Category: Finance

Enforcement Directorate seizes Rs 3.71 crore in Bank of India fraud case

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The Enforcement Directorate has seized Rs 3.71 crore of two companies for alleged misuse of third party accounts by cash deposits at a bank branch in Bihar after demonetisation.

Stating that the seizure was made yesterday, an ED release said that the amount was held in the name of two companies in a case involving huge cash deposits in demonetized currency in certain bank accounts of the Bank of India, G B Road, Gaya.

During investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, it was found that some officials of the Bank of India, Gaya, in connivance with four individuals misused the bank accounts of certain innocent persons to deposit huge amount of demonetized currency in their accounts, the release
said.

“The money so deposited was layered through various bank accounts in the guise of fake business transactions. Rs 3.71 crore in demonetized currency were deposited in the bank accounts of various firms/persons without their knowledge and consent”, it said adding that the amount was further transferred to the account of two companies.

While the director of one company could not offer any logical explanation of such deposits and transaction whereas the director of another company did not appear in response to the summons, it said.

For this, an amount of Rs 1.77 crore from a private bank account of one company and Rs 1.94 crore from a PSU bank account of another company were seized, the agency said.

The ED also said among the accused businessmen based in Gaya, one was in judicial custody and two others were absconding.

Among the bank officials named in the case, one retired chief manager was arrested while two others are absconding, the release said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Despite fraud, PNB’s 2017-18 domestic business up 7.9%

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Despite a major fraud, state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Friday reported a 7.9% growth in its domestic business, which crossed the Rs 10 lakh crore mark during 2017-18.

“Global business of the bank hovers around Rs 11 lakh crore, the domestic business of the bank has reached new milestone by crossing Rs 10 lakh crore registering 7.9% YoY growth for the FY 2017-18,” the bank said in a statement.

“Domestic deposit has remained above Rs 6 lakh crore with YoY increase of 6.2%. The savings bank deposit has increased to Rs 224,109 lakh crore.”

“From the beginning when the fraud was detected and reported to the authorities by us, the bank had communicated that it has a strong balance sheet to meet any liabilities; This reflects in our numbers as well,” PNB Managing Director and CEO Sunil Mehta was quoted as saying in the statement.

“Our deposits have grown in line with the industry and our credit has grown by 9.9%, which is in line with our guidance. The turmoil during the last one-and-a-half months has not converted into loss of confidence among the customers or staff members.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Cryptocurrency miner Canaan eyes IPO; bets on China’s push for chip industry

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Canaan Creative, one of the world’s top cryptocurrency mining equipment makers, said it was considering an initial public offering and expected China’s push to promote the domestic chip industry to help drive growth for the company.

Hangzhou-based Canaan has seen a surge in demand for its mining machines amid a boom in cryptocurrencies, with bitcoin spiking more than 1,300% in 2017. The price of the digital currency has, however, halved so far in 2018.

Canaan shrugged off the recent volatility stemming from growing scrutiny of the sector, betting lower prices would bring in more demand. The company says it supplies around a quarter of the global bitcoin blockchain computing power.

Canaan is considering an IPO in Hong Kong or the United States, co-chairman Jianping Kong said in an interview.

“We … prefer listing outside mainland China as we are in a global business,” Kong said, without giving details on when or how much it expects to raise.

The company had in 2016 tried to list on the mainland through a 3.06 billion yuan ($485 million) back-door listing, but cancelled the plan after a regulatory deadlock. It also scrapped another plan to list on the New Third Board in China, Kong confirmed on Friday.

Kong said the decision was not driven by China’s regulatory crackdown on bitcoin, but because listing in the country takes too long, adding Canaan may consider a secondary mainland listing by issuing depository receipts.

“As an integrated circuit company, we are supported by government policies,” he said.

China’s semiconductor push 

China has introduced tax breaks for chipmakers producing in the country in a bid to cut dependence on foreign manufacturers as trade tensions with the United States soar.

This bodes well for makers of high-end chips used in cryptocurrency mining as China is also home to one of the world’s largest centres for such mining —where people solve complex mathematical puzzles with computers in order to be awarded virtual coins.

While cryptocurrency trading has come under scrutiny in China amid worries of financial risks, an underground ecosystem of peer-to-peer platforms has sprung up to allow bitcoin trading to thrive.

Canaan’s clients include individuals in China and companies outside the country, with many of its machines ending up in electricity-rich areas that have formed large bitcoin mines, such as Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Sichuan and Yunnan.

N G Zhang, the company’s 35-year-old founder and CEO, said Canaan employs around 200 in Beijing and Hangzhou, mostly in chip research and development, and is hiring more.

Canaan, which sells “Avalon” mining machines with customised super-fast ASIC chips, made revenue of more than 1 billion yuan in 2017.

