muthukumar arumugam

Archive for the ‘Banking’ Category

Base Rate & Banks- update

In Banking on July 1, 2010 at 12:28 pm

As per available information from my beloved bankers;

base rate will not be applicable to:

a)Staff loans

b)Differential Interest Rate Loans

 and

c)Loans against Deposits

Base rate & banks

In Banking on June 29, 2010 at 2:53 pm

From next week, the base rate will replace the BPLR in all the Indian banks. What’s the implication it will have on the banks, its customers and how the dynamics will change in the market with the introduction of base rate.

Back ground:

Earlier( till today) banks,used to arrive at a number called PLR- Prime Lending Rate( only they know how they arrived at that figure- today a PSU bank declared its base rate as 7.5% who use to keep its PLR at 12% till last week!!) , and they are not controlled by RBI on their lending rates, they can lend at rates more than PLR or lend at rate much lower than PLR.. ( if u are a small customer asking for loans, u would have heard bank officials saying, we cannot lend below PLR sir.., but the story is different).

The recession in 2008-2009 and the period after gave a wonderful insight to RBI regarding the lending patterns of banks. Most of the banks did not reduce the PLR rate, but were borrowing at a lower cost. They passed on the benefits of lower cost to few preferred clients, who are obviously bigger corporates and not the smaller companies or individuals. They have always been given a rate which is above the PLR. So, to increase transparency, RBI directed all the banks to follow a base rate model, where in the banks can never lend below a particular rate (base rate) to any of its customers. The base rate will be arrived factoring in the cost of borrowing and the admin costs. The banks can now design product specific rates, wrt base rate.

So, from now on,

1) All categories of loans will be priced only with reference to the Base Rate. 2) The Base Rate could also serve as the reference benchmark rate for floating rate loan products like home loans. IF the bank keeps a different /market benchmark, then the floating interest rate based on external benchmarks should be equal to or above the Base Rate .

 3) Banks cannot lend below base rate

 4) Calculation of lending rate will be – base rate+ product specific operating cost+ risk premium etc.

Effects :

The home rates will not change drastically, because, the risk premium is lesser when compared to other sector lending, and the NPA rate is very minimum compared to corporate loans.

The personal loan will not move upwards any further, because, it is already in its highs, and the risk premium is also high for the product category. But, for any individuals, the credit score will help them to bargain loans from banks, provided the credit bureaus are approachable by individuals. (Now as a recent development, there is one more credit bureau getting developed in India, other than CIBIL).

With the huge potential and competition in both these segments, banks will not hike their rates..

If you are about to take a home loan, go for floating rate, since, they will be more transparent now.

The Small company owners will now get to access more loans at a better rate than what they are offered now. Till now, they were charged more to offset the lower interest charged to their bigger cousins..

Who will get affected? Few industries in high risk sectors will get affected, like real estate developers, will now pay more interest for loans on their so called land banks.

The most hit will be the PSU officials who used to sanction loans with lesser interest rate for some corporate and get kickbacks. This will be reduced to a great extend. ( I have seen ppl borrowing loans on their company and invest in stock markets earlier..!!)

On a whole it will improve the transparency involved in banking system, and will empower the customers more.

Export and DRI :

Still RBI is yet to come clear on the loans to export sector. The Differential rate of Interest ( DRI) scheme, will not be based on base rate; since they are aimed at weaker section of the society, to make them financially included.

 Bank Employees:

Am also not clear on the employee benefits offered to bank staffs regarding loans; they were given home loans and personal loans at half the interest rate charged in the market. Will this base rate be applicable to them as well? Have asked with few of my ex colleagues in banks.. will update once I get any response :-)

ICICI and HDFC are now foreign banks

In Banking on April 6, 2010 at 2:58 pm

 

Last week was a surprise to millions of share holders (needless to say – account holders and staff) of few private banks in India. Suddenly they have been branded as foreign banks and most of us were unclear whether they were sold to some foreign banks…(Given the reputation of one of them, who often faces charges of running out of cash in ATM and balance sheet issues, no wonder ppl thought in this line..) The banks affected (?) by this news are ICICI Bank, HDFC bank, YES bank, IndusInd bank, ING Vysya bank and DCB. The issue is as simple as this – shareholdings pattern shows that the majority stake of these banks are with foreign investors. What’s behind all these noise and how will it affect account holders and shareholders and the bank.
The controversy started when the govt (CCEA) issued a press note stating that investments by an Indian-owned company would count as Indian equity. An Indian-owned company is one where the beneficial foreign ownership is less than 50% and where the right to appoint the board is with resident Indians. The issue is as per the law, the foreign ownership is more than 50% and these companies say the right to appoint the board is with the resident Indians… interesting clash, huh…??

