BlaBlaCar, the world’s largest long-distance ridesharing community, that entered the Indian market in January 2015, raised $200 million from Insight Venture Partners, Lead Edge Capital and Vostok New Ventures, in a series D investment round. BlaBlaCar is an inter-city ride sharing service that operates in as many as 19 countries. It has raised more than $110 million in the last three rounds and its existing investors include Index Venture partners, Accel Partners and Lead Edge Capital. Raised to meet the demand of accelerated growth in established markets and take-off in new markets, the round makes BlaBlaCar one of Europe’s most well-funded startups, with over $300 million in funding to date, as per a statement released by the company. With over 20 million registered members, BlaBlaCar has brought ridesharing to the mainstream, creating an affordable way to travel between cities that is entirely based on wasted car capacity – i.e. empty seats. The service connects people looking to travel long distances with car owners already going the same way, so both can save money by sharing the cost of their journey. This model has made BlaBlaCar a leader of the global sharing economy, and is helping to make road travel more efficient and affordable. “With this additional investment, we’ll be able to accelerate our growth in new and established markets, continuing to build the largest people-powered transport community in the world,” said Nicolas Brusson, BlaBlaCar’s co-founder and COO in a statement. “This financing is a significant step closer to transforming mobility on a global scale,” he added. BlaBlaCar was founded in 2006 by Frédéric Mazzella, CEO, Francis Nappez, CTO, and Nicolas Brusson, COO. Currently, BlaBlaCar operates in Benelux, Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.
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India is considering raising foreign ownership in private banks to 100 percent, a business newspaper reported on Thursday, citing a senior government official. The measure to hike foreign ownership in private banks from the current 74 per cent is being discussed by the finance ministry, the department of industrial policy & promotion (DIPP) and the Reserve Bank of India, the newspaper said. One of the options being considered is allowing an additional 26 per cent increase through the approval route, the newspaper said. A response from the finance ministry is awaited, the newspaper reported the official as saying.
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ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar is among three Indians selected for this year's Asia Game Changer awards given by Asia Society to honour "true leaders making a positive contribution to the future of Asia." Indian-American actor Aasif Mandvi, 49, and designer Kiran Bir Sethi, 49, also made it to the list besides Kochhar, 53. Champion Boxer and Philanthropist from the Philippines Manny Pacquiao is the 2015 Asia Game Changer of the Year "for using his sport and his star power as forces for good," Asia Soceity, the leading global cultural organisation, announced. The honorees will be bestowed the honour at the Asia Game Changer Awards dinner and celebration at the UN in October. The New York-based organisation said Kochhar "not only made history" by becoming the first woman to head an Indian bank but she also transformed the entire Indian retail banking industry. "Under Kochhar's leadership, ICICI Bank has achieved great milestones year-after-year by expanding its businesses, leveraging technology to bring value to its urban and rural customers and partnering with the public and private sectors to create new opportunities," it said. By shattering the proverbial "glass ceiling," Kochhar has been an inspiration to many young women and has racked up numerous awards and accolades, it added. Mandvi has become a powerful spokesperson for Muslims and Asian-Americans. Mumbai-born Mandvi has "challenged stereotypes" and provided a voice for Muslim-Americans, changing the game in terms of how Asians are viewed on TV. In 2015, he co-wrote, produced and acted in the web series Halal in the Family for the popular comedy site Funny or Die, using the sitcom format to tackle Islamophobia. "Mandvi aspires not only to provide positive representation for Muslim America he also hopes to challenge non-Muslim audiences," Asia Society said. Interior designer Sethi founded The Riverside School in Ahmedabad in 2001, aiming to provide an alternative model which focuses on "quality of learning," "student well being," and "empathy in education," a game-changing move in India. In 2009, Sethi expanded on the principles practiced at Riverside to found the 'Design for Change' movement with the goal of getting children to drive change in their communities by unleashing what she calls their "I can superpower." The movement to encourage youth volunteerism, which has since spread to more than 300,000 children in 35 countries. The award addresses the lack of recognition for Asians who are transforming ideas into action and improving lives, said Asia Society President Josette Sheeran. The honorees are selected through a global survey of more than 1,000 thought leaders. The other seven honorees include 2014 Nobel Laureates in Physics and inventors of a new energy- efficient light source the blue LED Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura "for lighting our world in a groundbreaking and sustainable way." (PTI)
