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. 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...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. In a major development, the Securities and the Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has finally instructed listed entities to disclose the audio/video recording of the analyst/institutional investors’ meet and presentations made at such meetings before the next trading day or within 24 hours, whichever is earlier. Written...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. Following in the footsteps of Raghuram Rajan, who during his tenure as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor accepted the fifth Deutsche Bank award in 2013 for financial economics, Shaktikanta Das, the present RBI governor accepted the Economic Times 2020 award for 'Business Reformer of the Year'....
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. In the last 3 years, studies have revealed the unprecedented acceleration and concentration of profits and economic power accruing at the pinnacle of corporate India. The large corporates have become bigger and the small corporates have fallen further behind. This has happened not only on account of...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. On April 23, 2020, Franklin Templeton India (FTI) took the unprecedented step of winding up its six debt mutual fund schemes. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) then ordered a confidential audit report on this fiasco. Excerpts of the report have now appeared in the...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. A noteworthy feature in the 3QFYGDP estimate is its dubious credibility, as indirectly admitted by the official statistical agency itself. In the 1QFYGDP and 2QFYGDP, while the National Statistical Office (NSO) had acknowledged that, on account of the lockdown, the estimates are “likely to undergo revisions” the...