Let’s come to the law:
 
Any company in India is allowed to raise money from public through public issues. When they want more money to expand their business, they are allowed to raise money from foreign nationals through various options. As the FDI policy document issued by the GOI,
 FDI up to 74% from all sources will be permitted in private sector banks on the automatic route, subject to conformity with the guidelines issued by RBI from time to time.
b. For the purpose of determining the above-mentioned ceiling of 74% FDI under the “Automatic route” in respect of private sector banks, following categories of shares will be included.
·          FDI investment under Portfolio Investment Scheme(PIS) by FIIs,NRIs
·          IPOs,
·          Private placements,
·          ADRs/GDRs, and
·          Acquisition of shares from existing shareholders.
 
First of all, the FDI limits of these companies have not breached 51% all of a sudden. In December, the FDI holding pattern of ICICI stood at 64 % ( 36% by FII and 27 % thru ADR) and HDFC stood at 74% the maximum they could reach.
 
Coming to the voting rights,
Both the banks states, the voting rights are with the resident Indians to choose the board and the entire management lies with Indians. Say for example in the case of ICICI, it says at least 27 % of the shareholdings is held by a custodian (custodian for ADR holders), which in turn will vote in accordance with the board’s decision, and the board consists of Indians only. Sounds logical. Also they add that whatever be the holdings percentage, the voting rights will be restricted to 10, so as the banks say, nothing will change that they are Indian banks (by origin, operation, management, but not ownership :-)  ).
 
So if nothing is a problem, what’s the issue all about? It comes to affect their subsidiaries, especially insurance arms run by both the big players. ICICI prudential and HDFC standard life. The FDI limit in insurance is not at the same levels of FDI limit for banks , and it is controlled at 24 %. So far, all the insurance companies have reached their cap of 24% of FDI limits, and when ever capital is needed the domestic firm ( say for ex; ICICI in this case ), can pump in money to the subsidiary firm, as the capital would be considered coming from an Indian firm.
 
Now this practice cannot be continued , since as per the holdings pattern, these banks will be regarded as foreign banks, and every penny added will be considered as foreign money coming in….so , the expansion plans of these insurance firm will now be funded by themselves and cannot be supported with capital from the parent firms. This is the only and major problem for the banks .
 
With my limited knowledge, I cannot see any trouble for the account holders , as what ever the bank’s holding pattern are, be it PSB, private bank or foreign bank, our reserve bank assures not more than a lac of rupee for the depositor, in case of failure. I strongly feel, that this deposit insurance cap to be at least raised substantially , not to mention the full coverage. And for the employees of these banks, even though they are foreign banks, as their CXOs mentioned, they will still function as Indian banks.. So don’t expect a big pay check and bonus…

Structured Products -2: An Overview

In Banking, Mutual Funds, special talks on September 13, 2008 at 12:42 pm

Structured Products : An Overview

Structured Products are alternative instruments to direct investments, providing for risk-return balance; thereby reducing the risk exposure of a portfolio.  Structured Products provide for protection of principal if the instruments are held until maturity. They have some features of bonds that pay regular income and offer capital protection and also of equities that provide greater returns, but the catch is they have higher risk exposure.

The nature of structured product is predeterminethe instruments are held until maturity. They have some features of bonds that pay regular income d before issuance and they remain the same throughout the life of investment. Structured products are designed to provide investors with highly targeted investments tied to their specific risk profiles, return requirements and market expectations. Structured Products provide for various levels of capital protection for diversified portfolios and can be exercised to boost returns. Suave investors can make perfect use of the derivative-linked instruments. These instruments may not be suitable for individual investors.

Various structured products available for investors are:

§         Equity-linked notes & CDs

§         Index-linked notes & CDs

§         Inflation-linked notes

§         Commodity-linked notes

§         Derivatives (futures, options and swaps)

§         Credit-linked notes

§         Currency-linked notes

Prime Characteristics of Structured Products:

      §         Alteration of Risk/return of underlying primary product

§         Impersonate the risk/return of an underlying instrument

§         Derivative is not considered as just a hedging instrument but an integral part of the structured product

§         Combine primary product and a derivative to form a complete structure.

Need For Structured Products:

 Principal Protection: Structured Products aid in capital protection, providing for better returns against the risk exposure.

Enhancement: The portfolio’s return can be amplified using structured products.

Diversification: Risk/ Returns can be diversified using structured products.

