by admin | May 25, 2021 | Banking, Economy, Finance, Investing, News, Retirement Plans, Venture Capital
Kolkata : Leading private insurer SBI Life Insurance on Monday said it has signed a ‘bancassurance’ pact, with state-run Allahabad Bank to offer a financial planning solution to consumers.
One of the largest bancassurance partnerships in the country will see 3,238 branches of the bank across the country offering the insurer’s a range of protection, wealth creation and savings products to its customers.
This will empower the consumer to address their complete financial needs under one roof.
The public sector bank’s MD and CEO Mallikarjuna Rao highlighted the bank’s objective of offering wider choices of life insurance products to the customers and also augmenting non-interest income of the bank.
“Consumers will now have a direct access to our range of products, providing a holistic financial planning solution. We believe strengthening our distribution network will go a long way in making insurance more accessible to the general public and our partnership with the bank is a step in that direction” the insurer’s MD and CEO Sanjeev Nautiyal added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Banking, Business, Economy, Finance, Investing, Markets, News, Retirement Plans, SMEs
Chennai : In an effort to expand its bancassurance channel, non-life insurer SBI General Insurance Company Ltd is in talks with state-run as well as privately-held banks for distributing its products, said a senior official on Thursday.
Currently, a major chunk of the insurer’s premium is obtained from its bancassurance partners like the parent State Bank of India (SBI)) and others.
“We are in discussions with public and private sector banks. Since the talks are still in progress, it will be too soon to discuss,” Lisa Jeffery, Deputy CEO, told IANS.
During the first half of the current fiscal year to March, SBI General earned Rs 2,064.4 crore premium income.
Out of that, about Rs 763 crore is from its bancassurance partners.
Queried about IAG International increasing its stake to the legally permitted 49 per cent in SBI General Insurance, Jeffery said: “IAG and SBI are in talks with respect to stake increase. However, this conversation is between the parent companies and we have no updates on the same.”
The non-life insurer is a joint venture between SBI and IAG International. IAG International holds 26 per cent share in SBI General Insurance.
In September, SBI sold a four per cent stake in SBI General at Rs 482 crore to Axis New Opportunities Fund (1.65 per cent) and Premji Invest (2.35 per cent), valuing the company at about Rs 12,000 crore.
After the deal, SBI holds a 70 per cent stake in SBI General Insurance.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate finance, Corporate Governance
The bankruptcy of the infrastructure lending giant IL&FS is a result of poor corporate governance by the BJP Govt: Sanjay Nirupam
By Asmita Jadhav,
Mumbai: Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam today claimed that PM Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley have been pressurizing the state-owned LIC and SBI to bail out the debt ridden Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) with the money which belongs to the common people of the country. He has also demanded a high level probe into this matter in order to investigate the role of multiple BJP Ministers who have been taking advantage of their positions and exploiting IL&FS for their vested interests.
Sanjay Nirupam said, “Being a 30-year old infrastructure lending giant, IL&FS has gone completely bankrupt today. How did the debt of this company jump by 44% and its profitability decline by 900% only in the past 3 years? The entire stock market has shaken in the past 2 weeks over this issue. Despite all, PM Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley have been pressurizing LIC & SBI to pay more money and bail out IL&FS. Largest Public sector financial institution LIC owns maximum stakes i.e. 26.34% stakes in IL&FC. It also has almost 29 Crore policy holders and majority of them are common people. The Govt wants the LIC, along with the largest public sector bank SBI, to spend this money which belongs to the common people only to protect the foreign investors. If the Modi Govt doesn’t stop its trend of using the money belonging to the people only to protect its favourites, we will soon witness a situation like that of the Lehman Brother’s Collapse in the year 2008”.
Mr. Nirupam also raised questions as to why no one is questioning the fact that many board members of IL&FS have resigned from their posts. “The RBI had raised a red flag and pre-emoted this crisis a few years ago. Why did the Financial Ministry refrain from taking any precautionary measures? What is the Govt doing to ensure that none of the members who have resigned become another Nirav Modi or Mehul Choksi”, asked Nirupam.
