Nilesh Shivji Vikamsey has been appointed as part-time Chairman of Federal Bank. Vikamsey, who will assume office on 20th June 2015, succeeds Abraham Koshy, who retired from the Board of Federal Bank on 17th May 2015 on successful completion of his term of eight years.Vikamsey joined the Board of Directors of the Bank in June 2011 as an Independent Director. At Federal Bank, he was instrumental in ushering in professionalism and good governance in various areas more particularly to the Inspection, Audit, Accountancy and Credit practices. The Bank also owes a lot to his erudition in improving a myriad of processes that are critical to the functioning of the Bank.A Chartered Accountant by profession, Nilesh Shivji Vikamsey is a member of the Central Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) for the last 5 years, and also holds a Diploma in Information System Audit. He has also done the Business Consultancy Studies Course of Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) jointly with Bombay Chartered Accountants Society. He is the senior partner of Khimji Kunverji & Co, a firm which has over 79 years of experience in the areas of Auditing, Taxation, Due Diligence, Valuations, Inspections, Investigations and Business Consulting and Advisory.
Read More
India-born former Google executive Nikesh Arora has been appointed the President of Japan's telecommunications giant SoftBank Corp that paid the "rising star" a whopping $35 million for the financial year 2014. Arora, 47, who earlier held the vice president's post, was appointed company president and chief operating officer at a general meeting of shareholders in Tokyo on Friday (19 June). In a management reshuffle last month, Arora - then investments head - was named as a potential successor to company chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son, as the telecoms conglomerate steps up its overseas expansion. Arora joined the Japanese company just last September. He was previously chief business officer of Google Inc., which he entered in 2004 as a telecom industry analyst before being recruited by Son. Hailed by Son as a "rising star", Arora received 16.556 billion yen (nearly USD 135 million) for the period through March, 2015. Of the total, 14.6 billion yen was paid as an entering bonus and compensation for his work as an executive at a SoftBank subsidiary, the Asahi Shimbun reported today, citing the conglomerate's latest financial report. Unlike elsewhere in the world, there are few business executives in Japan who are paid several billions of yen a year and rare for a Japanese company to pay more than 16 billion yen annually to an executive, it said. In less than a year at SoftBank, Arora has already directed about 200 billion yen ($1.67 billion) worth of deals that include investments in Indian technology startups Snapdeal, an online marketplace, and taxi-booking service Ola Cabs, Nikkei Business Daily reported.(Agencies)
Read More
Money held by Indians in Swiss banks fell by over 10 per cent last year to 1.8 billion Swiss franc (about Rs 12,615 crore), amid an enhanced clampdown against the famed secrecy wall of Switzerland's banking system by Indian and other governments.The funds held by Indians with banks in Switzerland fell by CHF 215 million to CHF 1,815 million ($1.98 billion), from 2,030 million Swiss franc, as per the latest data released today by the country's central banking authority SNB (Swiss National Bank).This is the second lowest amount of funds held by Indians in the Swiss banks and follows an increase of over 40 per cent in the previous year, 2013.In contrast, the money held in Swiss banks by their foreign clients from across the world surprisingly rose during 2014 to 1.5 trillion Swiss franc ($1.6 trillion or Rs 103 lakh crore), from about Rs 90 lakh crore at the end of 2013 - the record low level so far.During 2012, the Indians' money in Swiss banks had fallen by over one-third to its lowest ever level of 1.42 billion Swiss franc (Rs 8,530 crore).As per the latest data, the total Indian money held in Swiss banks at the end of 2014 included 1,776 million Swiss franc or Rs 12,350 crore held directly by Indian individuals and entities (down from 1,952 million a year ago), and another 38 million Swiss franc (down from 77.3 million Swiss francs at 2013-end) through 'fiduciaries' or wealth managers.However, "amounts due to customers' savings and deposit accounts" was only CHF 52 million (down from CHF 63 million a year ago), while over CHF 100 million was due through other banks and the remaining amount of well over one billion Swiss francs have been classified as "other amounts due to the customers" from India.(PTI)
Read More
Country's second-largest private sector lender, HDFC Bank today launched a 10-second paperless instant loan plan for its existing customers. "HDFC Bank will now disburse personal loans to its customers in just 10 seconds. With this product, existing customers will have a pre-approved loan amount available to them 24x7," the bank said in a statement. The entire process of availing the loan is completely paperless, and users can simply log into their bank account via net-banking or mobile banking and avail of this loan at a click, it added. The loan is completely hassle-free and transparent. Users will no longer have to wait for disbursement of funds, particularly in medical or other types of emergencies. "It is like having a real cheque in one's virtual wallet and is part of our mission of enabling customer delight by creating simple and speedy banking solutions that are available at a click," the statement said. Commenting on the development, HDFC Bank Unsecured Loans, Home & Mortgage Loans Business Head Arvind Kapil said: "Most customers expect banks to connect the dots between online and offline options to deliver convenient, consistent service." The 10-second loan is another offering under HDFC Bank's digital banking platform GoDigital. Under the platform, the bank had launched PayZapp application to cater to e-commerce space. In financial year 2014-15, 63 per cent of all transactions at HDFC Bank were conducted through digital channels. (PTI)
Read More
Rather than waiting, exiting from IDFC Premier Equity Fund could be the right thing, says Sunil Dhawan. Read on why? Mutual funds investors, especially those who are holding units of IDFC Premier Equity Fund, have a common question in mind. Should they continue or exit? The news is that Kenneth Andrade, head of investments at IDFC Asset Management Company (AMC) and the fund manager of IDFC Premier Equity Fund has quit. Managing mid-caps space is not as simple as managing large cap funds especially when it comes to managing huge corpus and not finding the right stocks to invest in. IDFC Premier Equity Fund, a mid and small cap fund, has a corpus of about Rs 7,200 and is probably the only open-ended fund that opens its window for fresh subscription intermittently. Investing in IDFC Premier Equity Fund however is always open through the SIP mode and for the last 7-8 years, the fund has been a regular in most investor’s equity portfolio. What changes: Kenneth had been a winner stock-picker. His stock-picks may or may not perform while in his absence the decisions around these stocks will matter hugely. Further, the potential to identify future winner may not necessarily be seen in the new manager. On the contrary, the fund may do as well. The uncertainty prevails. Performance: When it come to performance, its been a consistent performer since its launch. The fund has been able to beat its benchmark regularly however of late the performance against its peers has been the matter of concern. The others are doing much better. See ‘Performance’ below. What to do: Had it been any other run-of-the-mill fund, the decision could have been different. With IDFC Premier Equity Fund, whose stellar performance came largely on the back of solid investment acumen of Kenneth Andrade, the answer could be fairly simple. Existing investors may exit and redeploy the proceeds elsewhere. New investors contemplating to invest in IDFC Premier Equity Fund may choose to consider other funds. In fact, all funds where he directly managed may be exited. As a practice, AMC needs to be more proactive in reaching out to the investors in such developments when the fund manager leaves. This becomes more important when the fund is backed by ‘fund manager’ and not by the investment team as perceived by investors at large. In these times of social media, when there’s no such update to investors about a major change in AMC’s website, Facebook, Twitter page, much needs to be thought about the role of social media. Its time, they stop making use of these platforms only for showcasing laurels and awards they win.
