Indian banking update

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RBI bid to drain excess liquidity could hamper lending rate cuts: RBI aims to drain money markets of excess liquidity to counter inflationary pressures arising from higher government spending. According to policymakers it could hamper chances of banks lowering lending rates. Commercial bankers say it would be easier to reduce lending rates, as the RBI has urged them to do, if surplus liquidity prevailed for some months. (FE)

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Income of public sector banks likely to rise 10-11% in Q1: Crisil: PSBs are likely to see a 10-11% y-o-y increase in their overall income as credit growth is likely to rise as the economy gains momentum, according to Crisil Research estimates relating to Q1 FY16 results. Private banks are seen outdoing their public sector peers with an expected rise of 18-19 per cent in total income for Q1 FY16. (BL)

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Rate cuts, not reforms, key to immediate recovery: BofA-ML: Indian markets are “over-rating” the contribution of the pending GST and land acquisition reforms to the growth and its rate cuts by the RBI which actually hold the key for an immediate recovery, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said. (BS)

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Greece faces last chance to stay in euro as cash run out: Greek Prime Minister had a final chance to present credible reform proposals to an emergency euro zone summit on Tuesday to persuade sceptical creditors to reopen aid talks before his country's banks run out of money. (IE)

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Banks eye slice of transport card pie: Banks have made a representation to the government to have debit or credit cards as 'common mobility cards' that will be configured for use in transport systems across the country. This will do away with the need for every operator to have a closed loop smartcard and would reduce the extent of cash in the system. (TOI)

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E – Banking evolves faster with apps: The relatively low cost of developing apps has triggered an innovation boom in banking. Features are being added to mobile apps on a weekly basis as against internet banking where changes have been gradual. (TOI)

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SBI plans early warning signals to rein in NPAs: To effectively deal with the problem of bad loans, SBI is in the process of introducing a system of early warning signals to detect NPAs and take corrective action. This is a part of its proactive management of stressed assets to contain and control NPAs, it added. (FE)

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Greek crisis prompts SBI to delay $1.5-billion bond sale: Uncertainty over Greece, as well as the rest of the euro zone, has prompted SBI to delay plans for a $1.5-billion bond offering. (BS)

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ICICI Bank looks to grow mobile banking transactions by 500% to Rs 80,000 cr in FY16: ICICI Bank has charted out an ambitious plan to grow its mobile banking transactions by up to 500 per cent by the end of this financial year. According to RBI data, in FY15, transactions worth Rs 16,000 crore were recorded via the bank’s mobile banking platform. (BS)

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Axis Bank launches touch identification for iPhone users: Axis Bank, the country's third largest private sector lender, has now allowed its iPhone customers to transact using their fingertips. For this, the customer needs to authenticate their fingerprint using the iPhone's Touch ID (available in the iPhone 5S and higher versions) on the mobile phone application. (BS)

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New category of NBFCs to help cross-sell financial products: RBI’s decision to allow setting up of new kind of NBFCs that would act as account aggregators will help in cross-selling of financial products to customers and contribute to fee-based income for NBFCs. (BS)