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Banking & Bancassurance

Officer unions demand to include bankers as frontline Covid warriors for vaccination

In a letter written to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, unions said the government is expecting at least two vaccines against Covid-19, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Oxford’s Covishield, to be available possibly in January 2021; and there is a plan to inoculate the frontline Covid warriors including those working in healthcare, police, sanitary workers, etc.
Bankers have been providing yeoman service ever since the announcement of lockdown and have continued to provide required banking services, it said, adding bankers have been instrumental in keeping the wheels of the economy moving despite hazards and constraints.

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Approval from IRDAI on Axis Bank stake hike expected by March: Max Life CEO

“Under the revised agreements, Axis Bank will acquire up to 9.002 percent of the equity share capital of Max Life, and Axis Capital Limited and Axis Securities Limited will together acquire up to 3 percent of the share capital of Max Life.

“In addition, Axis entities will have a right to acquire an additional stake of up to 7 percent of the equity share capital of Max Life, in one or more tranches, in accordance with existing laws and regulations,” the bank had said.

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Allianz to acquier Westpac Banking Corp’s general insurance business

It will also enter into a new 20-year exclusive agreement for the distribution of general insurance products to Westpac customers in an expansion of its existing bancassurance agreement, which has been in place since 2015.Under the new distribution agreement, along with the existing products of motor, caravan and trailer and travel insurance,

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Lakshmi Vilas Bank becomes DBS India; 94-year old bank part of history now

LVB has 566 branches and 973 ATMs spread across 19 states and Union Territories.
It is the second private sector bank after Yes Bank that has run into rough weather this year.

In March, capital-starved Yes Bank was placed under a moratorium. The government rescued Yes Bank by asking State Bank of India (SBI) to infuse Rs 7,250 crore and take 45 per cent stake in the lender.

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Bank operations may be hit by unions’ one-day nationwide strike on Thursday

“Lok Sabha in its recently held session has passed three new labour enactments by dismantling existing 27 enactments in the name of ‘Ease of Business’, which are purely in the interest of corporates.

“In the process, 75 per cent of workers are being pushed out of the orbits of labour laws since they will have no legal protection under the new enactment,” the AIBEA said in a release.

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S&P sceptical of allowing corporates into Indian banking

“The working group’s concerns regarding conflict of interest, concentration of economic power, and financial stability in allowing corporates to own banks are potential risks,” S&P Global Ratings said in a note.

A former RBI governor, Raghuram Rajan, and a former deputy governor, Viral Acharya, also criticised the proposal, calling it a “bad” idea.

Even though India needed more banks it was not wise to allow industrial houses into banking as the history of such inter-connected lending showed it could be disastrous, they said.

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Will India’s banking system go from being state-dominated to tycoon-led?

The regulator mustn’t take the public’s trust for granted. The IL&FS debacle shows little institutional capacity to stop mischief outside the balance sheet of a traditional bank.
The report came just as the regulator solemnised the sale to Singapore’s DBS Group Holdings Ltd. of one such lender, the third failure of a major deposit-taking institution in 15 months. Before that shotgun marriage, the country had 22 universal banks (and 10 so-called small finance banks) in the private sector, with a 30% share of deposits, up from 13% two decades ago. Foreign banks’ low 5% share has remained unchanged. Dominant public-sector banks’ market share is down to 65%, from 82% in 2000.

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