Its main competitors include US-based Bitfury and Beijing-based Bitmain, which makes the “AntMiner”.

Canaan is now looking to add more products to its portfolio, such as home appliances with blockchain computing power and AI functions like “coin-mining TVs” that mine cryptocurrencies “while you sleep”, Kong said.

Canaan is developing its own AI chips and planning to launch equipment to mine other cryptocurrencies such as litecoin.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

PNB moving to quickly resolve disputes with peer banks over fraud

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Punjab National Bank is working with the government and the Reserve Bank of India to try to settle a dispute over claims from counterparty banks in a $2 billion fraud by the end of March, a source with direct knowledge said.

The government and central bank are keen to avoid a protracted dispute between publicly-owned lenders, and resolving the issue before the end of the month would give clarity on any fraud losses they would need to account for during the current quarter, said the source.

At least four other state-run banks — State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, UCO Bank and Allahabad Bank — have disclosed exposures that range between $212 million and $412 million to fraudulent guarantees allegedly issued by rogue PNB staff.

In what has been dubbed the biggest fraud in India’s banking history, the banks had lent to two jewellery groups based on the guarantees and contend that PNB is liable to make good any losses on those loans.

PNB has previously said it was ready to honour “bona fide” commitments, but it has also said counterparty banks were partly at fault for not making adequate checks when sanctioning the loans.

Top PNB executives met senior finance ministry officials on Tuesday for discussions on the fraudulent letters of undertaking — a trade finance instrument used to perpetrate the fraud — said the source, adding PNB was likely to meet RBI officials on the issue this week.

“The government’s stand and the RBI’s stand should be in sync,” the source said. “They will not like bickering among the banks because these are all owned by the government of India. Second is these are dues to overseas branches of Indian banks which are also regulated by foreign authorities. So, it will send them a wrong signal.”

Bankers have said the fraud could lead to increased scrutiny of Indian banks operating overseas, and risks undermining foreign lenders’ trust in India’s banking sector if not tackled swiftly.

Citing an unnamed banker, the Economic Times paper reported on Monday that Union Bank would have to treat PNB as a defaulter in its books, in what could create a “peculiar” situation.

The source told Reuters, however, that no bank was moving to declare PNB a defaulter, and that the bank would act as directed by the government and the RBI on the payment for the LoUs.

The source, who asked not to be named as the discussions were private, said PNB was hoping for a resolution before March 31, when the banks’ fourth quarter ends.

If needed, PNB could make a conditional payment until any outstanding disputes were resolved, the source said.

A finance ministry spokesman said he was not aware of a meeting between the bank and the government.

An RBI spokesman and the heads of the five banks —PNB, Union Bank, UCO Bank, State Bank of India and Allahabad Bank — did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

PNB, which in December raised Rs. 50 billion ($770 million) by selling shares to institutional investors and is also in the process of receiving nearly Rs. 55 billion as part of a government cash injection programme, is adequately capitalised to take the load of any provisioning burden, the source said.

The fraudulent LoUs, valid for one year and issued on behalf of companies owned by jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, are due between January and April this year, according to police and court documents.

Both Modi and Choksi are out of India and have denied any wrongdoing.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Lookout notice against Dhoot, Deepak; CBI questions Rajiv for third day in a row

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Central Bureau of Investivation (CBI) has issued a lookout notice against Venugopal Dhoot of Videocon and Deepak Kochhar of NuPower.

CBI has also called Rajiv Kochhar for questioning for third day in a row on Saturday.

In the past two days, Kochhar has been questioned for over 15 hours in connection with the alleged deal between NuPower MD Deepak Kochhar and Videocon’s Venugopal Dhoot.

The CBI on Friday questioned Rajiv Kocchar, Founder of Avista Advisory and brother-in-law of ICICI bank chief Chanda Kocchar, for more than 10 hours.

The founder of Avista Advisory was asked about the help he extended to Videocon in relation to the loan from the ICICI Bank, which was part of a Rs 400-billion credit given by a consortium of 20 banks to the group of Venugopal Dhoot.

The investigative agency is probing deals restructured by Avista Advisory for over 1.5 billion dollars, say sources.

Avista Advisory, in the past six years, has restructured deals of seven clients including clients of ICICI Bank.

Sources also indicate that CBI is specifically looking at the two foreign currency debts restructured by Avista Advisory of Videocon Industries.

CBI also questions Mahesh Chandra Punglia, a Director in NuPower Renewables Pvt Ltd. Punglia is closely associated with Videocon Group and was an employee earlier.

Rajiv Kochhar was detained at the Mumbai airport on Thursday, as he was trying to board a flight for a South East Asian country, on the basis of a look out circular issued by the CBI. He was questioned by CBI for almost six hours on Thursday as well.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Reserve Bank of India ups foreign flow limit in bonds by over Rs 1 lakh crore for FY19

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The Reserve Bank today upped debt investment limits for foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) across all segments, which will cumulatively result in an increase of over Rs 1 lakh crore in fiscal year 2018-19.

