Tag: Banking

Bank’s 5-day work-week proposal: How this may change timings and consumer experience

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

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As the proposal for a five-day workweek gains traction within the banking sector, consumers are left pondering its impact on their banking experience. While the initiative aims to improve the work-life balance of bank employees, its ramifications on customers remain a topic of concern.

As of now, the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) and bank unions have reached an agreement on this proposal, but governmental approval is pending.

Impact on customers

Concerns arise among customers regarding potential queues and service delays if banks remain closed for an additional day each week.

Nevertheless, experts suggest that this could drive greater emphasis on online banking and mobile applications.

Changes in bank operations

To mitigate potential disruptions in banking operations due to extended closures, measures may include extending working hours, enhancing digital and ATM services, and potentially introducing appointment systems.

Reports indicate a possible shift in working hours, with new timings ranging from 9:45 AM to 5:30 PM.

Currently, bank employees work on alternate Saturdays. Banks remain open on the first and third Saturdays of every month.

Introduction of appointment systems

The possibility of managing lengthy queues may lead to the introduction of appointment systems, alongside an increased reliance on digital banking.

Customers may expect a surge in online banking usage for bill payments, transfers, and account management, coupled with greater utilisation of mobile apps for on-the-go banking needs.

ALSO READ | These SBI credit cards will discontinue granting rewards on govt payments from June

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

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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

GenAI revolution in banking: How financial leaders are gaining the edge

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

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AI is ubiquitous in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape. AI-powered tools and applications have become a cornerstone across various industries, especially within BFSI. AI in these sectors goes beyond automation and efficiency–it is revolutionising customer experiences, enhancing decision-making processes, and paving the way for innovative financial products and services.

According to a report by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), a staggering 78.8% of banks have integrated AI chatbots into their customer service operations. Moreover, the Economist revealed that 77% of bankers believe that leveraging AI is the key to gaining a competitive edge in the industry.

Amidst this backdrop of AI-driven transformation, CNBC-TV18, in association with IBM, introduces “The AI Dialogues,” a series poised to delve into the heart of how AI and Generative AI is reshaping business landscapes across the board through in-depth conversations with the industry’s finest minds.

In this first round of conversations, AI Dialogues brings CNBC-TV18’s Latha Venkatesh together with Mahesh Ramamoorthy, CIO, Yes Bank; Ramesh Lakshminarayanan, CIO, HDFC Bank; VV Balaji, CTO, ICICI Bank and Rishi Aurora, Managing Partner, IBM Consulting India & South Asia to uncover insights and strategies that harness the power of cutting-edge GenAI for a resilient and forward-looking financial landscape.

AI vs Generative AI, or AI Plus Generative AI?

Ramesh Lakshminarayanan set the stage by explaining the difference between ‘classical AI’ and Generative AI in layman’s terms. “The easiest analogy is to think of the left brain as a classical AI and the right brain as Generative AI.

The left is analytically driven – you can predict, calculate, do probabilities, structures, and things which are more analytical in nature. On the right, you can create: you can write, you can narrate, you can converse.”

He also listed the various use cases in use in Banking already: fraud monitoring, risk management, and credit monitoring. VV Balaji also pointed out that banks have been using classical AI in non-core functions like application processing, voice to text, and even in bringing greater efficiencies to time-intensive processes like KYC checking.

According to VV Balaji, the advent of Generative AI doesn’t sound the death knell for classical AI tools. Rather, it is the next step in its evolution allowing AI tools that combine classical AI and generative AI capabilities to serve an expanded set of use cases. Mahesh Ramamoorthy built on Balaji’s argument,

“In old chatbots, you needed to keep adding queries and responses. With Generative AI you can upload all your documents, and let it read through and make much more intelligent conversations. So classical AI plus Generative AI creates intelligence, and that intelligence is what creates enhanced customer experiences.”

The Adoption Gap

Rishi Aurora quoted from one of the IBM Institute for Business Value studies. “86% of execs believe that they are already in a stage of putting AI or Gen AI into production, but if I drill down only 8% of organisations are taking a structured approach to adoption.”