Read More
State Bank of India, the nation's top lender by assets, reported a better-than-expected 23 per cent increase in quarterly profit and a lower bad loan ratio, sending its shares more than 5 per cent higher. SBI, which accounts for about a quarter of Indian loans and deposits, said net profit rose to Rs 3,742 crore ($589.11 million) for its fiscal fourth quarter to March 31 from Rs 3,041 crore a year earlier. Analysts on average had expected a net profit of Rs 3,723 crore, according Thomson Reuters data. Gross bad loans ratio stood at 4.25 per cent in the March quarter, compared with 4.9 per cent in the December quarter. (Reuters)
Read More
With China' impressive economic growth catapulting their banks into the top global league, India's top private sector lender ICICI Bank's chief Chanda Kochhar has said Indian banks also must aspire to scale up their activities significantly. ICICI Bank, which has opened its first branch in China, would also keep reviewing the India-linked business opportunities in the international markets and expand its presence as new avenues emerge, Kochhar said. "For economies like India and China, where banks are the major financiers of growth, the performance of the banking sector is closely linked to the economy. "China has an exceptional record of consistent high growth of over 10 per cent for three decades which has helped to catapult Chinese banks to a significant size at a global level," said Kochhar. "India is expected to be the fastest growing economy in the medium term. As India grows, Indian banks must also aspire to scale up their activities significantly," added more. A number of Chinese banks have made it to the world's top banking league, but Indian banks are still not there. Kochhar, who was here for the opening of ICICI Bank's first branch in China on Saturday, was replying to a question on whether some Indian banks, including ICICI Bank, would be able to join the top global league some time soon. With a consolidated asset base of $132 billion, ICICI Bank is India's largest private sector bank and it is present across 17 countries. It already had a representative office in China, which it had opened over 10 years ago in 2003. The bank's international book accounts for about one-fourth of its assets. To another question on whether ICICI Bank would look at entering other countries which have potential for greater trade flows with India, Kochhar said, "The Bank continues to review India-linked business opportunities and expand our presence as new avenues emerge." "The Bank continues to calibrate its global presence as per its India-linked strategy. We have had a presence in China since over a decade through our representative office, which can now been be scaled up further through the branch to take advantage of the growing linkages between the two countries," she said. ICICI Bank's global footprint consists of subsidiaries in the UK and Canada, branches in the US, China, Singapore, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Qatar and Dubai International Finance Centre, and representative offices in UAE, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia. The bank's UK subsidiary has established branches in Belgium and Germany. (PTI)
Read More
HDFC Bank Ltd, India's second-biggest private sector lender by assets, said on Thursday it was optimistic of growing loans on the back of faster economic expansion after reporting net profit grew more than a fifth in the March quarter. The lender said net profit rose to Rs 2807 crore ($444 million) in its fiscal fourth quarter from Rs 2327 crore a year ago. Analysts on average had expected a profit of 27.8 billion rupees, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters. HDFC Bank expects to grow loans faster than the banking sector during the financial year to March 2016, Paresh Sukthankar, deputy managing director at the lender, told reporters. He expected the banking system loan growth this fiscal year to be between 13 and 14 percent if the economy grows one percentage point faster. Bank loans grew about 12 percent last fiscal year. Indian lenders have been hurt by two straight years of slower economic expansion that led to projects being stalled and corporate balance sheets getting stretched. Demand for loans from companies has yet to pick up, although consumer loans are growing fast. "Have we seen a huge pick up on the capex side? The answer is 'no'," Sukthankar said, but added that was not a surprise since loan demand revival typically comes with a lag to economic recovery. HDFC Bank's net interest income grew 21.4 percent in the March quarter as advances rose 20.6 percent. Net interest margin was stable at 4.4 percent. Bad loans as a percentage of total loans was at 0.9 percent compared with 1 percent in the third quarter. Shares in HDFC Bank, which is India's most-valuable lender with more than $40 billion in market capitalisation, have outperformed bigger rivals such as State Bank of India and ICICI Bank so far this year. HDFC Bank stock has gained 6.5 percent in 2015, while the bank sector index is down 2.6 percent.
Read More
