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<div type="image" title="The RBI has cracked the regulatory whip on NBFCs and banks, who&amp;#39;ve been pushing microfinance and unsecured loans aggressively to grow their loan books." agency="ANI" msid="114778648" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The RBI has cracked the regulatory whip on NBFCs and banks, who&amp;#39;ve been pushing microfinance and unsecured loans aggressively to grow their loan books.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Imagine this. You have a younger sibling you’re mighty envious of. And why not? Unlike you, they seem to enjoy all the freedom and money in the world. They party like there’s no tomorrow, and here you are, stuck in a boring, ultra-disciplined but responsible routine that feels completely devoid of any independence, and mostly, funds. But of late, things are changing. This sibling is in massive trouble and just cannot escape the parent’s wrath anymore. Long story short, the party is over, and it is time to go back home. The rising defaults on this sibling’s part have now begun pulling the entire house down, thereby attracting the regulator’s ire. <h2>The Wild West of <keyword id="113684" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="microfinance" source="Orion">microfinance</keyword> and unsecured loans</h2>It's hard to ignore the issues with microfinance and unsecured loans in India. Many saw them as a small gamble and ignored the rising defaults much like the younger siblings’ tantrums, and now they find themselves in hot waters. The skyrocketing instances of non-payments aren't a micro-issue anymore and are threatening the stability of the entire banking system. In the quarter ended September 30, 2024, 5 of India’s 8 largest private sector <keyword id="19934118" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="banks" source="keywords">banks</keyword> reported a steep rise in their bad loan book, mostly thanks to microfinance loans. Some banks, in a bid to strengthen their fortress against these <keyword id="142154" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="bad-loans" source="Orion">bad loans</keyword>, have significantly upped their provisions. For instance, IndusInd Bank set aside Rs 525 crore during July and September 2024 to battle the menace of defaults on microfinance loans, which make up about 9% of its total loan book. See, banks rely heavily on their interest income, which they earn from advancing loans. Any loan where the borrower has not paid interest to the bank or defaulted for 90 days or more becomes bad, i.e. an NPA, or non-performing asset for the bank. And who likes things going bad? Simply put, there has been a steep rise in three areas, much to the dislike of banks and MFIs (micro-finance institutions). But hey, it's mostly their doing! <ol><li>GNPA ratio (gross net performing assets): The quantum of non-performing assets a bank has in proportion to its total assets.</li><li>Provision: The amount banks set aside to take care of such NPAs.</li><li>Slippage ratio: The rate at which good girls go bad, or the speed at which good loans turn into NPAs</li></ol>But how are these plaguing the Indian banking sector? And what does the road ahead look like? We decode it for you. <h2> Microfinance: A not-so-micro-menace</h2>Microfinance loans were initially brought forth for low-income households and individuals i.e. for those who might not generally have access to traditional ways of credit, like bank loans and more. They don’t require collateral or an asset to be pledged in lieu of the loan, making it a tad bit easier for borrowers. As of June 2024, the amount of outstanding loans in the microfinance industry stood at a staggering Rs 4,20,256 crore. Of this, NBFC-MFIs accounted for 40% and banks made for 33% of these. In 2022, RBI, in a bid to inspire some competition in this space, did something radical-they did away with the ceiling on how much interest MFIs could charge their customers. Previously, MFIs could add up to 12% to their cost of acquiring funds to determine the final interest rate chargeable to the consumer. So, assuming that Bank A incurs a 5% cost to acquire funds for further loaning, A could charge up to 17% interest from the end consumer. So, interest rates were in the hands of MFIs, and boy, did they have a gala time with it. Instead of spurring some healthy competition, as RBI expected, MFIs and banks went rogue and all guns blazing, competing for the title of “Who will charge the highest interest?” Recently, RBI banned 4 microfinance institutions (MFIs), namely Asirvad Micro Finance Limited, Arohan Financial Services Limited, DMI Finance Private Limited, and <keyword id="20117932" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="navi-finserv" source="keywords">Navi Finserv</keyword> from disbursing loans effective October 21, 2024. Why? Because they were charging 14% extra interest over their original cost of funds. To maintain their loan books (and pockets), banks and NBFCs resorted to shady practices like netting off loans, which RBI has now advised MFIs against. Here, lenders allow borrowers to settle a previous outstanding loan by issuing them a new loan! As crazy as it sounds, it helped banks to report less of their