S&P Global Ratings on Saturday affirmed HDFC Bank’s issuer credit rating at BBB-/Stable/A-3 and senior unsecured rating at BBB-, adding that the lender’s rating will move in tandem with that of the sovereign.

The bank saw the fallout of the lockdown in the second half of March, with loan origination and cross-selling of other products slowing down, the management said.

The RBI announced the liquidity facility under the TLTRO 2.0 window for NBFCs and MFIs after these institutions failed to get funding under the earlier TLTRO scheme announced late in March.

Kotak Mahindra Bank, which has revised interest rate on daily balances in savings account multiple times over the past year or so, has again made a change.

To tackle the current crisis arisen from the COVID-19 outbreak and the consequent nationwide lockdown, the government and the RBI have announced many measures to ease the stress of businesses. 

In a recent report, global ratings agency Standard & Poor's had said Kotak Mahnidra Bank can weather the challenges that will be posed by the infections and affirmed its rating on the lender.

Digital transactions have gained new heights in the month of March as India announced a lockdown due to coronavirus. The total value of Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) transactions also witnessed a spike.

Market is viewing the fund-raising announcement in a positive light as the lender’s move to build up capital reserves is being seen as a sensible move at a time of uncertainty.

RBI said that the farmers do not have to pay penal interest and at the same time they will continue getting the benefits of the interest subvention scheme. 

The loan moratorium, as suggested by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last month and subsequently implemented by various lenders across the country, might be able to provide some temporary relief for now but could also play a hand in changing the credit landscape of the banking sector.

It said sectors with higher leverage, such as power, telecom, roads, textiles and fertilisers, will be the major beneficiaries and account for nearly 47 per cent of the total breather available.

The RBI last month cut the policy rate by 75 basis points to spur growth amid the COVID-19 crisis.

The percentage of applicants is in low single digit as a share of the loan book, the bank said, but this could go up as it has not put a deadline or a cut-off for people to apply.

The regulatory norms with respect to provisioning and asset recognition are uniform for Indian banks’ domestic and foreign exposures.

Loan waiver schemes for agricultural loans introduced by some of the state governments may also help reduce stress to some extent.

The Wadhawan brothers are accused in the YES Bank-DHFL fraud cases. The DHFL (Dewan Housing Finance Limited) group has a loan amount of about Rs 3,700 crore taken from Yes Bank that is under "stress".

Experts say more borrowers are likely to line up for emergency credit from banks as many businesses will be hit by the slump in demand and zero footfall in the market in the wake of the pandemic.

The credit card company, promoted by the country's largest lender SBI, said the borrowings at the end of the previous fiscal were provisional and subject to audit.

The tenor of Sidbi’s lending to financial institutions will be 90 days. MSMEs have been cash-starved for a few years and the lockdown to control the spread of Covid-19 is a body blow to their revenues.

With the first targeted long-term repo operations (TLTRO) 2.0 failing fresh funding or refinancing to the sector from this route is unlikely to exceed Rs 10,000 crore unless there is a significant change in the banks' response in the second tranche, it said.

In the fiscal ended March 31, 2020, bank loans had decelerated to 6.14 per cent, a near five-decade low, due to slower economic growth, lower demand and as banks remained risk averse.

The remaining Rs 4,500 crore will be raised by way of additional Tier-1 and Tier-2 capital instruments with an inter-changeability option, the bank said in the release.

However, if collections don’t revive rapidly for the NBFCs and MFIs in particular within this period, the liquidity challenges may continue and will necessitate longer term funding,” the firm said.

Union Bank received the stake after Andhra Bank was merged with the Mumbai-based lender, effective April 1.

The lender’s gross NPAs stood at 2.45% of gross advances as on March 31, 2020, up from 2.18% on December 31, 2019, while the net NPA ratio stood at 0.91% of net advances as on March 31, 2020, down from 1.05% on December 31, 2019.

In the last Parliament session, Rahul Gandhi had asked the government to provide a list of top 50 bank loans defaulters in the country, leading to sharp exchanges and uproar in the Lok Sabha.

In a response to an RTI filed by Saket Gokhale, the central bank declined to offer names of wilful defaulters as on February 16, 2020, stating that this data is not available.

“Keeping it open-ended and on-tap would be a better idea than conducting the operation on a pre-decided date. Banks should get enough leeway in deciding how much they want to borrow and when to borrow,” said an expert.

The bank’s advances grew 15% y-o-y to Rs 5,71,424 crore as on March 31, with retail loans up 24% y-o-y to Rs 3.05 lakh crore, accounting for 53% of the net advances.

The Reserve Bank in October 2018 had barred the bank from granting or renewing any loan for six months and later extended the curbs twice.

The window was announced after the markets were roiled by news, last Thursday, of Franklin Templeton MF winding up six of its debt funds amid mounting redemptions. It will remain open till May 11.

This classification will require banks to make provisions of 100% of the total amount due to them as per Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines.

Accordingly, all regulatory returns required to be submitted by such entities to the Department of Regulation can be submitted with a delay of up to 30 days from the due date.

Earlier in the week, the Reserve Bank had announced Rs 50,000-crore SLF-MF scheme to bailout the mutual funds facing redemption pressure.

According to sources, the RBI has conveyed to banks that there is no restriction for them to provide moratorium to NBFCs.

On Thursday, the RBI said banks would be eligible for regulatory benefits irrespective of whether they supported MFs with resources from the special window or otherwise.

The RBI had earlier extended the deadline for one-time debt restructuring of MSMEs from March 31, 2020, to December 31, 2020.

Warburg Pincus affiliate Dayside Investment Ltd and insurance firms ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company, HDFC Life Insurance, and Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance will infuse capital in the lender.

The meeting will take stock of implementation of several steps announced by the RBI, including moderation in interest rate and its transmission, as well as liquidity infusion measures to support the industry.

The three year NCD issue of Indiabulls Housing Finance opened on April 29. Although, the base issue size was Rs 100 crore, but it had a greeshoe option of Rs 900 crore.

China’s central bank has started testing its official Bitcoin-like digital currency DCEP, and the bank is now planning to roll out the virtual money payment system soon.

Implementation of three months moratorium on repayment of loan instalments announced by the RBI was also reviewed during the meeting.

The RBI, in a press release, said 'financial position of the bank is highly adverse and unsustainable'.

The number of NPA accounts rose from 2,08,035 as on March 31, 2014, to 6,17,306 as of December 2019.

The state-owned bank launched an emergency credit line to provide funds to its existing MSME and corporate borrowers in the last week of March, soon after the lockdown was announced.

As per the bank's website, it had deposits of Rs 485.56 crore, loans of Rs 161.17 crore and a negative networth of Rs 239.18 crore.

Delhi high court, in an interim order on May 1, has allowed HDFC Bank to deduct a Rs 90-crore loan installment from Indiabulls' fixed deposit which it holds as security.

AU Small Finance Bank (SFB) reported an increase of 3.5% year-on-year in PAT to Rs 120 crore (our estimate: Rs 180 crore), affected by higher provisions of Rs 150 crore.

The development also shows the government's push for digital technology has enabled people to access banking services even when the pandemic spread its tentacles.

RBI, on April 17, announced to provide special refinance facilities for a total amount of Rs 50,000 crore to NABARD, SIDBI and National Housing Bank (NHB) to enable them to meet sectoral credit needs.