He drew attention to the challenges that lie in scaling these technologies from proof of concept, with AI governance being one of the key areas of focus: how data is controlled and owned, and who owns the Intellectual property (IP) created.

Ramesh chimed in with a key hesitation around chatbot adoption: their tendency to hallucinate, which often stems from data biases and the large, public datasets these public AIs are trained on.

“One key factor driving adoption is the need to create an infrastructure that can support importing an AI model, tuning it, creating validations, bias corrections and feature engineering. Another is that we need to create explainability: why did it give this particular answer and output? The third is the availability of skilled people who can do this.”

“We believe that there is a blueprint which is now emerging for successful scaling of AI.” Mentions Rishi. He then enumerated the key pillars that IBM employs to bring about this new era: Success in scaling generative AI initiatives relies on upholding ethical AI governance, establishing robust data infrastructure, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and maintaining the agility to adapt to evolving regulations.

The AI Alliance, founded with IBM & 57 other global companies, is an international community of leading technology developers, researchers, and adopters collaborating together to advance open, safe and responsible AI.

An Ocean of Data, An Ocean of Possibilities

Challenges aside, GenAI in banking opens up truly exciting possibilities. Banks are awash in data, and leveraging it opens up incredible possibilities. Ramesh talked about creating a ‘talking bank statement’ that lets users query their statements as needed.

Mahesh is excited about Digital Banking Units (DBUs) that will help create greater access for the unbanked, in ways that don’t do away with human contact, while also driving efficiencies.

Balaji is looking forward to the increased data transparency that AI can help bring, in addition to its ability to help customer service staff reduce misinformation by enabling new hires to hit the ground running.

Rishi also addressed the concerns about the impact of AI on jobs by pointing out that this is just another cycle where a shift in technology brings about a shift in skills that are in demand and out of demand. Just like the Excel sheet didn’t make anyone redundant, while also enabling increasingly complex calculations, new AI tools and applications are expected to only eliminate the grunt work and move people higher up the value chain.

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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

Most banks see bad loans ratio at 3.5% over next 6 months, credit growth of over 12%: FICCI-IBA Survey

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

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A recent survey conducted by industry body FICCI and the Indian Banks Association (IBA) finds banks upbeat about growth prospects in the coming six months, expecting a continued improvement in asset quality. The 18th round of the FICCI-IBA Bankers’ survey was carried out from July to December 2023.

A total of 23 banks, including public sector, private sector and foreign banks participated in the survey. These banks together represent about 77% of the banking industry, as classified by asset size, the survey report said.

The survey said India’s economy held relatively well (7.6%) in FY24 compared to other major economies, “driven by strong investment growth and a rebound in industrial activity. Credit growth also continued to rise, supported by factors such as economic expansion and a continued push for retail credit which has been supported by improving digitalisation.”

Sectoral growth trends

The survey findings show that long-term credit demand has seen continued growth for sectors like infrastructure, metals, iron and steel, and food processing. Infrastructure is witnessing an increase in credit flow with 82% of the respondents to the FICCI-IBA survey indicating an increase in long-term loans as against 67% in the previous round.

The survey suggests that the outlook for non-food industry credit over the next six months is optimistic with 41% of the participating banks expecting non-food industry credit growth to be above 12% while 18% feel that non-food industry credit growth would be in the 10%-12% range.

About 36% of the respondents are of the view that non-food industry credit growth would be in the range of 8%–10%. “Customers’ search for higher rates and the ability to lock those interest rates for a longer time has led to a shift in favour of term deposits. As such, term deposits have picked up pace as reported by the respondent banks,” the FICCI-IBA survey said.

Around 70% of respondents have reported a decrease in the share of CASA deposits in total deposits.

Stability in credit standards

According to the survey, 65% of respondent banks reported credit standards for large enterprises have remained unchanged as against 54% in the last round. Respondents reporting easing of credit standards has decreased to 17% in the current round as against 29% in the previous round while those reporting tightening in credit standards were largely the same as in the previous round.