total assets as NPAs, since the new credit would cover pending instalments of the borrower’s previous loan. Then there was the issue of borrowers overleveraging, i.e. taking multiple loans using different IDs from various lenders and then failing to honour any of them. The consequence? Banks and NBFCs end up with massive NPAs. Data from credit bureaus suggests that over the last quarter, there was a 17.2% rise in the number of borrowers who had 5 or more active loans at the same time. <h2>Growth &gt; Caution</h2>It's an age-old tale unfolding yet again in India’s banking sector- Icarus flew too close to the sun and eventually, fell to its death. Between April and June 2024, NBFCs microfinance portfolio jumped by 2.7%. If you see this in terms of loan sources, microfinance loans issued by banks grew by 11.2% in Q1FY25. But the same portfolio in NBFCs swelled by almost double-23.9%. While most of these loans had an average ticket size between Rs 30,000-50,000, there was a sharp spike in the number of loans that had a ticket size of Rs 80,000 or more. Data suggests that as of March 2024, more than 12% of all microfinance borrowers had over 4 or more active loans. In dating parlance, this is a classic case of borrowers going polyamorous, minus the honesty and transparency. Not the best of situations, you'd agree! <h2>Will banks and NBFCs stand up to this stress?</h2>If their results for Q2FY25 are to be believed, NBFCs are not handling the pressure all that well. Or even slightly well. Only a few banks like Bank of Baroda (BoB), ICICI, and Indian Bank were up for the battle, even witnessing a decline in their loan delinquencies. Some others, like IndusInd Bank, saw their stock dip by a massive 16.2% over the last 5 days. Its slippages in the previous quarter burgeoned from Rs 15.3 billion in Q1FY25 to Rs 17.9 billion in Q2. As a result, the bank pushed a staggeringly high amount of money to create an NPA cushion for itself. While its management has highlighted its preference for secured lending, that was hardly reflected in its actions during the quarter, where growth in unsecured personal loans remained exceptionally high at over 7% on a QoQ basis. Turns out, only 44% of customers in IndusInd Banks’ microfinance loan portfolio were exclusive to it. The rest 47% were, you guessed it right-polyamorous! 27% had borrowed from another lender as well, apart from IndusInd Bank, while 20% were those who had outstanding loans with two other lenders, apart from IndusInd Bank. IndusInd Bank’s credit card segment did not miss the NPA bus and accounted for 7-8% of its GNPAs. Canara Bank’s total slippages during the previous quarter jumped to Rs 11.1 billion, up by 24.7% QoQ, and making up for 3.6% of its total loans. As for Bandhan Bank, its gross NPA for Q2FY25 inched up on a QoQ basis, up from 4.23% in Q1, to 4.68% in the second quarter. IDFC Bank’s heavy provisioning for its NPAs marred its profits significantly, causing its PAT (profit after tax) to dip by 73% on a YoY basis. Data from ICRA Analytics suggest that the AUM (asset under management) growth in microfinance loans and unsecured (personal and business) loans by the NBFCs will moderate to 10-12% and 19-21%, respectively, in FY2025 compared to 30% and 38%, in FY2024. Says A M Karthik, Senior Vice President &amp; Co-Group Head, Financial Sector Ratings, ICRA, “As bank funds constitute a larger share in the overall funding of NBFCs, a slower credit flow from banks to the NBFCs will compress their AUM growth. The NBFCs in unsecured and digital lending businesses shall face a higher squeeze in funding compared to others, and the unsecured lending space will continue to be a source of stress in the near term.” There has been uninhibited growth in <keyword id="6051027" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Unsecured-loan" source="Orion">unsecured loan</keyword>s, apart from just the microfinance segment. For instance, Axis Bank’s gross slippages jumped by Rs 4,443 crore, largely thanks to its unsecured business. The same is the case with Yes Bank, which saw 35–40% of its retail slippages emerging from the unsecured loan portfolio. <keyword id="6376194" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="kotak-mahindra" source="Orion">Kotak Mahindra</keyword> Bank was also quick to follow Yes Bank’s suit, with around 35%-40% of its slippages coming from credit cards. <h2>How is the road ahead?</h2>While RBI has just cracked its whip and served a warning at the moment, experts at Morgan Stanley believe that more changes (read regulatory lashes) are underway. Moreover, with both festive and wedding seasons underway in our country, unsecured lending might pick up momentum, much to the disdain of the calibrated approach banks have been taking towards it so far. But if the situation doesn't improve, RBI will not waste any time in becoming the typical tyrannical <keyword id="19897820" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bollywood" source="keywords">Bollywood</keyword> headmaster who runs his dominion with an iron fist. However, that's a story for another day. Do you have a topic in mind you'd want a simpler explanation for, or insights or personal experience to share on personal finance and more? Contact us at businessinsider@timesinternet.in.