The Mumbai Congress President demanded a high-level probe in this entire issue requesting an investigation to be conducted on the role played by multiple ministers of the BJP Govt in exploiting IL&FS before it went completely bankrupt.
Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) has about $500 Million in repayment. However, the firm has only $27 Million available. It has put its corporate headquarters worth Rs. 1300 Crore on sale, it has also identified almost 25 projects for sale. The firm also plans to sell their assets and bring down the debt by almost 30,000 Crore which comprises of only one-third of the total amount. However, this process will take almost a year while the firm has $500 Million in repayment which are due in the second half of this financial year. As of March 2018, LIC owns 25.34% stakes in IL&FS making them the company’s largest stakeholders. It is followed by Japan’s Orix Corporation which has 23.54% stakes in the company. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, HDFC, Central Bank Of India & SBI hold 12.56% , 9.02%, 7.67% and 6.42% respectively.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, Finance, News
Mumbai : The State Bank of India (SBI) has donated Rs 2 crore for the Kerala flood victims and initiated several other ground-level measures in the deluged state, an official said on Saturday.
The SBI has encouraged all its 270,000 staffers to contribute to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF), and the bank would contribute an equivalent amount.
It also announced a waiver of fees and charges on services like loans for flood relief, duplicate passbooks, ATM cards, cheque books and EMI delays, besides making attempts to restore the working of branches and ATMs in the flood affected regions of the state.
Besides, the SBI has decided to waive all charges on remittance to the CMDRF, penalty on non-maintenance of minimum account balance from proceeds of relief fund provided by the government and agencies and if already recovered, such charges would be refunded for customers in the state.
The bank has extended Xpress Credit to existing customers with relaxed norms for a month, deployed cash at PoS (Point of Sale) to enable people avail Rs 2,000 to meet daily cash requirements across the state.
Persons who have lost or displaced personal documents can open small accounts with only photos and signature or thumb impressions and all employees of SBI deployed to address requirements of the customers and ensure best possible service.
At least 180 persons have lost their lives, thousands displaced or stranded as incessant rains pounded Kerala since the past 10 days, causing havoc in 12 districts.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Banking, Corporate, Corporate Reports, News, Politics
Mumbai : Cash withdrawals from ATMs actually declined in the January-March quarter of last financial year on the sequential basis, implying the current shortage could be “superficial”, a report from State Bank of India said on Thursday.
“Coming to withdrawals, the Q-o-Q (quarter to quarter) ATM cash withdrawal trend indicates that there has been a continuous increase in withdrawal in first, second and third quarter of 2017-18 (though increased in second half).
“Interestingly, in Q4 (fourth quarter) of FY2018, there was a sequential decline, that has been also the case in some of the earlier years. Thus the decline in ATM withdrawal in Q4 could actually be a seasonal phenomenon apart from the usual reasons floating around like currency shortage. This strongly supports our contention that the current shortage could be superficial rather than real,” the report said.
However, the sudden surge in currency in circulation (CIC) was “perplexing”.
The quarterly growth in Q4 FY18 shows that from the average growth of 4.4 per cent of 5 years from FY12- FY16, the growth has shot up to 8 per cent.
“This is despite the fact that economy had achieved remonetisation and digital modes have also gained traction in a big way. On a monthly basis, incremental pace in currency in circulation is three times higher in first quarter 2018, compared with first quarter of the five previous years (FY12-16). Hence there is indeed some unusual trends in 2018,” the report said.
During April in previous years too, the currency in circulation had seen spikes, and the expansion in April 2018 till date was as usual.
The average increase was 0.43 lakh crore for FY12-16. This year by mid-April this number has risen to 0.44 lakh crore.
“However, the catch is this can go up even further if the hoarded 2000 notes are not back into circulation as RBI will have to print more notes to fix this artificial shortage,” the report added.
—IANS
