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Indian Banking Sector Snaphot

Deposit growth has been steady

·         
                Total money supply increased at a CAGR of 11.14 per cent during FY06–16*

·         Between FY06–16*, narrow money supply (M1) rose at a CAGR of 7.69 per cent to US$ 392.8 billion, broad money supply (M2) increased at a CAGR of 6.49 per cent to US$ 395.3 billion and money supply (M3) grew at a CAGR of 11.14 per cent to US$ 1.8 trillion by the end of October’15

·         Time deposits with banks have shown highest average growth of 12.9 per cent during FY06–16*, and stood at US$ 1.44 trillion by the end of October’15

Introduction

          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.

Indian banking industry is expected to witness the roll out of innovative banking models like payments and small finance banks. 11 payment banks are expected to be launched in 2016 and 2017. Separately about 10 small finance banks are also expected to be launched. RBI’s new measures may go a long way in helping the restructuring of the domestic banking industry.

Market Size

       The Indian banking system consists of 26 public sector banks, 25 private sector banks, 43 foreign banks, 56 regional rural banks, 1,589 urban cooperative banks and 93,550 rural cooperative banks, in addition to cooperative credit institutions. Public-sector banks control nearly 80 percent of the market, thereby leaving comparatively much smaller shares for its private peers.

Standard & Poor’s estimates that credit growth in India’s banking sector would improve to 12-13 per cent in FY16 from less than 10 per cent in the second half of CY14.

Investments/developments

Key investments and developments in India’s banking industry include:

• FreeCharge, the wallet company owned by online retailer Snapdeal, has partnered with Yes Bank and MasterCard to launch FreeCharge Go, a virtual card that allows users to pay for goods and services at online shops and offline retailers.
• Exim Bank of India and the Government of Andhra Pradesh has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote exports in the state.
• Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited has bought 19.9 per cent stake in Airtel M Commerce Services Limited (AMSL) for Rs 98.38 crore (US$ 14.43 million) to set up a payments bank. AMSL provides semi-closed prepaid instrument and offers services under the ‘Airtel Money’ brand name.
• Ujjivan Financial Services Ltd, a microfinance services company, has raised Rs 312.4 crore (US$ 45.84 million) in a private placement from 33 domestic investors including mutual funds, insurance firms, family offices and High Net Worth Individuals (HNIs)).
• India's largest public sector bank, State Bank of India (SBI), has opened its first branch dedicated to serving start-up companies, in Bengaluru.
• Global rating agency Moody's has upgraded its outlook for the Indian banking system to stable from negative based on its assessment of five drivers including improvement in operating environment and stable asset risk and capital scenario.
• Lok Capital, a private equity investor backed by US-based non-profit organisation Rockefeller Foundation, plans to invest up to US$ 15 million in two proposed small finance banks in India over the next one year.
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has granted in-principle licences to 10 applicants to open small finance banks, which will help expanding access to financial services in rural and semi-urban areas.
• IDFC Bank has become the latest new bank to start operations with 23 branches, including 15 branches in rural areas of Madhya Pradesh.
• The RBI has given in-principle approval to 11 applicants to establish payment banks. These banks can accept deposits and remittances, but are not allowed to extend any loans.
• The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (BTMU), a Japanese financial services group, aims to double its branch count in India to 10 over the next three years and also target a 10 per cent credit growth during FY16.
• The RBI has allowed third-party white label automated teller machines (ATM) to accept international cards, including international prepaid cards, and said white label ATMs can now tie up with any commercial bank for cash supply.
• The RBI has allowed Indian alternative investment funds (AIFs), to invest abroad, in order to increase the investment opportunities for these funds.
• RBL Bank informed that it would be the anchor investor in Trifecta Capital’s Venture Debt Fund, the first alternative investment fund (AIF) in India with a commitment of Rs 50 crore (US$ 7.34 million). This move provides RBL Bank the opportunity to support the emerging venture debt market in India.
• Bandhan Financial Services raised Rs 1,600 crore (US$ 234.8 million) from two international institutional investors to help convert its microfinance business into a full service bank. Bandhan, one of the two entities to get a banking licence along with IDFC, launched its banking operations in August 2015.

Government Initiatives

     The government and the regulator have undertaken several measures to strengthen the Indian banking sector.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed additional reserves to be part of tier-1 or core capital of banks, such as revaluation reserves linked to property holdings, foreign currency translation reserves and deferred tax assets, which is expected to shore up the capital of state-run banks and privately owned banks by up to Rs 35,000 crore (US$ 5.14 billion) and Rs 5,000 crore (US$ 734 million) respectively.
• Scheduled commercial banks can grant non-fund based facilities including partial credit enhancement (PEC), to those customers, who do not avail any fund based facility from any bank in India.
• Ministry of Finance has planned to inject Rs 5,000 crore (US$ 734 million) in eight public sector banks in order to boost their capital,
• To reduce the burden of loan repayment on farmers, a provision of Rs 15,000 crore (US$ 2.2 billion) has been made in the Union Budget 2016-17 towards interest subvention.
• Under Pradhan Mantri Jan DhanYojna (PMJDY), 210 million accounts! have been opened and 174.6 million RuPay debit cards have been issued. These new accounts have mustered deposits worth Rs 33,704 crore (US$ 4.95 billion).
• The Government of India is looking to set up a special fund, as a part of National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), to deal with stressed assets of banks. The special fund will potentially take over assets which are viable but don’t have additional fresh equity from promoters coming in to complete the project.
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) plans to soon come out with guidelines, such as common risk-based know-your-customer (KYC) norms, to reinforce protection for consumers, especially since a large number of Indians have now been financially included post the government’s massive drive to open a bank account for each household.
• To provide relief to the state electricity distribution companies, Government of India has proposed to their lenders that 75 per cent of their loans be converted to state government bonds in two phases by March 2017. This will help several banks, especially public sector banks, to offload credit to state electricity distribution companies from their loan book, thereby improving their asset quality.
• Government of India aims to extend insurance, pension and credit facilities to those excluded from these benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Jan DhanYojana (PMJDY).
• To facilitate an easy access to finance by Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs), the Government/RBI has launched Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme to provide guarantee cover for collateral free credit facilities extended to MSEs upto Rs 1 Crore (US$ 0.15 million). Moreover, Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Ltd. was also established to refinance all Micro-finance Institutions (MFIs), which are in the business of lending to micro / small business entities engaged in manufacturing, trading and services activities upto Rs 10 lakh (US$ 0.015 million).

Road Ahead

           The Indian economy is on the brink of a major transformation, with several policy initiatives set to be implemented shortly. Positive business sentiments, improved consumer confidence and more controlled inflation are likely to prop-up the country’s the economic growth. Enhanced spending on infrastructure, speedy implementation of projects and continuation of reforms are expected to provide further impetus to growth. All these factors suggest that India’s banking sector is also poised for robust growth as the rapidly growing business would turn to banks for their credit needs.

Also, the advancements in technology have brought the mobile and internet banking services to the fore. The banking sector is laying greater emphasis on providing improved services to their clients and also upgrading their technology infrastructure, in order to enhance the customer’s overall experience as well as give banks a competitive edge.

Many banks, including HDFC, ICICI and AXIS are exploring the option to launch contact-less credit and debit cards in the market shortly. The cards, which use near field communication (NFC) mechanism, will allow customers to transact without having to insert or swipe.

Exchange Rate Used: INR 1 = US$ 0.0147 as on March 01, 2016

References: Media Reports, Press releases, Reserve Bank of India, Press Information Bureau, www.pmjdy.gov.in, Union Budget 2016-17

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