Simply Put: Is the lending party over? The dangerous tango of Indian banks with microfinance and unsecured loans

<ul><li><keyword id="739165" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sonata-finance" source="Orion">Sonata Finance</keyword> will be a wholly owned subsidiary of the bank after receiving regulatory and other approvals. </li><li>As of Dec 31, 2022, SFPL has an Assets Under Management (AUM) of around ₹1,903 crore, servicing 9 lakh customers. </li><li><keyword id="46013" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="kotak-mahindra-bank" source="Orion">Kotak Mahindra Bank</keyword> says that the acquisition provides the potential to scale up operations especially in the rural and semi-urban markets in North India. </li></ul>Kotak Mahindra Bank said on Friday that it has executed a binding share purchase agreement to acquire 100% of equity of Sonata Finance for aggregate all-cash consideration of approximately ₹537 crore. Sonata Finance or SFPL, a microfinance institution will be a wholly owned subsidiary of the bank after receiving regulatory and other approvals. The deal is subject to regulatory and other approvals, including from the Reserve Bank of India. “SFPL provides a strong platform to enable the bank to become a significant player in the financial inclusion segment, catering to economically weaker and underserved households in a commercially viable manner,” Kotak Mahindra Bank said in a press release. As of Dec 31, 2022, SFPL has an Assets Under Management (AUM) of around ₹1,903 crore, servicing 9 lakh customers. It has 502 branches across 10 states. This complements with the Kotak Mahindra Bank’s microfinance network, the latter said in a press release. "Sonata is a leading microfinance player and has built a strong enterprise over the last two decades. We had successfully acquired BSS Microfinance in 2017 and since then have been able to integrate and steadily grow our presence in the financial inclusion segment with an advances book in excess of ₹ 5,300 crore serving around 1.3 million borrowers,” said Manish Kothari, president – commercial banking, Kotak Mahindra Bank. This acquisition also provides Kotak Mahindra Bank with the potential to scale up operations especially in the rural and semi-urban markets in the northern states of India. The bank said that SFPL is an established microfinance player with deep understanding of customers in these markets. The bank will also leverage SFPL’s network to provide a wider suite of banking products to SFPL’s customer base. The bank also believes that the acquisition is expected to be value accretive due to the economies of scale and unlocking of efficiencies. Anup Kumar Singh, CEO and MD of SFPL said that Sonata was started with the objective of providing financing to underserved customer segments. “I believe this mission is best served in a scalable and sustainable manner on a big bank’s platform. I am pleased that current customer households of Sonata will benefit from <keyword id="6407278" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="kotak-bank" source="Orion">Kotak Bank</keyword>’s full range of products, and best-in-class digital services,” he added.

Kotak Mahindra Bank acquires microfinance institution Sonata Finance for ₹537 crore