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Understanding how nomination works and its legal standing as against assigning a policy is important when you buy life insurance, says Sunil Dhawan Insurance is bought with the objective that after death, the family members who are financially dependent can maintain the same standard of living. To ensure this to happen, insurance policies requires a family member to be nominated. Most insurers would insist that the person nominated should have insurable interest for being nominated or be a family member. But it’s important to understand the legal standing of a nominee. Nominee is merely a caretaker of the proceeds. A nominee in a life insurance contract is the person as appointed by the policyholder at the time of buying an insurance policy, to whom the insurer discharges his liability of paying a claim upon the death of the insured during the term of the policy. In the event of a claim the nominee does not receive the policy’s money in his individual capacity. Also, he cannot exercise any kind of right on the whole or even part of the claim amount. As a nominee, he only has the right to give a valid discharge to the insurance company and to hold the money on behalf of those who are entitled to it, i.e., the legal heirs of the insured. Assigning, the way out: The only way for a policyholder to ensure that the policy money goes to the person he wants is to assign the policy to that person. The assignee to which the policy is assigned has absolute rights over the policy and will supersede any nomination made earlier. Assigning your policy through Married women protection Act is one way to ensure that proceeds goes to a specific member. The policy is assigned through an endorsement on the policy document, or on a separate stamped deed signed by the policyholder and submitted to the insurer. A witness has to sign in both cases. Assignments are also done towards an institution for repayment of loans. Your life insurance policy is assigned to the institution as a security through assignment. And once it gets transferred, you still are the insured, but you no longer own the insurance value of it. You however, need to continue paying the premiums. The lending institution reassigns the policy to the policyholder after the loan has been repaid. Downside of Assigning: A major drawback of assigning a policy is that the process is almost irreversible. Having once assigned a policy, a policyholder cannot change his decision unless the assignee agrees to give up his rights over the benefits. On assigning a policy, the assignor loses his rights over the policy. The assignee then becomes the owner of the policy and enjoys all the rights and benefits. A policyholder should, therefore, choose an assignee with care. This is especially true of money back policies where the assignee-and not the policyholder-is eligible for the benefits even before the premium paying term ends. An assignee can re-assign the policy if he wishes. End note: Much of the litigation in life insurance policies is around nominations. Legal heirs have the right to the proceeds even if their name doesn’t find a place in insurance documents. If you want to make sure that the proceeds go to a specific member, assign your policy rather than merely nominating. After all, it's not for yourself that you buy a life cover.
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India is considering allowing state retirement funds to invest more in equities and opening them up to private-sector management to improve returns, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to expand the country's tiny pensions net. Hemant Contractor, head of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), told Reuters he was pushing for state pension funds to be allowed to invest up to half of their funds in stocks, up from the current 15 percent. "We have taken it up very strongly with the government," Contractor said in an interview. "The moment the government accepts it, we will increase to 50 percent." The pension plans handle mostly state employees' funds. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who wants pension and insurance funds to invest more in equities and infrastructure, could make a decision soon, a ministry official said. The pension savings of about $15 billion overseen by Contractor's agency are about just 1 percent of the Bombay Stock Exchange's $1.5 trillion market value. But asset managers expect them to grow four-fold over five years, mainly driven by higher deposits following tax exemptions this year. Jaitley introduced a tax break this year on annual pension contributions of up to 50,000 rupees ($750), a step that could boost enrollments by 40-45 percent in this fiscal year, Contractor said. Modi has also urged the $100 billion state-run Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to start buying stocks to lift its returns. "There is a broad agreement that state employees should have an option on a par with private workers to invest in equity markets," said a finance ministry official, who is involved in the policy process and spoke on condition of anonymity. But most of India's workforce is employed in the cash economy and has no formal retirement cover at all. Only about 12 percent of those in work actually have a pension plan. Funds overseen by the PFRDA have returned more than 10 percent a year since it was set up in 2004. That beats the 8.5 percent earned by the EPFO, which invests mainly in government bonds, but barely beat inflation over the same period. Private players see an opportunity in the pension savings of the 60 million state employees who contribute $13 billion of the $15 billion in assets overseen by the PFRDA. The PFRDA plans to invite bids to manage more pension funds in the next two to three months. Awards would be based on the most competitive fees bid by asset managers. "We are very positive," said S. Bandyopadhyay, CEO of LIC Pension Fund, which manages $4.4 billion. He forecast that PFRDA-regulated assets could grow by three or four times to $60 billion over the next four years. Still fund managers say there is long way to go as low awareness of pension products, adverse tax rules and a lack of confidence in the stock market deter many potential investors. (Reuters)
