Credit Card Borrowing Limits To Be Reduced
Indian credit card issuers have been forced by rising defaults and a lack of Rupee liquidity to reduce borrowing limits of existing customers. Leading card issuing banks such as ICICI Bank, SBI Card, Citibank and HSBC said they will revise the credit limit selectively after assessing the customers’ credit history.
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Moody’s Downgrades ICICI UK’s Long Term Debt
Moody’s, the global rating agency, last week downgraded ICICI Bank UK, the British subsidiary of ICICI Bank. The ratings agency downgraded supported long term bank deposits, senior unsecured debt and also revised the ratings for subordinated and junior subordinated debt issued by the bank.
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Reliance Stops Making New Consumer Loans
Anil Ambani controlled Reliance Consumer Finance; the consumer lending division of ADAG unit Reliance Capital stopped making fresh loans effective last week the Reuters news agency reported citing the Hindustan Times as its source.
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RBI Sets Up Currency Swaps For Banks Needing Dollar Funding
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last week said it will provide foreign exchange liquidity to foreign branches and subsidiaries of Indian banks through currency swaps.The Indian central bank said that such a measure would ease pressure on Indian banks managing short term fund requirements for their overseas business’s that have been squeezed by the global credit crisis.
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SBI Card to Offer “Financial Difficulty Package”
State Bank of India’s credit card unit SBI Card is to roll out a “financial difficulty package”. The scheme is aimed at customers who have a decent repayment record but have recently defaulted due to financial difficulties.
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Supreme Court Admits Credit Card Interest Rate Appeal.
The Business Standard reported on Wednesday that the Supreme Court of India has admitted the appeal by the banking industry lobby against the order of the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission which sought to limit credit card interest rates.
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SBI Cuts Prime Lending Rate
State Bank of India (SBI) India’s largest bank has decided to reduce its prime lending rate by 75 basis points. The cut in interest rate is effective today, and was hammered out last week when the Chairmen of India’s 28 largest state owned lenders met with the Finance Minister P Chidamabaram. State owned commercial banks, account for around 96 per cent of the domestic credit market, and have agreed to cut benchmark prime lending rates in an effort to spur economic growth.
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SBI to Open 1500 Branches Next Year
The Business Standard Reported at the end of October that India’s largest bank, State Bank of India plans to open more than 1500 in the next calendar year. The bank recently reported a 40.4 percent increase in net profit, and the branch expansion plans were revealed during the press conference by bank Chairman OP Bhatt.
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ICICI Bank Becoming More Selective with New Credit Card Customers
ICICI Bank India’s second largest bank and the country’s largest credit card issuer has decided to ease up on the growth of its credit card business following in the same footsteps of Standard Chartered Bank as was reported here a couple of weeks ago. In fact seeking better quality clients that are more likely to repay their obligations has been a long running theme within Indian retail banking over the last few months, as the rush to grab market share at any cost including compromising on credit quality has clearly not paid off.
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Indian Credit and Debit Card Use to Explode
Indian electronic payments or e-payments for retail purchases has grown by 60% in the last 3 years and is set to grow by a further 70% in the next two years, according to a report by research and consulting firm Celent. The value of retail e-payments reach between US$ 150 Billion to 180 Billion (Rs 750,000 Crore to Rs 900,000 Crore) by 2010.
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