Three new developments herald a possible new beginning for Paytm Payments Bank (PPB): The reconstitution of its board of directors, apparently due to pressure from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI); the stepping down of Vijay Shekhar Sharma (51% shareholder of PPB) as part-time chairman and the induction of...
Axis Capital’s structured finance team is proud of its “unblemished track record of ‘No Default’ in any transaction with 100% investor money”. But the underwriting of Rs 2.6 bn of non-convertible debentures (NCD) of Sojo Infotel in March 2021 may result in its inaugural blemish on March 25, 2024,...
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. Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was forced to disclose its confidential inspection reports, called Risk Assessment Reports (RARs), of the State Bank of India (SBI), HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank for the years FY2013 to FY2015. Shockingly, among the four banks, HDFC Bank...
On May 12, 2017, Yes Bank, released its annual report for the year ended March 31, 2017 where the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) mandatory disclosure showed that for the year ended March 31, 2016, the bank’s gross non-performing assets (NPAs) was higher by 5.6x to Rs49.3bn instead of...
By Hemindra Hazari
Even on their best days, India’s financial newspapers are watchdogs that rarely bark. For the most part, they prefer not to place large companies under the scanner, let alone try and fix accountability on influential promoters and powerful chief executive officers.
On March 20, 2019, Business Standard (BS) announced that...
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),...
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)’s order dated June 30, 2022 indicted not only the senior-most executives of Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund (KMF), but also Kotak Mahindra Trustee Company (KMTC), for failing in its oversight of the asset management company. The matter related to KMF’s investment in...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. Yet another instance has come to light of the practice of disguising transactions by routing them through shell companies. As revealed by ET Prime, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) issued show cause notice to Aditya Birla Finance (ABF) on the latter’s alleged role in...
Private sector banks’ high and sharply rising attrition is in the spotlight, thanks to the mandatory disclosures in banks’ annual and business sustainability reports since FY2023. However, inter-bank comparison may not be an accurate indicator of the attrition in a particular bank, as some large banks use unlisted subsidiaries...
