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Economic Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Economic Times
Bank of Baroda also waives minimum balance charges amid deposits chase
Mumbai: State-owned Bank of Baroda on Sunday announced waiver of charges to customers for not maintaining minimum balance in their savings accounts. This has come into effect from July 1. With this, the bank joined Canara Bank, State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, and Indian Bank in waiving the minimum balance requirement. "With this, customers will not incur any charges for any shortfall in the Monthly Average Balance in their Savings Accounts. The waiver is not applicable on Premium Savings Account schemes," Bank of Baroda said in a statement. Experts suggest the move is likely to be part of lenders' strategy to attract liabilities as deposit growth remains a challenge for the banking industry. "Waiving penal charges on non-maintenance of minimum balance is an indirect message from banks to customers to keep some money with them," said Saurabh Bhalerao Associate Director - BFSI Research, CARE Ratings. "Bank deposit is no longer the go-to option for people to save their money. People are now increasingly putting money in other financial products like mutual funds and even direct investment into stocks. With falling rates on deposits, banks may not find it easy to grow their deposit book. Share of CASA (current and savings account) has come down," he Bank, which was the first bank to announce waiver of charges, hoped that the move will encourage customers to shift funds into term or recurring deposits in the long term. "Perhaps if we don't do this, we will lose deposits," bank's executive director S K Majumdar told ET last month. "This creates a feel good for the customer. At a time when the industry is facing a challenge of mobilising deposits, especially because capital markets are doing well, this gives customers an alternative," he added.
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Bank of Baroda also waives minimum balance charges amid deposits chase
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Mumbai: State-owned Bank of Baroda on Sunday announced waiver of charges to customers for not maintaining minimum balance in their savings accounts . This has come into effect from July this, the bank joined Canara Bank Punjab National Bank , and Indian Bank in waiving the minimum balance requirement. "With this, customers will not incur any charges for any shortfall in the Monthly Average Balance in their Savings Accounts. The waiver is not applicable on Premium Savings Account schemes," Bank of Baroda said in a suggest the move is likely to be part of lenders' strategy to attract liabilities as deposit growth remains a challenge for the banking industry. "Waiving penal charges on non-maintenance of minimum balance is an indirect message from banks to customers to keep some money with them," said Saurabh Bhalerao Associate Director - BFSI Research, CARE Ratings."Bank deposit is no longer the go-to option for people to save their money. People are now increasingly putting money in other financial products like mutual funds and even direct investment into stocks. With falling rates on deposits, banks may not find it easy to grow their deposit book. Share of CASA (current and savings account) has come down," he Bank, which was the first bank to announce waiver of charges, hoped that the move will encourage customers to shift funds into term or recurring deposits in the long term. "Perhaps if we don't do this, we will lose deposits," bank's executive director S K Majumdar told ET last month."This creates a feel good for the customer. At a time when the industry is facing a challenge of mobilising deposits, especially because capital markets are doing well, this gives customers an alternative," he added.
Time of India
10-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Non-life insurance industry register 6.5% y-o-y rise in gross direct premiums
The non-life insurance industry reported a 6.5% year-on-year increase in gross direct premiums to Rs22,257 crore in May with growth in standalone health insurers (SAHI) beating that of general insurers, data from the General Insurance Council showed. The growth in May slowed compared to 14.9% YoY reported in the same month last year. The slowdown in premium growth is largely attributed to the 1/n rule, which kicked in October, experts said. Under the 1/n rule, IRDAI has mandated non-life insurers to report premiums annually even if the policy term is longer than one year. Accordingly, the reported premium is calculated by dividing 1 by the number of days the policy is in effect. 'The flash numbers for May reported a modest growth indicating that the industry is still adjusting with the 1/n rule on premium reporting. Despite the impact, the growth seems to be supported by renewal of commercial lines like fire insurance, and growth in SAHI players indicative of steady demand in health insurance,' said Saurabh Bhalerao, Associate Director, CareEdge Ratings. Barring SAHIs, overall premiums collected by general insurers grew 5.7% YoY to 19,210 crore in May. Eight out of the 25 general insurers reported year-on-year fall in premium collections in the reporting month. Among the listed general insurers, New India Assurance led gains among major players in May. The state-run insurer reported a 22.47% jump in gross premiums to Rs 2,944 crore, helping its market share edge up to 16.06% from 15.15% in May 2024. Private sector major ICICI Lombard General Insurance saw premiums rise 2.41% year-on-year, while Go Digit General Insurance saw a 2.19% drop in premiums. Newly listed Niva Bupa Health Insurance registered a 9.69% increase in premiums to Rs 554 crore. Total premiums by standalone health insurers grew 10% YoY to Rs2,917 crore in May. Among the seven SAHI players, ManipalCigna Health Insurance topped the chart with nearly 43% growth in premium collections, followed by 36% growth reported by Aditya Birla Health Insurance.