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It's important to bring the financial house in order before you settle down. Sunil Dhawan lists out a few things for the unmarried to take a note of For those in the early days of their career, the thought of saving money might not be the first choice. But then, for many of them, the first big expenditure will be arranging funds for their marriage. In addition to what the parents have been saving over the years spending one's own money brings a bit of an extra delight. Let's see, how to go about work out a financial plan before marriage. First things firstIf you are running a debt, make a plan to get rid of it as early as possible. All your personal loans and credit card outstanding should stand at zero. Trim card purchases and repay whatever outstanding is there on card. If there is an educational loan, repay as much as possible. However, it might continue even after marriage, hence plan accordingly. Taking a personal loan for marriage should be strict no-no under any circumstances. Sole or jointDo not close your banking account even if you have to shift city after marriage. Keep it running even after few years of marriage as certain cheques in the maiden name for the females would not be subject to name-change formalities. Plan to investWith marriage less than 3 years away, choose long term debt mutual funds and stay away from equity funds at all cost. If the horizon is 3-5 years, choose balanced mutual funds. If marriage is still farther away, choose diversified equity mutual funds. Start SIP in balanced and equity funds after carefully working out the funds required for marriage. Controlling FinancesWith around three years away from the marriageable age, make sure to move your savings especially in the equity mutual funds schemes towards less volatile debt funds. The same goes with your parent's investment for your needs. For investments such public provident fund in your name and similarly any other investment such as shares, bonds or fixed deposits may continue as it is. Cash out from only those investments which are nearing its natural maturity. Keep the proceeds in bank fixed deposit or debt funds. DocumentationMarriage would entail changing not only the surname but also the name in some cases. Existing nominations would also require immediate attention. To keep the transition smooth it's essential to keep record of all originals handy. Get the marriage certificate prepared in the initial years itself. Parent's investment with you as the nominee may not require change. In your case, they need to be modified in your spouse name after marriage. Newly-marriedYou need to sit with our spouse and chalk out a detailed roadmap for family finances. This should ideally start with covering health and life risks for both of you. Over the years preparing plan for kid's education and marriage needs to be provisioned. To bring things more under control, plan out how you would prepare retirement plans funded by both or self. Consider any inheritances that would fall into any of you. Plan-out for owning car and house of own in the years ahead. End noteFinally, being transparent helps. Let your would-be partner know where you stand in terms of finances rather than giving her or him a nasty surprise. Let not the money spoilt the party before it begins.
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India Post is not new to banking-like services like opening accounts, taking deposits, allowing withdrawals and sending money. With Payment Banking licence for India Post, there will be some changes reports Ashish Sinha In order to meet the regulatory and legal requirements of operating a payments bank, Department of Post has initiated steps to hive off its postal arm - India Post as and set it up as a 100 per cent subsidiary company – a mandatory requirement for operating a Payments Bank. “Steps have been taken to hive off India Post as a separate unit. Payments banking via India Post should be operational any time after April 2016,” said a senior official. In order to set up a 100 per cent subsidiary of department of posts, an approval from the Union Cabinet is a must. The modalities of the entire process of how India Post will operate as a separate entity will be worked out in a draft Cabinet note, which will then go before the Cabinet for approval. Communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad envisages the creation of around five lakh jobs for rural and tribal Indians within the proposed network of India Post Payments Banking services. India Post is among the 11 chosen ones selected by the Reserve Bank of India to offer a payments bank. The 11 names who have been granted the Payments Bank licence are India Post, National Securities Depository Ltd, Tech Mahindra, Vodafone, Reliance Industries Ltd, Airtel, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Fino Paytech, Cholamandalam, Dilip Sahnghvi, and Vijay