Hemindra Hazari
The media has gone overboard on the government of India’s decision not to give Raghuram Rajan, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor, a second term, and focused on how the government is unable to retain an internationally acclaimed economist. However, now that Rajan is going, we need...
State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest bank, became even larger with the merger of its five commercial banking subsidiaries on April 1, 2017.
Leading up to the All Fool’s Day merger, in mid-February 2017, finance minister Arun Jaitley was confident the step would make the bank a global player; a month...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. On February 27, 2020 the Reserve Bank of India
finally approved Sumant Kathpalia as the CEO who will succeed Romesh Sobti when
the latter retires on March 23, 2020. Kathpalia, who has a background in
consumer finance and wealth management, will be taking charge of a bank which
is facing stiff...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. Nearly a year after Axis Bank truncated the responsibilities of its Chief Risk Officer (CRO) by transferring corporate credit risk to the role of the newly created Chief Credit Officer (CCO) who reported only to the CEO, HDFC Bank has decided to go a step further. It...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)’s order penalising Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund (Kotak MF), a subsidiary of Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB) provides an in depth insight normally unavailable to the public on how imprudently investment decisions are taken by so called professionals in marquee firms...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. Documents of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), like those of most central banks, are usually dry, sober statements of fact and analysis. Thus readers of the RBI’s April 2021 State of the Economy document would have sat up and rubbed their eyes as they read its...
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...
Hemindra Hazari
9 July 2019
On 26 June 2019, confronted with a contempt petition filed in the Supreme Court of India by Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI) activist, Girish Mittal, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) finally disclosed the hitherto confidential annual inspection reports, called risk assessment reports (RARs),...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. Although ICICI Bank reported a strong performance in 3QFY20, the market has ignored the increase in the deferred tax asset (DTA) which inflated the net profit by Rs 2 bn. It would have been more prudent for the bank to continue with its earlier practice in 1QFY20...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. At a time when many private sector banks such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Indusind Bank and Yes Bank have increased their deferred tax asset (DTA) in 2HFY2020 as compared with 1HFY2020, thereby inflating their net profits in the period, it is heartening to observe...
