Latest News and Updates on Banking Sector

As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India’s banking sector is sufficiently capitalised and well-regulated. The financial and economic conditions in the country are far superior to any other country in the world. Credit, market and liquidity risk studies suggest that Indian banks are generally resilient and have withstood the global downturn well.

Innovation 

Mobile, internet banking and extension of facilities at ATMs will improve operational efficiency.RBI announced the launch of its first global hackathon ‘HARBINGER 2021 – Innovation for Transformation’ with the theme ‘Smarter Digital Payments’.Rising fee incomes are improving the revenue mix of banks.High net interest margins along with low NPA levels will ensure healthy business fundamentals.

Policy Support 

Wide policy support in the form of private sector participation and liquidity infusion.

RBI launched the ‘RBI Retail Direct Scheme’ for retail investors to increase retail participation in government securities.

Banking Industry  

The Indian banking industry has recently witnessed the roll out of innovative banking models like payments and small finance banks. RBI’s new measures may go a long way in helping the restructuring of the domestic banking industry. The digital payments system in India has evolved the most among 25 countries with India’s Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) being the only system at level five in the Faster Payments Innovation Index .

Market Size 

The Indian banking system consists of 12 public sector banks, 22 private sector banks, 46 foreign banks, 56 regional rural banks, 1485 urban cooperative banks and 96,000 rural cooperative banks in addition to cooperative credit institutions As of September 2021, the total number of ATMs in India reached 213,145 out of which 47.5 percent are in rural and semi urban areas.

In FY18-FY21, bank assets across sectors increased. Total assets across the banking sector (including public and private sector banks) increased to US$ 2.48 trillion in FY21.

In FY21, total assets in the public and private banking sectors were US$ 1,602.65 billion and US$ 878.56 billion, respectively.

During FY16-FY21, bank credit increased at a CAGR of 0.29 percent . As of FY21, total credit extended surged to US$ 1,487.60 billion. During FY16-FY21, deposits grew at a CAGR of 12.38 percent and reached US$ 2.06 trillion by FY21. Bank deposits stood at Rs. 162.41 trillion (US$ 2.17 trillion) as of December 31, 2021.

According to India Ratings & Research (Ind-Ra), credit growth is expected to hit 10 percent in 2022-23 which will be a double-digit growth in eight years. According to the RBI, bank credit stood at Rs. 116.8 lakh crore (US$ 1.56 trillion) on 31st December 2021.

As of February 2022, credit to non-food industries stood at Rs. 114.10 trillion (US$ 1.53 trillion).

Investments 

Key investments and developments in India’s banking industry includes the number of bank accounts—opened under the government’s flagship financial inclusion drive ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)’—reached 44.63 crore and deposits in the Jan Dhan bank accounts totalled Rs. 1.58 trillion (US$ 21.25 billion).

• On November 09, 2021, RBI announced the launch of its first global hackathon ‘HARBINGER 2021 – Innovation for Transformation’ with the theme ‘Smarter Digital Payments’. 
• In November 2021, Kotak Mahindra Bank announced that it had completed the acquisition of a 9.98 percent stake in KFin Technologies for Rs. 310 crore (US$ 41.62 million).
• In July 2021, Google Pay for Business enabled small merchants to access credit through tie-ups with the digital lending platform for MSMEs—FlexiLoans.
• In December 2020, in response to the RBI’s cautionary message, the Digital Lenders’ Association issued a revised code of conduct for digital lending
• On November 6, 2020, WhatsApp started UPI payments service in India on receiving the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) approval to ‘Go Live’ on UPI in a graded manner.
• In October 2020, HDFC Bank and Apollo Hospitals partnered to launch the ‘HealthyLife Programme’, a holistic healthcare solution that makes healthy living accessible and affordable on Apollo’s digital platform.
• In 2019, banking and financial services witnessed 32 M&A (merger and acquisition) activities worth US$ 1.72 billion.
• In March 2020, State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest lender, raised US$ 100 million in green bonds through private placement.
• In February 2020, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave its approval for continuation of the process of recapitalization of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) by providing minimum regulatory capital to RRBs for another year beyond 2019-20 – till 2020-21 to those RRBs which are unable to maintain minimum Capital to Risk weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR) of 9 percent as per the regulatory norms prescribed by RBI.

Government Initiatives

• National Asset reconstruction company (NARCL) will take over 15 non-performing loans (NPLs) worth Rs. 50,000 crores (US$ 6.70 billion) from the banks.
• National payments corporation India (NPCI) has plans to launch UPI lite which will provide offline UPI services for digital payments. Payments of upto Rs. 200 (US$ 2.67) can be made using this.
• In the Union budget of 2022-23 India has announced plans for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) which will be possibly known as Digital Rupee.
• National Asset reconstruction company (NARCL) will take over 15 Non performing loans (NPLs) worth Rs. 50,000 crores (US$ 6.70 billion) from the banks.
• In November 2021, RBI launched the ‘RBI Retail Direct Scheme’ for retail investors to increase retail participation in government securities.
• The RBI introduced new auto debit rules with a mandatory additional factor of authentication (AFA), effective from October 01, 2021, to improve the safety and security of card transactions, as part of its risk mitigation measures.
• In September 2021, Central Banks of India and Singapore announced to link their digital payment systems by July 2022 to initiate instant and low-cost fund transfers.
• In August 2021, Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi launched e-RUPI, a person and purpose-specific digital payment solution. e-RUPI is a QR code or SMS string-based e-voucher that is sent to the beneficiary’s cell phone. Users of this one-time payment mechanism will be able to redeem the voucher at the service provider without the usage of a card, digital payments app, or internet banking.

Achievements 

Following the achievements of the governments in January 2022, 

• Unified Payments Interface (UPI) recorded 4.62 billion transactions worth Rs. 8.32 trillion (US$ 111.8 billion). According to the RBI, India’s foreign exchange reserves reached US$ 630.19 billion as of February 18, 2022
• To improve infrastructure in villages, 204,000 point of sale (PoS) terminals have been sanctioned from the Financial Inclusion Fund by National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development .
• The number of transactions through immediate payment service (IMPS) reached 430.67 million and amounted to Rs. 3.70 trillion (US$ 49.75 billion) in October 2021.

Conclusion 

Enhanced spending on infrastructure, speedy implementation of projects and continuation of reforms are expected to provide further impetus to growth in the banking sector. All these factors suggest that India’s banking sector is poised for robust growth as rapidly growing businesses will turn to banks for their credit needs.