India’s central bank is thinking about permitting payment banks and other finance organizations to become loan specialists.
A working group within the central bank is likewise thinking about whether to permit industrial aggregates to set up banking units, as per Reuters.
In a committee report released on Friday (Nov. 20), the working group suggested regulatory changes that would permit industrial groups to hold bigger stakes in loan specialists, denoting a critical policy shift for the central bank. Examiners revealed to Reuters that the move could be pointed toward pulling in more capital and expanding competition within the banking sector.
“Allowing corporates into banking is a path that the regulator should tread on carefully, because how much ever ring-fencing they do, problems may crop up,” Ashvin Parekh, an independent financial services consultant, told Reuters.
Sources revealed to Reuters that Bajaj Group, Piramal Group and Reliance Industries were acceptable contender to move into banking services.
Indian regulators may likewise permit non-promoter investors to take stakes of up to 15 percent in private-sector banks, while promoter investors would be permitted to build their stakes by up to 26 percent over a 15-year time span.
The committee’s proposals could likewise open the door for huge shadow banks to change over into loan specialists. The report said shadow keeps money with resources of at any rate 500 billion rupees that had been working for in any event 10 years should be considered for change, said Reuters.
Comments on the committee’s report are being acknowledged until Jan. 15.
The central bank’s move comes in the midst of increased worry about the territory of India’s banking sector.
In July, Rajnish Kumar, chairman of the State Bank of India, the nation’s biggest moneylender, said the resurgence of the Covid risks change of the monetary framework, the Financial Times revealed.
“If it were not for COVID, a bank like the State Bank of India would be in a very happy situation,” Kumar told FT in July. “In the last couple of years, we have done the cleanup, so this is the time when we would have been reaping the fruits of that cleanup. But unfortunately, now we are in another situation.”
India’s banking system has been tormented by one of the world’s highest bad-loan ratios. Among the issues is a past filled with terrible loaning decisions and poor governance, the FT announced.
In September, the Reserve Bank of India said it was pushing ahead with plans to distribute a record demonstrating the degree of advanced installment selection in the nation.
“RBI is in the process of … constructing and periodically publishing a composite digital payment index (DPI) to capture the extent of digitization. The DPI could be the key to accurately measure the deepening and penetration of digital payments across the country,” T. Rabi Sankar, executive director of the bank, said in a U.S.-India Business Council webinar.
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Buzz Illustrated journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.