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🍒   RBI Guv addresses board members of PSU banks on governance, ethics : Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das on Monday met the board of directors of all public sector banks to discuss issues related to governance and ethics. The one-day interactive meeting was organised by the Department of Supervision of the Reserve Bank of India. Das addressed the directors -- both whole time and independent -- on issues related to governance, ethics and the role of the boards in assurance functionalities of the banks, besides highlighting the supervisory expectations, sources said. Besides the governor, deputy governors, and executive directors from the Department of Regulation as well as Supervision also spoke in the meeting. - economic times

🍒   Provide shade and water to those exchanging or depositing Rs 2,000 notes: RBI to banks : The Reserve Bank on Monday advised banks to provide shade from the sun and water to customers waiting to exchange or deposit Rs 2,000 notes. It can be noted that during the note ban in 2016, there were allegations of customers dying while waiting in queues to exchange bank notes. Following the Friday's announcement of withdrawing Rs 2,000 notes -- the notes continue to be legal tender unlike demonetisation exercise -- there were concerns about customers facing inconvenience, especially given the summer being at peak. - Economic Times

🍒   The purpose of Rs 2,000 in the system has been fulfilled, says RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das : At a briefing today, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das answered various questions regarding the withdrawal of Rs 2,000 currency notes from circulation. The Rs 2,000 was introduced with the primary purpose of quickly replenishing the value of money that was being taken out of the system via demonetisation, Das said. As that purpose has been fulfilled, and there are enough notes of other denominations now, the decision was taken to withdraw these notes, he said. The printing of those notes has also been stopped, the Governor pointed out. Das urged people to see this particular exercise as part of currency management operation of the Reserve Bank of India. - economic times 

🍒   Canara Bank’s CGM appointed Deputy MD at IDBI Bank : The Board of Directors of IDBI Bank on Monday approved the appointment of Jayakumar S. Pillai as Deputy Managing Director on the Bank’s Board for 3 years. Pillai’s appointment is with effect from the date of his taking charge as specified in the RBI approval received in this regard, the Bank said in a regulatory filing. IDBI Bank has two Deputy Managing Director (DMD) positions. It currently has one DMD -- Suresh Khatanhar. The other DMD -- Samuel Joseph Jebaraj -- moved to the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) as Deputy Managing DIrector (Lending & Project Finance) in early April 2023. - Business Line.

🍒   Canara Bank’s technology spend this year put at Rs 1,200 crore: MD & CEO, K Satyanarayana Raj : Canara Bank, the third largest public sector bank by market captilisation after SBI and BoB, reported a good set of numbers in the fourth quarter, with net profit zooming 90 per cent. In order to consolidate its strengths, the bank has taken several steps, including additional investments in strengthening its digital footprint. MD & CEO, K Satyanarayana Raju, spoke with businessline on the same.- Business Line

🍒   Indian Bank looking digital forward with large outlay : Public sector lender Indian Bank said it would continue to make huge investments in IT infrastructure, building digital banking capabilities in FY24, as the Chennai-headquartered bank believes that a successful digital transformation would lead to increased profitability and provide strategic growth advantages. The bank spent about ₹1,600 crore in IT infrastructure and associated areas during the last three years and plans to spend ₹500-600 crore in IT and digital banking segments this fiscal. After the successful completion of the amalgamation of Allahabad Bank with itself, Indian Bank launched Project WAVE (World of Advanced Virtual Experience) in January 2022 by defining a digital transformation roadmap for the bank. It undertook its digital journey with a three-pillar strategy — strengthening its digital foundational capabilities, rolling out digital products, and accelerating digital adoption by clients. - Business Line

🍒   We are in for a bit of a long pause on rate hike front: Axis Bank MD : Axis Bank features on the buy lists of most investors seeking a slice of Indian top-draw private banking. Since Amitabh Chaudhry stepped into the corner office in 2019, the stock is up nearly 50%, although it still trails peers. In an interview with Saloni Shukla and MC Govardhana Rangan, Chaudhry says that growth triggers are in place that could make it as good as the leader.  - economic times

