'ESG is actually a concept which cannot be applied effectively in the very short run.'

Companies don't have to be in the field to nudge people to return money they owe lenders.

In FY23, the State Bank of India (SBI) reported a 57.4 per cent jump in its net profit to Rs 55,684.17 crore. But the chairman of the country's largest bank, Dinesh Khara's annual pay for this creditable performance was just Rs 37 lakh (his peers at state-run banks are no better off). Look at his private bank rivals - most pocketed in excess of Rs 7 crore annually - plus stock options.

In March this year, Worldline India launched Vabox (Voice Alert Box): merchants will now get instant audio alerts on the settlement of UPI (Unified Payments Interface) payments via QR codes in languages of their choice when customers check out. "They needn't worry whether the amount has been credited to their account," says Gulshan Pruthi, the firm's executive vice-president. The French payments giant will roll out 500,000 Vaboxes in the initial phase.

A top-class board is important from a systemic point of view, more so at a time when the wider financial world and India Inc is chasing the same talent as banks.

In January, Visa's chief executive officer, Al Kelly, said during an earnings call that "there's been a burst of the balloon in valuations in the fintech world". Noting that the trend of lower valuations "is a helpful characteristic of the current environment", he added: "We will look for capabilities and management teams that will bring more value to Visa than we can bring ourselves." Data from KPMG's Pulse of Fintech H2'22 shows that global fintech investment - via mergers and acquisitions (M&As), private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) firms - at $164.1 billion in 2022, was down 31 per cent over the year before. Indian fintechs held up better during this timeframe, attracting $6 billion, or a fall of 24 per cent.

A plea that the banking regulator's stress should be on the strategic role of boards and an increase in the remuneration of independent directors were among the issues put forward to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) top brass in its interaction with the full boards of state-run banks held on Monday. The meeting, the first leg of first-of-its-kind interactions with the boards of state-run banks, will now be followed by those of private banks in Mumbai on May 29. The RBI's press release, issued late on Monday, did not refer to the specific points that found mention in the deliberations, but top sources told Business Standard the twin concerns were taken up in the open-house interaction with the banking regulator's brass.

The average time lag between the date of occurrence of a fraud and its detection is 23 months; for large frauds (Rs 100 crore and above), it was 57 months.

PEs and VCs are taking a closer look at their bouquet of investments. Leading voices in the sector are categorical that cash-burn rates -- that's blowing up equity to acquire market share -- as a business model can't continue to be the polestar.

The stage is set for the loading of cash into automated teller machines (ATMs) through the cassette-swap mode with an initial four-phased roll-out across 30 cities from June 1. The lockable cassette-swap will do away with the current practice of open-cash replenishment into ATMs. Cash-in-transit (CIT) firm personnel, tasked with loading cash into ATMs, will not have to touch it anymore. Cash-handling will be done by CITs at the cash centre, and the task of taking into account the amount of cash remaining from the last cassette-load will also be made simpler.

Recently, Slice, a payment app, acquired a 5 per cent stake in North East Small Finance (NESF) for $3.42 million - the first such deal by a fintech in a small finance bank. Slice (valued at $1.5 billion, and backed by Tiger Global, Blume Ventures and Axis Bank) will technically get a toehold in a scheduled commercial bank if NESF were to get a licence to morph into one down the line Such a transition is well within the banking regulator's declared framework. The transaction has to be seen in a larger context.

Foreign banks set the template in consumer banking in its infancy, but have almost vacated this booming space.

Private equity (PE) is set to play a bigger role in banks. Of 21 recommendations accepted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) out of 31 made by its Internal Working Group (IWG), its stance on non-promoter holdings in private banks is seen with excitement, though it doesn't refer to PEs explicitly. On non-promoter holdings in these banks, the RBI said this will be capped at 10 per cent of the paid-up voting equity share capital in the case "of natural persons and non-financial institutions and entities"; and "at 15 per cent for all categories of financial institutions, entities, supranational institutions, public sector undertaking, or the government." While this is a modification of the IWG's stance for the non-promoter holding in banks at up to 15 per cent, it does open up a huge window for PEs, all the same. This is because, while the RBI has remained silent on the eligibility of industrial houses for bank licences, fresh high-quality capital in large amounts can only come from PEs.

On November 12, 2021, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decided to ring in uniformity in asset classification and income recognition across all lending institutions. Shadow banks, or non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), like commercial banks, are to test non-performing assets (NPAs) on a daily basis and upgrade them to "standard assets" only when interest and principal arrears are settled by borrowers. This is going to create all manner of headaches for shadow banks and their clientele. Says Y S Chakravarti, managing director and chief executive officer (CEO), Shriram City Union Finance: "NPA levels will go up, especially of small borrowers.

'The digital trust level has drastically gone up due to Covid, not only in tier-I and II cities, but also in tier-III, IV and V geographies,'

It may be a 'no-go' for banking licences to large industrial houses.

'He's at best a holding-CEO. Not one who will re-imagine the bank,' a senior banker and former colleague tells Raghu Mohan about HDFC Bank CEO & MD Sashidhar Jagdishan.

'Facilitating conversion of well-run NBFCs into banks is urgently needed.'

Suitors for Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (PMC Bank) may have to infuse additional capital of nearly Rs 750 crore so that the payout per depositor is more than the Rs 5 lakh sum assured by the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC). The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also slotted its board meeting on March 19 in Mumbai - a fortnight short of the current deadline to find a resolution for the beleaguered bank and the moratorium placed on it comes to an end. Sources close to the PMC Bank transaction said that the central bank wants the suitors "to go the extra mile so that depositors can get more than the Rs 5 lakh insured by the DICGC". This is also to ensure that the new owners of the bank - who are to be issued a small finance bank (SFB) licence - are serious and have deep pockets.

While Gupta, 60, can rightfully bask in the glory he has achieved for his bank in the subcontinent, his peers in foreign banks will have to revisit their India play, especially the local incorporation model, says Raghu Mohan.