Alternative Asset Exposure: Structured products when linked to various instruments like precious metals, real estate, etc. provide returns based on alternative assets with varying degree of principal protection.

Growth: Structured products aid in growth of a portfolio by protecting the downside and gaining the upside of the portfolio.

Market View; Structured Products allow for capitalizing on a specific market view.

Income: Structured products resemble bonds in the sense that they provide for periodic income in exchange for assuming principal risk.

Demistifying CAR….

In Banking on August 1, 2008 at 7:40 pm

Capital Adequacy Ratio

Capital adequacy ratio is the ratio which determines the  capacity of the bank in terms of meeting the time liabilities and other risk such as credit risk, operational risk, etc.( We have seen all these risks in the previous  post). In the most simple formulation, a bank’s capital is the “cushion” for potential losses, which protect the bank’s depositors or other lenders.

So, the capital which a bank needs to keep  adequeately to protect  its depositors.  It is defined as  a measure of a bank’s capital. It is expressed as a percentage of a bank’s risk weighted credit exposures. This ratio is used to protect depositors and promote the stability and efficiency of financial systems around the world. Usual Standard is 8%. Recently RBI announced that NBFC( Non Banking Finance Companies) should have a CAR of 10% (Bcos’ higher risk associated with NBFC).Two types of capital are measured – tier one capital which can absorb losses without a bank being required to cease trading, e.g. ordinary share capital, and tier two capital which can absorb losses in the event of a winding-up(Closing  the shop) and so provides a lesser degree of protection to depositors, e.g. subordinated debt.
 
 

 

 

So. To calculate the CAR, as a first step, the loans a bank has made are weighted, in a broad brush manner, according to their degree of riskiness, e.g. loans to Governments are given a 0 percent weighting whereas loans to individuals are weighted at 100 percent. Off-balance sheet contracts, such as guarantees and foreign exchange contracts, also carry credit risks. These exposures are converted to credit equivalent amounts which are also weighted in the same way as on-balance sheet credit exposures. On-balance sheet and off-balance sheet credit exposures are added to get total risk weighted credit exposures.

 ( Let’s see the calculation part later.. might be as a separate post..)

The minimum capital adequacy ratios that apply are:

  • tier one capital to total risk weighted credit exposures to be not less than 4 percent;
  • total capital (tier one plus tier two less certain deductions) to total risk weighted credit exposures to be not less than 8 percent.

 

Tier One capital:

Tier one capital is capital which is permanently and freely available to absorb losses without the bank being obliged to cease trading. An example of tier one capital is the ordinary share capital of the bank. Tier one capital is important because it safeguards both the survival of the bank and the stability of the financial system.

In general, this comprises:

  • the ordinary share capital (or equity) of the bank; and
  • audited revenue reserves e.g.. retained earnings; less
  • current year’s losses;
  • future tax benefits; and
  • intangible assets, e.g. goodwill.

 

 

Tier two capital:

It  is the  capital which generally absorbs losses only in the event of a winding-up of a bank, and so provides a lower level of protection for depositors and other creditors. It comes into play in absorbing losses after tier one capital has been lost by the bank.

Tier two capital is sub-divided into upper and lower tier two capital. Upper tier two capital has no fixed maturity, while lower tier two capital has a limited life span, which makes it less effective in providing a buffer against losses by the bank. An example of tier two capital is subordinated debt. This is debt which ranks in priority behind all creditors except shareholders. In the event of a winding-up, subordinated debt holders will only be repaid if all other creditors (including depositors) have already been repaid.

Upper Tier Two Capital

  • unaudited retained earnings;
  • revaluation reserves;
  • general provisions for bad debts;
  • perpetual cumulative preference shares (i.e. preference shares with no maturity date whose dividends accrue for future payment even if the bank’s financial condition does not support immediate payment);
  • perpetual subordinated debt (i.e. debt with no maturity date which ranks in priority behind all creditors except shareholders).

Lower Tier Two Capital

  • subordinated debt with a term of at least 5 years;
  • redeemable preference shares which may not be redeemed for at least 5 years.

 

 

Tier Three Capital:

The Basle Capital Accord also defines a third type of capital, referred to as tier three capital. Tier three capital consists of short term subordinated debt. It can be used to provide a buffer against losses caused by market risks if tier one and tier two capital are insufficient for this. Market risks are risks of losses on foreign exchange and interest rate contracts caused by changes in foreign exchange rates and interest rates. The Reserve Bank does not require capital to be held against market risk, so does not have any requirements for the holding of tier three capital.