For SMEs, 64% of the respondent banks reported no change in credit standards in the current round, and 27% reported easing of credit standards.

Improvement in asset quality

On asset quality, a large majority (77%) of the respondent banks reported a decrease in the NPA levels in the last six months. All responding PSBs have cited a reduction in NPA levels while amongst participating private sector banks, 67% have cited a decrease.

Only 22% of private banks reported an increase in bad loans over the last six months. Amongst the sectors that continue to show a high level of NPAs, most of the participating bankers identified sectors such as food processing, textiles, and infrastructure.

Decrease in restructuring of advances request

Over 40% of respondents reported a decrease in requests for restructuring of advances in the current round of the survey as compared to 54% in the previous round. The proportion of respondent banks citing an increase in requests for restructuring of advances was 17%, the same as in the previous round.

“Bank-wise analysis reveals that 50% of participating PSBs have cited a decrease in requests for restructuring of advances while 30% of such respondents have reported an increase in such requests,” the survey said. Respondent banks were more sanguine about the asset quality prospects in the current round of the survey, cushioned by policy and regulatory support and this was reflected in the survey results.

Projected NPA trends

Over half of the respondent banks in the current round believe that Gross NPAs would be around 3% – 3.5% over the next six months. Fourteen percent  of respondents said that NPA levels would be in the range of 2.5 – 3%.

“Resilient domestic economy accompanied by pick up in credit growth supported by Govt capex, rising provision coverage ratio, restructuring and rehabilitation of all eligible stressed units, mobilisation of OTS proposals, robust recovery mechanism, and initiation of SARFAESI action in all eligible cases in a time bound manner were cited as the key factors by respondent bankers who expect asset quality to further improve over the next six months,” the survey said.

As per respondents, some sectors that may continue to show NPAs over the next six months include textiles and garments, agriculture and gems & jewellery.

Preparedness for ECL-based provisioning

Banks were also asked about their preparedness for the eventual adoption of Expected Credit Loss(ECL) -based provisioning.

The majority of the respondent banks stated that they were well-positioned for a smooth transition to the ECL regime and have put in place models and frameworks for ECL-based provision computations which are being reviewed and validated internally.

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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

Bank employees to get 17% wage hike, Saturdays to be holidays pending govt approval

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

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Bank employee unions and the Indian Banks’ Association have agreed to increase the annual wage by 17 percent. This move is anticipated to result in public sector banks spending around Rs 8,284 crore more every year.

Starting from November 2022, an estimated eight lakh bank employees are poised to reap the benefits of this wage hike. Under the terms of the agreement, all Saturdays are slated to be recognised as holidays, as outlined in a joint statement. However, the implementation of revised working hours hinges on governmental approval.

The new pay structure is meticulously crafted, amalgamating Dearness Allowance linked to 8088 points and additional load. Notably, female employees will now enjoy the privilege of availing one sick leave day per month sans the necessity of a medical certificate.

Furthermore, accrued privilege leave can be monetized up to 255 days upon retirement or in the unfortunate event of an employee’s demise during service.

Emphasising the historic significance of the agreement, Sunil Mehta, the Chief Executive Officer of the Indian Banks’ Association, underscored its pivotal role in shaping the future of the banking sector.

Retired employees are also set to benefit, with the accord stipulating the provision of a monthly ex-gratia amount in addition to the pension or family pension for eligible individuals associated with Public Sector Banks, including SBI, who are entitled to pension benefits on or before October 31, 2022.

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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 restricts card network’s business payment transactions, says no curb on normal business card usage

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

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday, February 15, said it has restricted one card network from enabling business payment transactions via commercial cards to non-card accepting recipients without legal sanction from the regulator.

Without naming the card network, the RBI said it had come to its notice that “a Card Network had an arrangement that enables businesses to make card payments through certain intermediaries, to entities that do not accept card payments.”

CNBC-TV18 reported on Wednesday that this entity was Visa and that the ban was due to transactions being facilitated to business units that were not authorised to accept card payments.