🍒   No extra cost to reconfigure ATMs : Banks will not have to bear the additional cost of recalibrating the automated teller machines (ATMs) following the withdrawal of the ₹2,000 currency notes, as most of them are already in the process of migrating to lockable cassettes. Banks will replenish ATMs by swapping loaded cassettes with empty ones instead of loading cash in the machines on the spot. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Friday said ₹2,000 denomination notes can't be used for transactions after September 30 and asked banks to stop issuing this denomination to customers. "We don't see any major impact on the ATM front, already, as per RBI directions, stakeholders have submitted the plan for implementation of lockable cassettes in 30 cities for both white label and bank-run ATMs," said a senior bank executive. - economic times

🍒   NCLAT upholds Go First bankruptcy proceedings in a setback to lessors : The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal on Monday upheld the insolvency proceedings against cash-strapped airline Go First in a setback to efforts of its lessors to repossess their aircraft.  At least three leasing companies, including GY Aviation Lease and SMBC Aviation Capital, had challenged a tribunal ruling granting Go Airlines (India), widely known as Go First, bankruptcy protection earlier this month, Reuters reported. Upholding the NCLT's May 10 order, the appeals tribunal disposed of the lessors’ petition and asks them to file an appeal before the NCLT. The IRP (Interim Resolution Professional) is allowed to proceed with the insolvency resolution process.- economic times

🍒   PhonePe gets another $100 million from General Atlantic; total funding rises to $850 million : Digital payments company PhonePe said on Monday that it raised an additional $100 million (around Rs 828 crore) from growth equity firm General Atlantic. With this, General Atlantic has invested around $550 million in the Walmart-backed fintech firm in the latest round of funding. Bengaluru-based PhonePe has so far raised $850 million via five infusions in this round and is inching closer to its billion-dollar fundraising target.For this funding round, the company has been valued at $12 billion pre-money, or prior to the investment. - economic time

🍒   RBI imposes monetary penalty on 3 co-operative banks, 2 NBFCs : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on May 22 said it has imposed monetary penalty on three co-operative banks and two non-banking finance companies for rule violations. These companies and bank include The National Cooperative Bank, Krishna Sahakari Bank, The Kanyakumari District Central Co-operative Bank, Rain Bow Finance India, Srestha Finvest Ltd, according to press releases from the central bank.The RBI imposed monetary penalty of Rs 7.50 lakh on The Kanyakumari District Central Co-operative Bank, and Rs 1 lakh each on the National Cooperative Bank and Krishna Sahakari Bank. Further it imposed Rs 4 lakh penalty on Rain Bow Finance India and Rs 2 lakh on Srestha Finvest. - moneycontrol.

🍒   DBS sees annual profit to exceed S$10 billion in medium term : DBS Group Holdings Ltd. expects to achieve earnings of more than S$10 billion ($7.4 billion) in the medium term given its strong balance sheet and digital transformation. Return-on-equity is expected to be in a range of 15% to 17%, Southeast Asia’s biggest lender said in an investor day presentation on Monday, referring to a time frame of three to five years. Last year’s profit reached S$8.2 billion, 20% higher than 2021.  In its presentation for the event, its first since 2017, DBS said it sees “high potential opportunities” in its growth markets of India, Indonesia, and Taiwan. The Singapore-based bank is targeting areas like transaction banking, wealth management, lending to small businesses as well as unsecured retail lending.  - financial express

🍒   Double-digit rise in top banks’ loans : Large banks, including State Bank of India (SBI), HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda, and Punjab National Bank (PNB), have posted 13-19% year-on-year (y-o-y) rise in their advances during Q4FY23, boosting their net interest income (NII) and bottom-line growth, data compiled by FE showed. While SBI’s advances rose 16% y-o-y to Rs 32.69 trillion as of March-end, HDFC Bank’s grew 17% to Rs 16 trillion. PNB’s total advances grew 13% y-o-y to Rs 8.84 trillion. ICICI Bank and Bank of Baroda, meanwhile, posted 19% y-o-y growth in advances each during Q4, at Rs 10.19 trillion and Rs 9.69 trillion, respectively. - financial express