Sharma. What is a Payments Bank? What are its dos and don’ts?Payments banks are institutions that will offer most of the banking services except loans and credit card products to retail customers. Payments bank cannot accept deposits of more than one lakh Rupees per account. Payments banks cannot pay high interest on their deposits as they are required by law to maintain 75 per cent of their deposits in government securities, where the interest are typically less than eight per cent or so.Payments banks will be allowed to set up automated teller machines or ATMs as they are popularly known. But withdraws via ATMs can be chargeable. Advantage India Post Payments bankIndia Post, by virtue of its widespread network covering a large part of the country stands to gain from the first day, experts said. This is because as against a network of less than 40,000 branches of all scheduled commercial banks, department of posts has a network of 1.5 lakh post offices, with a lion’s share in rural India. While others in the payments banking business are expected to run their respective operations for commercial purposes, India Post, by virtue of being under Government of India, may not. Payments bank can also offer life insurance. But the department of post has been providing postal life insurance, since 1884, and rural postal life insurance since 1995. The experience is going to give India Post a big head start over others, experts said. There is one disadvantage too. Since RBI norms on payments banking does not allow the service provider to grant loans, this vast network of post offices may go waste, especially when it comes to granting smaller loans to very poor and tribal Indians, who are otherwise outside the normal banking services network. Till some years ago, the department of post was aggressively working towards obtaining a full banking licence. In fact, the department had applied to RBI for a banking licence for its fully-owned subsidiary, India Post. However, the financial situation of the department, by virtue of always under a deficit, worked against it. As per the official figures, the department of post has witnessed a steady escalation in its annual deficit – from Rs 5,339 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 6,665 crore in 2015-16. As a result, the payments banking licence was granted to a separate entity called India which will further need to be set up as a 100 per cent subsidiary for undertaking the payments banking operations. ashish.sinha@businessworld.in
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Raghu Mohan says GE Capital’s decision to exit its joint venture in plastic with SBI Cards is a clear indication that portfolio sales and buyouts is set to gain momentum as we go down the road In April, the US financial giant GE had taken a strategic decision to exit part some of its financial services to focus on traditional business lines (See box on 'GE Capital: Divesture Update’) which range from aircraft engines and locomotives to medical devices and power generation. SBI Cards is a joint venture (JV) between SBI and GE Capital in which the State Bank of India holds 60 per cent -- the rest with GE Capital. The JV runs through two entities -- SBI Cards & Payment Services (marketing and distribution of SBI credit cards. And GE Capital Business Processes Management Services which is in to technology and processing. With a current customer base of over 2.7 million, SBI Cards operates through a footprint of 63 cities in the country. What It MeansPortfolio buyouts – as opposed to buyouts of an entire financial services firm – is a good way to jumpstart a particular business vertical. The last major deal of this kind was done in the summer of 2011 when IndusInd Bank picked up the Indian credit card business of Deutsche Bank for Rs 224 crore. In one fell swoop, the buyout gave IndusInd access to nearly 200,000 card holders; 200 sharp suits who know how to run operations; and the entire back-end paraphernalia. Plus, something that money alone can’t buy. “The deal helped cut down on a rollout time of nearly 12 to 18 months if we had started out to issue plastic from scratch”, says Romesh Sobti, managing director and CEO of IndusInd Bank. Source: Active Charter Investors AssociationIt had dawned on Deutsche Bank that a mass product like credit cards cannot be built out of 15 branches. Sure, Citi and StanChart did vend plastic with a small branch network in the 1990s. But back then, plastic had just got off the blocks; it was about lifestyle, not utility. You just had 200,000 credit cards, not the hundred of millions that floats around now. The German bank had little room to ramp up; the cross-sell window (where you sell multiple products and services to a customer to up your share of the wallet) is a small one for a niche player. You can also get burnt when you hawk unsecured credit; rivals felt the pain at the end of a three-year boom in 2008. The bank decided to revisit then India boss Gunit Chadha’s bet to ride on high-end retail in 2005. Cherry-picking is set to gain momentum from now on. It’s driven by the realisation that you cannot be all things to all comers. If you cannot stay on top of the pole, call it quits. Capital will quote at a huge premium from now on and there are competing businesses and markets for it. An added fillip is that many state-run banks will find capital hard come by from the Centre as pressures mount on account of Basel-III which kicks in from fiscal 2019. They will be forced to exit businesses.
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