“Under this arrangement, the intermediary accepts card payments from corporates for their commercial payments and then remits the funds via IMPS/RTGS/NEFT to non-card accepting recipients. On closer scrutiny, it was observed that this arrangement qualified as a payment system. Under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems (PSS) Act, 2007, such payment system requires authorisation under Section 4 of the PSS Act, which has not been obtained in the instant case. The activity was, therefore, without legal sanction,” RBI said in a public release on its website on Thursday.

CNBC-TV18 had reported that fintechs acted as intermediaries to process such transactions via commercial card payments to business units, which was in violation of the PSS Act as the vendors or business units at the receiving end were not authorised to collect such card payments. EnKash and Paymate are understood to be among the fintechs that process such payments for corporates.

The RBI said that such arrangements raised concerns that the intermediary pooled a large amount of funds into an account that is not a designated account under the PSS Act.

“Transactions processed under this arrangement did not comply with the originator and beneficiary information requirements, as stipulated under Master Direction on KYC issued by the Reserve Bank,” the regulator said in the press release.

Visa in its statement to CNBC-TV18 on Thursday, said, “Visa received a communication from the RBI on Thursday, February 8, in what appears to be an industry-wide request for information on the role of business payment solution providers (BPSPs) in commercial and business payments.”

However, the regulator stated that only one card network had such an arrangement, without naming the network. RBI said, “as per information available, only one card network has operationalised this arrangement in the country so far.”

The RBI also clarified that the restriction was limited to an entity for a specific transaction and there was no restriction on the normal use of business or commercial cards per se.

“As the matter is under detailed examination, the Card Network has been advised to keep all such arrangements under abeyance, till further orders. It is clarified that the Reserve Bank has not placed any restriction with respect to normal usage of business credit cards,” the RBI said in its release.

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

India’s banks are losing savings account money to mutual funds: Banking Secretary

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

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Public sector banks are losing savings accounts more rapidly than private banks, with money flowing into mutual funds, Banking Secretary Vivek Joshi told CNBC-TV18 that this is a worry and a challenge for the banking sector. The net interest margins of government-owned banks are also under pressure, he added.

ALSO READ: RBI wants Indian banks to increase lending rates

The current account and savings account (CASA) growth is a cause for concern for the public sector banks (PSBs), said Joshi, Secretary, Department of Financial Services (DFS) on Tuesday, February 6.

“The deposit growth rate is around 13%, whereas the advances growth rate is around 16% in the PSBs. And that has been the case for most of the years. However, if you look at the performance of PSBs, their CASA is getting affected. So, that is a cause of concern not only for public sector banks but also for the banking system as a whole,” Joshi told CNBC-TV18.

Mutual funds have a role in this trend too, Joshi further added.

“I think the reason for that may be that people are moving their savings from banks to maybe mutual funds, etc. So, that is the biggest challenge for the banks in the coming days or coming quarters which I see.”

The Banking Secretary also added that the government is seeking exemptions for PSBs under the 75% minimum public shareholding (MPS) norm, and the public lenders will be exempted until August 2025.

“If you look at the public sector banks, we have, on one end of the spectrum, SBI, which has around 56% holding by the government. And then, on the other extreme, we have Indian Overseas Bank, UCO Bank or Bank of India, whereby the shareholding of the government is more than 95% or so. Banks are allowed by the government from time to time to offload equity and raise money from the capital market. So, that has been the thinking until now. As per SEBI regulations, they are supposed to maintain the 75% shareholding by the government, for which we take exemption from the Department of Economic Affairs. The current exemption will stay until August 2025.”

Joshi added that financial inclusion, NPA recovery, and cyber security remain big focus areas for the PSBs.

“In public sector banks, one part is very important for the DFS and that is the financial inclusion schemes—the Prime Minister Jan Dhan scheme, the Prime Minister’s Suraksha Bima Yojana, Jeevan, Jyoti Yojana etc. Then the two most important schemes that have been launched very recently by the government are the PM SVANidhi scheme, in which we have already covered 76 lakhs of street vendors. And then there is another new scheme called PM Vishwakarma for artisans. So, those are going to be my immediate priorities in the coming months.”