Undisclosed Reserves:

The unpublished or hidden reserves of a financial institution that may not appear on publicly available documents such as a balance sheet, but are nonetheless real assets, which are accepted as such by most banking institutions. Undisclosed Reserves are generally described as such only in the banking industry as it applies to capital requirements and are designated as Tier 2 capital along with revaluation reserves and general provisions. 

 

Some General Rules:

  • tier two capital may not exceed 100 percent of tier one capital;
  • lower tier two capital may not exceed 50 percent of tier one capital;
  • lower tier two capital is amortised on a straight line basis over the last five years of its life.

·          To qualify as tier 3 capital, assets must be limited to 250% of a banks tier 1 capital, be unsecured, subordinated and have a minimum maturity of two years.

Total Capital

This is the sum of tier 1 and tier 2 capital less the following deductions:

  • equity investments in subsidiaries;
  • shareholdings in other banks that exceed 10 percent of that bank’s capital;
  • unrealised revaluation losses on securities holdings.

 

 

So, this was just a heads up intro on Capital adequacy ratio.. lets see the calculation in detail  in next post……

Simply BASEL….

In Banking on July 30, 2008 at 9:10 pm

 

Basel, is a place in switzerland, where International banking conventions take place, and in 1988, on one auspicious day, Central Banks ( like our RBI) from almost all countries gathered together and drafted a proposal, basically Uniform practices to be followed by all the banks across world. That proposal’s major aim is to address the Risks ,that banks encounter in the fast developing financial market. Not to make the proposal’s name complicated, they named the draft as BASEL  accord. As years passed by, the accord incorporated lot of changes, with the basic principles intact.

Let’s discuss only the basic’s……

So, Basel  has three pillars basically.

Pillar 1- Minimum Capital Requirements

Pillar 2- Supervisory Review

Pillar 3- Market Discipline.

 

Pillar 1: Risk based Minimum Capital Requirements

Credit Risk, Market Risk, and Operational Risk are the three major stress points of 1st pillar of Basel norm.

Credit Risk:

A risk taken by a bank towards its lending/credit operations. A bank faces risks like timely repayments of loan, interest on loan or meet the other terms of contract. This risk is called credit risk, which varies from borrower to borrower depending on their credit quality.

So a bank need to be ready to cover up the losses arising due to any of the abovesaid risks. It means it should hold sufficient capital to cover the credit risk.So, Basel norms requires a bank to accurately measure the credit risk such that the banks operations (mainly repayment of deposits/withdrawals) are not affected.

Losses due to credit risk might be Expected loss and Unexpected  loss( Unexpectedm loss might occur during days of economic crisis/recession like what US has experienced now.. Banks can recover  the Expected loss by repricing the assets/loans. The capital base is required to absorb the unexpected losses, as and when they arise.

 

 

 

Market Risk:

As part of the statutory requirement, in the form of SLR (statutory liquidity ratio), banks are required to invest in liquid assets such as cash, gold, government and other approved securities. For instance, Indian banks are required to invest 25 per cent of their net demand and term liabilities in cash, gold, government securities and other eligible securities to comply with SLR requirements.

Such investments are risky because of the change in their prices. This volatility in the value of a bank’s investment portfolio in known as the market risk, as it is driven by the market. The change in the value of the portfolio can be due to changes in the interest rates, foreign exchange rates or the changes in the values of equity or commodities.

Operational Risk:

Several events that may cause risk  neither due to default by third party nor because of the vagaries of the market are called operational risks Examples: Internal systems, processes, people and external factors.

 

Pillar 2: Supervisory Control

Pillar II ensures that not only do the banks have adequate capital to cover their risks, but also that they employ better risk management practices so as to minimise the risks. Capital cannot be regarded as a substitute for inadequate risk management practices.

As a part of the supervisory process, the supervisors need to ensure that the regulations are adhered to and the internal measurement systems are standardised and validated. This pillar requires that if the banks use asset securitisation and credit derivatives and wish to minimise their capital charge they need to comply with various standards and controls.

The Supervisory Process has four Principles/sub rules:

Principle 1: Banks should have a process for assessing their overall capital adequacy vis-a-vis their risk profile and a strategy for maintaining their capital levels.

Principle 2: Supervisors should review and evaluate banks’ internal capital adequacy assessments and strategies, as well as their ability to monitor and ensure compliance with regulatory capital ratios. Supervisors should take appropriate supervisory action if they are not satisfied with the result of this process.

Principle 3: Supervisors should expect banks to operate above the minimum regulatory capital ratios and should have the ability to mandate  banks to hold capital in excess of the minimum.