Bankers welcomed Finance Minister <keyword id="129243" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="nirmala-sitharaman" source="Orion">Nirmala Sitharaman</keyword>'s budget proposals as being growth accretive, and hailed the focus on capital expenditure while continuing with fiscal consolidation. On the critical question of revival in private capital expenditure, which has been lagging for several years now, private sector lender <keyword id="13918428" type="DOMAIN" weightage="20" keywordseo="kotak-mahindra-bank" botkeyword="" source="ET" sourcekeytype="COMPANY" meta.keywordsubtype="EQ" meta.aliasname="kotak mahindra bank" meta.entityname="Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd." meta.entityid="12161" meta.seoname="kotak-mahindra-bank-ltd">Kotak Mahindra Bank</keyword>'s whole time director <keyword id="818755" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="kvs-manian" source="Orion">KVS Manian</keyword> opined that it will take another 12 months to revive even though corporates have been investing off and on lately. “No bad news is good news. It is a fairly decent budget. The FM has maintained a fair balance on fiscal prudence, sustainability and ease of doing business,” Manian told PTI after the presentation of the budget. <keyword id="13222" type="DOMAIN" weightage="20" keywordseo="sbi" botkeyword="" source="ET" sourcekeytype="COMPANY" meta.keywordsubtype="EQ" meta.aliasname="sbi" meta.entityname="State Bank of India" meta.entityid="11984" meta.seoname="state-bank-of-india">SBI</keyword> chairman <keyword id="2003868" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="dinesh-khara" source="Orion">Dinesh Khara</keyword> said the budget is growth accretive, fiscally prudent and consumption supportive. “The huge emphasis on capital expenditure could be the perfect recipe for a private investment cycle that is already visible. Support for MSME and Agriculture will broad base credit growth,” Khara added. He also said that the “reasonable Government borrowing numbers” will support lower interest rates and the move towards a clutter free new tax regime will significantly spur consumption. Banking industry's lobby grouping Indian Banks Association's chairman A K Goel said the increased capital expenditure could help in further increasing the demand for bank funds and the Agriculture Accelerator Fund woill also be helpful. <keyword id="686923" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="umesh-revankar" source="Orion">Umesh Revankar</keyword>, the executive vice chairman of <keyword id="12730794" type="DOMAIN" weightage="20" keywordseo="shriram-finance" botkeyword="" source="ET" sourcekeytype="COMPANY" meta.keywordsubtype="EQ" meta.aliasname="shriram finance" meta.entityname="Shriram Finance Ltd." meta.entityid="13106" meta.seoname="shriram-finance-ltd">Shriram Finance</keyword> said the income tax benefits announced will boost purchasing power for middle-class consumers. "I believe the announcements made will trigger a pick-up in credit off take for small enterprises, the consumption-driven two-wheeler business and lending to transportation," he added. Non-bank lender Tata Capital's managing director and chief executive <keyword id="128186" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="rajiv-sabharwal" source="Orion">Rajiv Sabharwal</keyword> said the strong agricultural credit outlay, support measures, ease of doing business, and digitization drive across various sectors will improve multiple clusters within the economy. American lender Bank of America's country head Kaku Nakhate said allowing foreign banks to conduct acquisition financing from GIFT City is a welcome step and also hailed the dual budget proposal for a single window clearance for IFSCA, SEZ, <keyword id="30067" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="rbi" source="Orion">RBI</keyword>, SEBI and GSTN at GIFT City. KPMG's national head of tax, <keyword id="309284" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="rajeev-dimri" source="Orion">Rajeev Dimri</keyword>, also welcomed Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's measures for ensuring that the relaxations given to common taxpayers have not derailed fiscal math, and the government has stayed on the path of fiscal consolidation. Pointing out to the Goods and Services Tax revenue accretion over the last few months, he said the taxpayers should be credited for the performance. The budget rightly “rewards” the taxpayers for their commitment, Dimri said. LuLu Financial Holdings Managing Director Adeeb Ahamed said the budget is focussed with equal focus on traditional and emerging sectors. Adeeb, who has significant investments in India's financial services sector through LuLu Forex and LuLu Finserv, said the move to ramp up the credit guarantee scheme for MSMEs will give a fillip to enabling faster access to financial services. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/first-impressions-samsung-galaxy-s23-s23-plus-and-s23-ultra-go-heavy-on-photography-and-gaming/articleshow/97532856.cms?utm_source=social_sticky_amp&amp;utm_medium=social_sharing&amp;utm_campaign=Click_through_social_share">First Impressions: Samsung Galaxy S23, S23 Plus, and S23 Ultra bet big on photography and gaming</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/new-patent-suggests-that-apple-could-bring-a-foldable-iphone-with-a-self-healing-display-in-the-future/articleshow/97302738.cms">New patent suggests that Apple could bring a foldable iPhone with a self-healing display in the future</a>

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Simply Put: Is the lending party over? The dangerous tango of Indian banks with microfinance and unsecured loans

Ira Alok Puranik

Kotak Mahindra Bank acquires microfinance institution Sonata Finance for ₹537 crore

Katya Naidu

Bankers say private capex will take one more year to revive

PTI

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