Time of India
09-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Life insurance industry's new business premiums up 13% in May 2025
The life insurance industry recorded nearly 13% year-on-year rise in new business premiums (NBP) in May 2025 to Rs 30,463 crore, up from Rs27,034 crore a year earlier, according to data released by the Life Insurance Council . The month saw a 10.4% fall in the number of life insurance policies sold by the companies as the industry continued to navigate the new surrender value guidelines that kicked in October last year. The growth was primarily driven by the private sector insurer, which reported a 16.6% increase in NBP to Rs12,058 crore. State-run Life Insurance Corporation ( LIC ) posted 10.3% increase to Rs18,405 crore, the data showed. Among listed private players, HDFC Life reported a 33% jump in premiums to Rs3,022 crore, while SBI Life 's total premiums grew over 25% to Rs2,950 crore. ICICI Prudential Life reported a near 7% growth to Rs1,407 crore. 'Typically, the first quarter is a weak season for the life insurance segment as it immediately comes after the fiscal end, where most retail customers rush to buy policies. In May, the YoY growth has come down compared to 15.1% in the same month a year ago mainly because of the impact of revised surrender value guidelines,' said Saurabh Bhalerao Associate Director – BFSI Research, CARE Ratings . In May, the overall industry growth was led by group business, whereas individual business reported a muted number. The growth was led by group single premium, which grew 13% YoY to Rs18,068 crore. The month also saw a fall in volume of policies sold. The fall in the individual non-single segment, which is the regular premium paid by retail customers, was at over 10% with LIC and private life insurers reporting a fall of 14% and 2%, respectively. However, despite the fall in volume in individual non-single premium segments, private insurers reported a premium growth, indicating that they have moved to higher value policies amid changes in surrender value regulations, Bhalerao said. The Life Insurance Council data shows that LIC's individual non-single premium income fell to Rs2,060 crore in May compared to 2,236 crore in the same month a year ago. Meanwhile, the premium income in the same segment for private life insurers stood at 5,025 crore compared to Rs4,681 crore a year ago. Economic Times WhatsApp channel )
The Hindu
15-05-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
NCLT gave nod for resolution plans to the tune of over ₹67,000 crore in FY2024-25 under bankruptcy law
As many as 284 resolution plans were approved under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) in 2024-25, which would result in settlements to the tune of ₹67,176 crore in FY 2024-2025, which is about 42% highest than the ₹47,206 crore resolved through 275 resolution plans in 2023-2024, as per the data from National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). India enacted the IBC, its first comprehensive bankruptcy law in 2016, to improve the overall corporate insolvency resolution process. The amount recovered through insolvency resolution in FY 2024-2025, is the second highest after ₹1,19,993 crore recovered in FY2018-19 from 81 cases, as per the data. As many as 1,346 companies were admitted for the corporate insolvency resolution process in 2024-25, when compared to 1,318 companies in 2023-2024. 'Higher levels of recoveries generally indicate that the code is generally better compared to other methods for resolution. However, we should also keep in mind that the data can be skewed by a few high value recoveries,' Saurabh Bhalerao, associate director, BFSI Research, Care Edge Ratings said. Further the amount has to be considered against the quantum of admitted claims of over ₹11 lakh crore (as of December 2024). This higher resolution can also be attributed to lower vacancy at the NCLT where new members have been added boosting its capacity as well as streaming of regulatory processes, he added. IBC has gained prominence in the past few years with a recovery rate of around 31%. Meanwhile, ongoing cases have hovered slightly below the 2,000-case mark for the last few years, Mr. Bhalerao said. However, the quantum of time required to resolve a case adequately remains elevated due to ongoing litigation at NCLT and other forums. Several measures are being contemplated to preserve the business value of the underlying asset and reduce the timeline (as faster resolutions typically generate higher recoveries), such as formal out-of-court solutions such as Mediation, an extension of the pre-pack resolution mechanism to larger firms (currently available for MSMEs), and insolvencies of group companies, he pointed out. A measure of the effectiveness of the IBC is the ratio of liquidation to resolution. With several initiatives to improve outcomes, the ratio has improved from 5.06 in FY18 to 1.32 in the nine months of FY25, Mr. Bhalerao added. EOM
