EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
For the beleaguered non-bank finance company (NBFC) sector, banks are the single largest component of external funding. This source peaked at the end of September 2018, in the aftermath of the default of IL&FS, a private unlisted infrastructure developer and financer. However, in the beginning of the last...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. The credit rating agency, ICRA (an affiliate of Moody’s) has finally sacked Naresh Takkar, its chief executive officer (CEO). This appears to be a belated response to pressure from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the capital markets regulator. Earlier, following an anonymous complaint to SEBI, reportedly...
In an earlier insight, More Transparency Was Expected From HDFC Regarding Its Reliance Naval Exposure, on April 19, 2018, this writer had cautioned that RNE was a problem account in the industry and that most banks in the consortium would be classifying the account as a NPA.
On April...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. The capital markets continue to reward private sector banks with rich valuations, benefitting shareholders. But larger stakeholders such as bank customers are registering a steep increase in complaints to the banks’ ombudsman. For the year July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020, customer complaints (per branch and...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. Many cases of mis-selling by ICICI Prudential Life (IPru Life) have been highlighted by this analyst since 2018 (also here and here). The company has responded by highlighting the high and improving persistency ratios (proportion of business that is retained from the business underwritten, measured in terms...
A Kotak family entity, Infina Finance Private Ltd. (Infina), purchased electoral bonds totalling Rs 1.3 billion – which is more than twice the amount disclosed by the State Bank of India (SBI) to the Election Commission of India (ECI) during FY2019 to FY2022.
In FY2020, the company purchased Rs 760...
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
Risk management is the control and nerve centre of a bank. The independence of control and vigilance functions like risk management and audit has to be fiercely protected by the board of directors and the banking regulator. So when a major bank starts downgrading its chief risk officer...
The bank’s promoter-cum-CEO and its board of directors have not understood the letter and spirit of an important banking rule, but have instead sought to take it as a starting point for negotiation.
Uday Kotak. Credit: Reuters
Hemindra HazariBANKING17/AUG/2018
In an indictment of Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB) and its promoter-CEO, Uday Kotak,...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.
Problem: You are a leading
sell-side analyst. What do you do when confronted with valuable, authoritative,
and hitherto confidential information about India’s leading banks?
A. Highlight it.
B. Analyse it and publish a research report on it.
C. Pretend it doesn’t exist.
The correct answer, of
course, is C. Pink...
