it and started blackmailing the bank branch officials. To cover up their misdeeds, their act of misappropriation of money went to the next level and more money was taken out of the bank accounts of customers and was used to pay an Udaipur-based individual as hush money. - economic times.

🍒           ​Tax free premature redemption of Sovereign Gold Bond (SGB) is allowed only within this 21-day annual window : If a retail individual investor wants to encash their Sovereign Gold Bond (SGB) investment prematurely and not pay any income tax on the capital gains, then the way to do so is to apply for premature redemption with the RBI. However, this premature redemption window opens typically for 21 days and only after a specified interval. The RBI opens the SGB buyback window every year starting from the fifth year of the said SGB tranche. "Though the tenor of the bond is 8 years, early encashment/redemption of the bond is allowed after the fifth year from the date of issue on coupon payment dates," said the RBI in a frequently asked question (FAQ) about SGB on its website. - economic times.

🍒           Canara Robeco AMC sees AUM touching ₹1-lakh cr by March-end : Canara Robeco AMC expects its asset under management to touch ₹1-lakh crore in March from ₹80,000 crore as of December-end on the back of buoyancy in equity market and increased fund flow. Rajnish Narula, CEO, Canara Robeco Mutual Fund, said the industry is poised for a steady growth for the next five years given the overall bullish sentiment in the equity market and enabling government policies that has ensured all the segment of economy participate in India’s $5 trillion GDP target. - Business Line.

🍒           Sensex gains 227 pts; Nifty closes above 21,900; midcap, smallcap stocks shine : Sensex, Nifty updates on 15 February 2024: Equity benchmark Sensex climbed over 225 points to reclaim the 72,000-mark on Thursday, while the Nifty settled close to the 22,000 level, supported by hectic buying in market heavyweights M&M, HDFC Bank and SBI amid a largely firm trend in global equities. Besides, a heavy rush on auto, energy and utility counters also helped the indices, traders said. Rising for the third straight session, the BSE Sensex climbed 227.55 points or 0.32 per cent to close at 72,050.38. The index opened strong and touched a high of 72,164.97 and a low of 71,644.44 during intra-day trades. The NSE Nifty also gained 70.70 points or 0.32 per cent to end at 21,910.75. - Business Line.

🍒           Rupee falls 2 paise to close at 83.04 against US dollar : The rupee consolidated in a narrow range and depreciated by 2 paise to close at 83.04 (provisional) against the US dollar on Thursday, tracking a strong American currency and elevated crude oil prices in the international market. Forex traders said the Indian currency depreciated as foreign fund outflows weighed on the rupee. However, positive domestic markets cushioned the downside. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 83.00 and finally settled at 83.04 (provisional) against the dollar, down by 2 paise from its previous close. - Business Line.