EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s decision to grant a 1-year extension to Vishwavir Ahuja, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), RBL Bank is similar to the 1-year extensions it provided to Murali Natarajan, CEO, DCB Bank and Shyam Srinivasan, CEO Federal Bank. In recent times, Udak Kotak, CEO-founder,...
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),...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. While Axis Bank has recovered from its corporate non-performing asset (NPA) crisis, it seems to be in the midst of a management attrition problem, partly explained by significant sackings in FY2020. Staff turnover levels have been steadily rising in the period FY2018 – FY2020 (FY2021 data is...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. In a little-publicised step, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has directed the first 1,000 companies by market capitalisation on the Indian bourses to disclose voluminous information in their business responsibility and sustainability reporting. For FY2022 this is voluntary, but from FY2023 it is to...
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...
The RBI’s decision on April 26, 2021 to curtail tenures of bank chief executive officers and executive directors may finally lead to Kotak relinquishing his post at the end of 2023.
Had the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) descended, like Moses, from Mount Sinai, perhaps it would have carried two...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. The integrity of audits in private sector banks and non-bank financial companies (including housing finance) has received a major boost, while large global and domestic audit firms have been dealt a body blow by the Reserve Bank of India’s new guidelines for the appointment of statutory auditors...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. ICICI Bank posted strong results for 4QFY2021 with standalone net profits up 260% yoy, but 11% down qoq to Rs 44 bn. While the analyst consensus and the capital market may view the results as a positive, investors need to monitor the bank’s focus on mortgages, which...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. Citi’s decision to withdraw from consumer banking in 13 geographies, including India, and focus instead on corporate/institutional banking, is a lesson in missed opportunities, at least in the case of India. Citi India was the pioneer in consumer banking, in products such as mortgages and credit cards,...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. There are two features worth noting in HDFC Bank’s 4QFY2021 results. The first is the continuing de-emphasis on retail loans. This was visible in the lower retail loan growth and the poor performance of HDB Financial Services, the non-bank finance subsidiary which is bearing the brunt of...