The total debt limit will rise to Rs 5,94,600 crore by September 2018 and go up further to Rs 6,49,900 crore by end of the fiscal year from the present Rs 5,45,823 crore, a central bank notification said.

RBI has decided to increase the FPI investment limits in central government securities by 0.5% to 5.5% of outstanding stock of securities in 2018-19 and 6% of outstanding stock of securities in 2019-20, it said.

The limits on FPI investment in state development loans (SDLs) would remain unchanged at 2% of outstanding stock of securities, it said.

On corporate bonds, the FPI investment will be fixed at 9% of outstanding stock of corporate bonds and all the sub categories within the segment will be discontinued.

In the government securities general category, the limit has been revised up to Rs 2,07,300 crore by September 2018 and Rs 2,23,300 crore by March 2019 from the present Rs 1,91,300 crore, it quantified.

For the long term G-secs, the limits will go up to Rs 92,300 crore by end of the fiscal from the present Rs 65,100 crore, with a mid-fiscal cap of Rs 78,700 crore.

In the SDL-general category, the limit will go up from Rs 31,500 crore to Rs 34,800 crore in September 2018 and further to Rs 38,100 crore by end of the fiscal, it said.

For the long-term SDL bonds, the present limit of Rs 13,100 crore will come down to Rs 7,100 crore by September and will stay at the same level by March end as well, it said, attributing the reduction to the transfer of Rs 6,500 crore of limit transfer to g-secs.

In corporate bonds, the limits have been revised up to Rs 2,89,100 crore in March 2019, from Rs 2,44,323 crore presently with a milestone of Rs 2,66,700 crore midway through the fiscal year.

The allocation of increase in G-sec limit over the two sub-categories general and long-term remains at the current ratio of 25:75. However, based on an assessment of investment interest, this ratio has been re-set at 50:50 for the year 2018-19, it said.

There will be a separate notification will be issued announcing coupon reinvestment arrangements in consultation with Sebi, it said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

CBI questions former RBI deputy governor in PNB fraud case

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has questioned former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, H R Khan, in relation to the Rs 11, 400 crore fraud at state-run Punjab National Bank, a government source told Reuters on Friday.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Reserve Bank of India asks payment system players to store data in India

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

All payment system players in India will now be required to store data within the country to ensure its safety and security, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced.

Payment system operators will be given six months to comply with the directive, RBI Deputy Governor B.P. Kanungo said at a media briefing here, convened to announce the central bank’s first bi-monthly monetary policy review of the current fiscal.

“It is essential to ensure we have a robust system for the safety and security of data on payment systems. Continuous monitoring and surveillance is essential to reduce the risks of data breach,” he said.

The RBI official said that currently only some payment system operators and their outsourcing partners store their data either partially or completely in India.

“It has been decided that all operators will ensure that data related to payment systems operated by them are stored only in the country within six months,” he said.

In a statement, the central bank said it will issue detailed instructions on the matter within a week.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

RBI Monetary Policy: Experts see it as a good move

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

RBI’s monetary policy committee has maintained a status quo on key repo rates at 6% under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF).

Dinabandhu Mohapatra, MD & CEO, Bank of India, Sajjid Chinoy, Asia Economics, JP Morgan and Ajay Srivastava, CEO, Dimensions Corporate Finance Services shared their view on the monetary policy.

It is a good news for everybody and it is positive for banks, said Mohapatra.

Chinoy described it as a very good move, at this point in time when it required to meet capital, discipline should be there and liquidity can be managed well.

It is definitely a relief that things aren’t going worse than what they were expected to be, said Srivastava.

Watch video for more:

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

RBI Monetary Policy: Expect rates to remain stable for next six to eight months, say experts

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

This is going to be a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) policy that may be long remembered for its unexpected dovishness. The RBI didn’t give any rate cut, but it practically gave a promise that it may not have to hike rates for the next one year at least if not even longer.

PK Gupta, MD of SBI, A Prasanna, Chief Economist at ICICI Securities Primary Dealership, Manish Wadhwan of HSBC India, and Jayesh Mehta of Bank of America expressed their views on the policy.

Wadhwan said it has been more than expected a dovish policy from RBI. Wadhwan further added that the bond markets have recouped all the losses from December 31.

Mehta described this as a dovish policy, but he believes that till now the market expectation on inflation expectation versus RBI was on much of divergence.

PK Gupta of SBI said that he did not expect yields to rise the way they did.

A Prasanna said  he does not expect a pause in rate hike by RBI for the next 12 months.

Watch video for more:

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow