For the last 5 years, the profitability of HDFC Bank, India’s largest
bank by market capitalisation, has declined even though its critical net
interest margin (NIM) has remained constant. Interestingly, to maintain its
pristine margin, the bank has focused on taking on more risk in the form of
unsecured retail loans. Such a...
Mumbai: It is the season of resignations for the independent directors of India Inc’s corporate boards.
The recent stormy exit of R. Chandrashekhar from the board of Yes Bank caught the media’s attention, after which the private sector lender had to issue an apology to the stock exchanges and retract its earlier statement that his resignation was...
Claudius, in Hamlet, noted that “When sorrows come, they come not single spies but in battalions.”
He could well have been speaking about the woes of Yes Bank shareholders. The last few months, and in particular November, have been a punch in the gut to owners of the stock.
On November 14,...
Leadership is
unravelling at Yes Bank and the stock is tanking. In the dark hours of November
14, the bank announced the immediate resignations of Ashok Chawla, its
non-executive, independent chairman, and Vasant Gujarathi, an independent
director and head of its important audit committee. The directors of Yes Bank appear to have
joined the...
The unseemly public jostling between India’s central bank and the government of India casts a poor light on both institutions. Adhering to unrealistic fiscal deficit constraints has compelled the government to plunder public institutions such as the Life Insurance Corporation of India, ONGC and now the Reserve Bank of...
Romesh Sobti, CEO, Indusind Bank, is a veteran banker with 43 years’ experience. He recently went on record to defend the bank’s substantial bridge loan to the fast-collapsing IL&FS, a systemically important non-deposit-taking core investment company. Sadly, he found this writer’s earlier insight on Indusind to be “nasty” and...
Indusind Bank, one of the stock market darlings and foreign investor
favourites, startled the capital market with a mere 5% rise in net earnings.
Earnings rose to Rs 9.2 bn for the quarter ended September 30, 2018 (2QFY2019),
as compared with the consensus estimate of Rs 11 bn. This was on account...
The quality and intellectual calibre of the former directors of insolvent IL&FS was revealed to all when an anonymous former director and ex-member of its risk management committee of the board went on record with a Business Standard journalist to justify the incompetence of the board. Such conduct may...
Even though the government has intervened and installed a new board, the IL&FS saga continues with no resolution in immediate sight. Daily reports of defaults of IL&FS group companies are heightening concerns in the financial market. This is happening in the back drop of the rupee in free fall, stock market...
Sunlight is said to be
the best disinfectant; it is also considered fatal for vampires. Whatever be
the reason, the ICICI Bank board has decided to take no chances of the
slightest ray falling on its murky recesses. It has appointed a complete
insider to replace Chanda Kochhar, the bank’s CEO-under-investigation.
Ms Kochhar, who...