🍒   Current focus on retail segment: PNB Housing MD : PNB Housing Finance is currently focusing on growing its retail loan book while also cleaning up its corporate portfolio, according to managing director and chief executive officer Girish Kousgi. The non-bank lender expects its affordable housing loan products to witness significant traction in FY24. “As of now, the focus is on retail and if you see the retail story, it has been pretty good. We have really scaled up our disbursements in the last two quarters,” he said. - financial express

🍒   Banks’ deposit rates seen peaked as note withdrawal may fuel mobilisation : Deposit rates offered by banks are expected to have peaked, given the unlikely chance of future rate hikes, at least for the next 2-3 months, as the withdrawal of ₹2,000 notes is likely to trigger inflows into bank deposits. “Deposit rates have sort of peaked because these inflows will put some downward pressure. There’s a good chance that not all the money may come to banks directly, but may come indirectly through other routes,” said Madhavi Arora, Lead Economist at Emkay Global Financial. Combined with the fact that the strong inflation print for April had led to expectations of the central bank pausing on rates in the upcoming monetary policy in June, deposit accretion is no longer seen as a challenge for banks, analysts said.- Business Line

🍒   Our AUM can grow at 30% for next 3-5 years: Five Star Business CEO : Five Star Business Finance is looking to clock 30 per cent year-on-year growth in its assets under management (AUM) over the next 3-5 years, driven by a combination of branch expansion, employee addition and disbursements of loans with higher ticket size.  The total assets of Chennai-based non-banking financial company (NBFC) grew by 37 per cent to ₹6,915 crore as of March 2023 from ₹5,067 crore in FY22. “We should be able to maintain that momentum. Our aim is to grow our assets by 30 per cent in the next 3-5 years,” Rangarajan Krishnan, CEO, Five Star Business Finance told businessline. - Business Line

🍒   NPCI leans on bank partnerships to push RuPay credit cards : The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is looking to aggressively push up the usage of RuPay credit cards in the market and is seeking bank tie-ups to help this. According to two senior bankers in the know, NPCI is working closely with a clutch of major banks to find out ways to push the usage of these credit cards and has set an internal target of cornering around 10% of the overall monthly credit card spends in the next year. - economic times

🍒   Cash payments spike at petrol pumps; Rs 2,000 notes make 90% of cash transactions, says dealers' body : Cash transactions have sharply risen at petrol pumps and cash-paying customers are using Rs 2000 notes in nine out of ten cases following Friday’s withdrawal of the high-value banknote, the All-India Petroleum Dealers Association (AIPDA) has said. “The RBI decision to withdraw Rs 2000 note has again created the same difficult situation at petrol pumps across the country as was faced during the 2016 demonetization drive,” AIPDA said in a statement, adding that a “majority of the customers are trying to use Rs 2000 note even for small purchase of Rs 100-200.”- economic times

🍒   Rupee falls 13 paise to 82.80 against US dollar : The rupee depreciated 13 paise to 82.80 against the US dollar in early trade on Monday, after the central bank said it will withdraw the highest value currency note from circulation. At the interbank foreign exchange, the domestic unit fell to 82.80 in initial trade, registering a decline of 13 paise over its last close. On Friday, the rupee settled at 82.67 against the dollar. - Business Line

🍒   Sensex, Nifty rise for 2nd day on gains in RIL, IT stocks : The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 234 points or 0.38 per cent to settle at 61,963.68 as 19 of its components closed in green. During the day, it jumped 314.78 points or 0.50 per cent to a high of 62,044.46. The broader NSE Nifty rallied 111 points or 0.61 per cent to end at 18,314.40 with 34 of its constituents closing with gains and 15 closing lower while one settled unchanged.Among the Sensex firms, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies, Larsen & Toubro, ITC, Sun Pharma, NTPC and Titan were the major gainers. Nestle, Axis Bank, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel were the laggards. - Business Line

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