Budget 2018-19

Of late, BJP and party chief Amit Shah's cloak of invincibility has been perceived to be slipping The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) celebrations over winning Tripura, and forming coalition governments through the back door in Meghalaya and Nagaland, continued at its parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday morning. BJP Members of Parliament (MPs) distributed sweets, and raised slogans that now it was the party’s turn to win Karnataka. Yes, the BJP won Tripura handsomely. But it won neither Meghalaya, where it got two of the 60 seats, nor Nagaland. The Congress was decimated in Tripura and Nagaland, and emerged the single-largest party in Meghalaya. Together, the three states send five MPs to the Lok Sabha – Tripura and Meghalaya send two each and Nagaland sends one. The BJP has put some thought into its strategy to continue celebrating its Tripura win, and form coalition governments in Meghalaya and Nagaland. It needs to restore the impression of invinc...

Canara, Union Bank, PNB among possible candidates; may lead to recall of Rs 157-bn AT-1 bonds Five public sector banks (PSBs), including Canara and Union Bank of India, are on the brink of being put under the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) prompt corrective action (PCA) plan. According to rating agency Icra, their net non-performing assets (NPAs) rose above 6 per cent in December 2017. If the banking regulator places them under PCA, the action may drive these banks to recall additional tier-1 (AT-1) bonds, which is included in Tier-1 capital, of Rs 157 billion from investors. Besides Canara and Union Bank, three other PSBs that may come under PCA are Andhra Bank, Punjab National Bank, and Punjab & Sind Bank. While taking the decision on putting a bank under PCA, the RBI assesses its standing on three counts, namely capital adequacy ratio (CAR), net NPAs, and return on assets (RoA). Banks become PCA candidates when they feel the minimum requirements of CAR ...

Business standard : The fraud at Punjab National BankBSE -1.58 % (PNBBSE -1.58 %) is reported by the lender to have been committed by a deputy manager who sent unauthorised messages through the SWIFTBSE 1.04 % messaging system. In an interview with TOI, SWIFT India CEO Kiran Shetty explains how weakness in an institution’s local environment can be used by fraudsters. Recent incidents have taken place because lenders have ignored SWIFT requirements of a controlled framework securing the bank’s end-to-end transaction ecosystem, including payments, securities, trade and treasury. From next year therefore, SWIFT has said that it reserves the right to report to the supervisor banks that do not confirm full compliance. What is SWIFT and who are its users ? SWIFT is a global member-owned cooperative that is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. It was founded in 1973 by a group of 239 banks from 15 countries who formed a cooperative utility to develop a secure electronic me...

As part of its probe in the PNB fraud case, ED will send judicial requests to over a dozen countries for obtaining information about the overseas businesses and assets of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi's overseas businesses and assets across more than a dozen countries are under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which will soon send judicial requests to countries like Belgium, Hong Kong, Switzerland, the United States, the United Kingdom, Dubai, Singapore, and South Africa for obtaining information about them as part of the widening of its probe into the Rs 114-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case. Nirav Modi, his wife Ami, and uncle Mehul Choksi have been summoned by the ED to appear at its zonal office in Mumbai on Monday. According to sources, if they skip the summons, the agency could approach a special PMLA court to get non-bailable warrants issued against them. Modi has already had his luxury cars, includ...

Core banking system bypassed to issue unauthorised and fraudulent guarantees   In what may turn out to be one of the biggest scams in the country’s corporate history, Delhi-based Punjab National Bank (PNB) said on Wednesday it had been defrauded of about Rs 114 billion by jeweller Nirav Modi, his maternal uncle Mehul Chinubhai Choksi, and other relatives through a clutch of companies they own. The country’s second-largest public sector bank (PSB) said two of its employees were involved in the scam, where the bank’s core banking system was bypassed to raise payment notes to overseas branches of other Indian banks, including Allahabad Bank, Axis Bank, and Union Bank of India, using the international financial communication system, SWIFT. Three jewellers  Gitanjali  Gems and its subsidiaries Gili and Nakshatra are also under the scanner of investigation agencies. Executives in other banks said they were insulated against the fraud, as the payment r...