Principle 4: Supervisors should seek to intervene at an early stage to prevent capital from falling below the minimum levels required to support the risk characteristics of a particular bank and should require rapid remedial action if capital is not maintained or restored.

 

 

Pillar 3: Market Discipline

Banking operations are becoming complex and difficult for supervisors to monitor and control. Though supervisors try to inculcate corporate governance in banks, they can take cue from the market to value add their supervisory and monitoring activities.This market discipline is brought through greater transparency by asking banks to make adequate disclosures.

The potential audiences of these disclosures are supervisors, bank’s customers, rating agencies, depositors and investors. With frequent and material disclosures, outsiders can learn about the bank’s risk.

Market discipline has two important components:

  Market signalling in form of change in bank’s share prices or change in bank’s borrowing rates

  Responsiveness of the bank or the supervisor to market signals

The Mandates of Market Discipline are; public and regulatory disclosures like disclosures related to capital structure (core and supplementary capital), capital adequacy, risk assessment and risk management processes .

 

So, the next topic which we could derive from this ????

Capital Adequecy, M1,M2, M3…….

Its official now…..

In Banking on July 29, 2008 at 12:15 pm

The RBI has hiked Repo rate by 50 bps and CRR by 25 bps. CRR hike will be effective form August 30.!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RBI and its Rates……

In Banking on July 28, 2008 at 11:39 pm

While you are reading this, RBI would have deciced on the fate of banks lending policies, which in turn impact yours, mine, ours decision on buying a home loan, or taking a personal loan to go for that south east asia weekend trip( why NBFC’s act as agents for all these destinations??? )…

 

So,in simple language what does these rates mean?????

Lets see one by one…

 

REPO Rate:

Repo rate is that rate at which RBI lends (securities & money)  to other banks… the current rate is 8.50 %..

 

so , bank need to pay 8.5 % interest for every rupee it gets from RBI., effectively, in any common sense, banks should lend it at a rate higher than 8.5 %…so when bank lends to us, it will add up all charges alongwith that and lend to us….ie anything more than 8.5%

so, if REPO rate is increased, for example from 8.5 % to 9 %, all our loans might go up proportionally…

This is in simple sense… for a more broader view, repo rate is the rate at which rbi discount securities like treasury bill to the bank. To meet certain liquidity standards ,from time to time, banks sell their securities like treasury bills to rbi at a discount price called reporate ,for a short period of time like overnight or fort night . after specified time banks repurchase the bill at its face value. so high repo rate high loss for banks or hike in reporate absorbe liquidity from the market by less lending to the banks, which in turn tame inflation.

So, in one sense, RBI tries to control inflation, which might be good to bring the prices down, but in another sense, it might move up our loan rates…..so..u decide where to take stand…..:-)

 

Reverse Repo Rates:

Rates at which RBI borrows from Bank… Current rate stands at 6 %.. If there is a hike in Reverse Repo Rate (RRR) , banks will keep more money with RBI( literally),and Liquidity flow in the system( bank- corporates- customers) will be reduced, there by, companies/corporates will find it difficult to fund their growth( since borrowing becomes costlier) and you and me might find it difficult to buy a home…

 

Okie.. coming to CRR (Credit Reserve Ratio’s) : current rate: 8.75%

Cash reserve Ratio (CRR) is the amount of funds that the banks have to keep with RBI.

To make sure banks do not run out of money to pay for withdrawals, they’re supposed to hold a certain percentage of deposits as free cash. This is called the cash reserve ratio (CRR).

A CRR hike means banks will have to hold more cash, rather than pumping it into the economy. The effect of a hike in CRR is to cut the overall amount of money in the system. Since the supply of money is decreased, it’s purchasing value increases. So, at least in theory, this should reduce inflation.a hike in CRR implies a decline in liquidity in the economy; in this instance, a 0.50 per cent hike will drain out Rs 14,000 crores (Rs 140 billion). The result – higher interest rates.

 As a prospective borrower, you are the worst hit. The cost of money i.e. interest rates will rise post the CRR hike. You will probably need to settle in for a lower loan amount given the same  EMI.

If you are an existing borrower, as long as the rate of interest on your loan is fixed, you are immune to any rise in interest rates. However, if you have a floating rate loan, then expect either the tenure of the loan or the EMI to jump soon. ….

 

okie…. if you being an atheist, get some workable solutions to our FM :-) )

if you stand the other way,  what else.. pray for a better situation…….

 

ciao tmrw… topic..lets know where ‘s Basel and what could it do for u…………………

 

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