The Banking Secretary further added that loan recoveries were at ₹61,000 crore in FY24.

“The other priorities are to improve the overall work of the public sector, especially the recovery part. In the banking system once we technically write-off, once we provide for the NPAs, then that goes out of the balance sheet, but that should not go out of the minds of the MDs and top management of the banks. That has been one of my focus areas after I took over. In public sector banks, last financial year (FY23), the recovery was almost Rs 1 lakh crore. In the current nine months, it has been Rs 0.61 lakh crore.”

ALSO READ | Public sector banks may surpass ₹1.30 lakh crore in profits in FY24: Department of Financial Services

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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

10th SBI Conclave: Sanjeev Sanyal expresses optimism as banks’ gross NPAs hit decadal low of 3.2%

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

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Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), on Thursday, December 28, offered insights into India’s economic transformation. During his address at the 10th SBI Banking & Economics Conclave, he expressed surprise at the drop in gross non-performing assets (NPAs).

His remarks align with recent data outlined in the Reserve Bank of India’s “Trend and Progress of Banking in India, 2023” report, revealing a marked improvement in banks’ asset quality.

As of March 2023, the gross non-performing assets (NPA) ratio had plummeted to a decadal low of 3.9%, continuing its downward trajectory to 3.2% by September 2023.

Notably, around 45% of the reduction in gross NPAs in FY 2022-23 stemmed from “recoveries and upgradations.”

The report detailed the figures for FY 2022-23, depicting a considerable decline in gross NPAs across various bank categories. Public sector banks witnessed their NPAs drop to ₹4.2 lakh crore, while private banks, foreign banks, and small finance banks recorded NPAs at ₹1.2 lakh crore, ₹9,526 crore, and ₹8,608 crore, respectively.

This trend signified a substantial reduction in NPAs, with public sector banks (PSBs) seeing a reduction from ₹1.5 lakh crore to ₹1.02 lakh crore and private banks witnessing a drop from ₹43,738 crore to ₹29,507 crore in net NPAs.

In addition to banking reforms, Sanyal diverged from certain renowned economists’ perspectives, particularly disagreeing with Raghuram Rajan’s advocacy for a services export-led growth.

Instead, Sanyal underscored the need for a diversified approach, leveraging India’s vast domestic market and diverse population.

ALSO READ | SBI Chairman Dinesh Khara optimistic about India’s economic resilience, growth

Amid discussions on India’s global competitiveness, Sanyal injected a note of humor by attributing Mumbai’s pollution to the city “breathing the transformation.”

Further, Sanyal emphasised the socio-economic disparity between India’s Eastern and Western regions, urging a concerted effort to bridge this gap.

Highlighting the sluggish growth and economic disparities in states like Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal, he stressed the role of infrastructural development, citing the Ayodhya airport as a prime example of how investments can spur growth in disadvantaged areas.

Sanyal also provided insights into the collaborative yet occasionally divergent viewpoints with figures like Viral Acharya on monetary policy and NPA resolution.

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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

Why 2024 may be a better year for banking and financials

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

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The Nifty Bank Index has lagged behind the Nifty in recent times. However, when examining the returns over the last five to six years, the Nifty Bank has consistently outperformed the Nifty on a 10-year rolling basis. However, over the past year, the Nifty Bank index has seen a gain of under 2% compared to the Nifty’s nearly 7% increase.

According to Vinit Sambre, Head of Equities at DSP Investment Managers, the banking sector’s fundamentals remain solid, and it’s only a matter of time before this is reflected in its performance.

“Maybe a quarter or two, once the concern around the peaking net interest margins (NIMs) goes away, I think that is where maybe the banking sector starts to do well,” he told CNBC-TV18.

Fook Hien Yap, Senior Investment Strategist at Standard Chartered Bank anticipates continued strong economic growth over the next six to 12 months to bolster both retail and corporate loan growth. The robustness of balance sheets is also a positive sign.

