EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. HDFC Bank’s low-cost liabilities strategy of focusing on huge numbers of new client acquisitions in the semi-urban and rural centres may be getting large numbers of new customers, but is not resulting in significant growth in current and savings account deposits (CASA). The pressure on CASA appears...
Hemindra Hazari
ICICI Bank, India’s largest private sector bank by assets, posted shocking results for the quarter ended March 31, 2016. The consensus analyst forecast for the bank’s net profit was Rs. 3,100 crores; the bank reported a paltry Rs. 702 crores. This was an annual decline of 76% (compared to Rs....
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. With the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposing a penalty of Rs 100 mn (US$ 1.4 mn) on HDFC Bank, the curtain has finally come down on the considerable irregularities (in around 2014-2019) in the bank’s automobile loan division. After verifying a whistleblower’s tweets (June 17, 2020),...
Hemindra Hazari
The year is not even three weeks old but has already been unkind to financial markets. The stock market is back to pre-Modi levels; the rupee is back to pre-Raghuram Rajan levels.
While global markets absorbed the US Federal hike in late December 2015, the stock market meltdown in...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. Despite ICICI Prudential Life Insurance (IPru Life) reporting improvement in long-term persistency ratios, there are worrying examples of brazen mis-selling of life insurance policies by the company through its corporate agent, Angel Financial Advisors and even its parent, ICICI Bank. The cases of two 21-year old customers...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. The Council of Ethics of the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), the Norwegian sovereign fund, recommended on February 19, 2020 that Page Industries (licensed to produce the Jockey brand of clothing and Speedo in India) be excluded from investment by the fund. GPFG is the world’s largest...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. Senior executives are rushing for the exit door at Aditya Birla Finance Ltd. (ABFL), the non-bank finance company (NBFC) subsidiary of Aditya Birla Capital (ABC), the holding company for all the financial services business of the Aditya Birla group. Since May 2021, at least five senior officials...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. The Covid-19 outbreak and the resulting lockdown have caused widespread economic devastation, particularly in urban and commercially developed centres. Taking into account the loss of revenue faced by different types of businesses, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) plans to come out with a one-time restructuring package...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. Axis Bank recently diminished the authority of its Chief Risk Officer (CRO) by taking corporate credit risk assessment away from him and giving it to the Chief Credit Officer. Cyril Anand, President and Chief Risk Officer (CRO), Axis Bank, has been ‘retired’ early, and the bank has...
