In the past two years, recognising and resolving non-performing assets has become a central issue in the Indian banking sector, as the Reserve Bank of India pushed domestic lenders to unveil the full extent of their bad loans. Rekha Gupta Menon explores the impact this has had on the country's banks.
India's public sector banks are suffering from high non-performing assets and poor capitalisation. The government is considering privatisation as a way to revamp these lenders – starting with IDBI Bank – but is this the right solution? Rekha Gupta Menon investigates.
With a newly acquired banking licence and a vast national network, India Post has huge potential to boost financial inclusion in the country. However, as industry experts point out, much will rest on it getting the fundamentals – the technology, management and expertise – in place. Rekha Gupta Menon reports.
In the past 12 months, Indian banks have finally uncovered the full extent of their stressed assets. And for the first time, the Reserve Bank of India has given local lenders a framework to identify and deal with loans of concern. Rekha Gupta Menon explores how these stressed assets have hit Indian banks' profitability, and which lenders have performed better than others and why.
The governor of the Reserve Bank of India tells Stefania Palma about his role in halting the rupee’s slide and containing inflation to bring economic stability to the country. Not one to rest on his laurels, however, he is determined to reform India’s banking and corporate sectors.
The banking licences granted by India’s central bank to entities such as telcos, e-commerce companies and microfinance firms are shaking up one of the most traditional banking sectors in the Asia-Pacific region, threatening the dominance of the full-service public sector banks.
Ahead of the 2016 Asian Development Bank annual meeting in Frankfurt, the president of the ADB discusses China’s slowdown and reform agenda while underscoring that other parts of Asia – such as India – are still growing strongly. Interview by Stefania Palma.
With state funding on the decline, and new technologies and more stringent regulation both increasing, the Indian banking sector is undergoing a significant period of change. New players are entering the market, making it even more difficult for the state-owned banks, which are already struggling with deteriorating asset quality and incoming capital adequacy targets.
The Indian government may be keen for consolidation in the banking sector – driven by a desire to see the country's lenders figure among the world's largest banks – but internal resistance to such changes, from bank employees and their unions in particular, continue to thwart such activity. On top of this, India's lenders are struggling with non-performing assets, which has proved a blight on their profits over the past 12 months.