“So in terms of the provisions, and the bad loans, which are out there, we think it’s quite benign. And valuations are attractive. So we do have an overweight view for financials in India,” he said.

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In September, experts from global financial services firm, JPMorgan noted that the banking sector in India presents an attractive investment opportunity as they are one of the few sectors in the market where valuations remain acceptable, leading global financial services firm.

On Tuesday, November 28, the Nifty Bank had a choppier session when compared to the Nifty. Experts see 44,000 as a barrier for the banking index as it reversed from levels of 43,960 on Tuesday as well.

For more, watch the accompanying video

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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

UBS Securities cautious on India’s high valuations, foresees ‘mild’ US recession in 2024

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

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UBS Securities’ Sunil Tirumalai is cautious about Indian equities in the global context. Despite India’s rapid economic growth, he notes that “Indian stocks are not the frontrunners in terms of earnings growth, but they have outperformed significantly when it comes to valuations.”

In an exclusive chat with CNBC-TV18, the brokerage firm’s Emerging Markets and India Strategist highlighted the disparity between the fundamentals and the elevated sentiment-driven valuations. Emerging market stocks listed in India, he noted, have seen an 80% valuation increase post-pandemic, a substantial jump from the 30% premium observed pre-pandemic. This surge can be attributed to an influx of domestic savings into the market during the pandemic.

UBS Securities maintains a watchful approach, considering the challenging environment for Indian stocks to outshine their emerging market peers.

View on the US economy

The brokerage firm forecasts a modest recession in the United States, extending into 2024. “It’s not a very deep recession, but we definitely are below consensus in terms of what our economic outlook in the USA is, ” Tirumalai said.

Also Read: Fed seems to be keeping calm for now but one data point could change it all

View on the banking sector

Vishal Goyal, Head of Research & Banks Analyst at UBS Securities India, highlighted the banking sector’s declining credit costs over the past few years.

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“For the last three or four years, we are only seeing credit cost decline, and that is on the back of the non-performing liability (NPL) cycle peaking and we have seen some lumpy recoveries also in the last few years, which has supported credit costs,” said Goyal.

View on the auto sector

Tirumalai mentioned, “Over the course of this year, we have seen the auto sector has done well, and we have turned a bit cautious on some of the stocks.”

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

Empowering women in finance: Experts discuss the opportunities and challenges in smart banking

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

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A bank account is the first stepping stone in an individual’s financial journey. Banks open the doors to the concept of money spending, saving, and of course borrowing for hundreds of thousands of their customers.

In many cases, banks eventually end up becoming the gateway to the idea of investing in wealth management for a lot of investors — especially younger investors, and new investors. So the question is, have women mastered the art and the science of smart banking?

CNBC-TV18 engaged in a discussion with prominent financial experts, Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson & CEO of Salesforce India; Rajiv Anand, Deputy MD of Axis Bank; and Keki Mistry, Former CEO of HDFC. The conversation revolved around enabling women to take charge of their finances and how banks can onboard more female clients.

According to reports from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), women in the age group of 18 to 24 have witnessed a significant surge in investment activities, with the number of investors in this age group quadrupling between 2019 and 2022. This demonstrates an annualised growth rate of an impressive 63%.

Read Here | ‘Empowering women has been a constant thread in my life’: Nita Ambani on gender equality, sports and more

Arundhati Bhattacharya pointed out, “There are reports indicating that 33% of women have never invested in their lives, and 22% of women are unaware that investments are held in their name. This suggests that many women have merely signed documents where family members directed them. This is concerning. While we have made progress, we still have a long way to go.”

Keki Mistry, however, offered a different perspective, saying, “I don’t entirely agree that women don’t have a role in finance. Women play a crucial role in finance, especially in managing household budgets. They learn to save money from the household budget and allocate it for essential family needs. With more women in the workforce, they also manage their personal finances. It’s not just a gender issue; it’s about educating people, whether they are men or women, on personal finance.”

For full interview, watch accompanying video

Also Read | Zoomed Out | Why redistribution of unpaid care work is a prerequisite to achieve women empowerment

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