Tides of 11.07.2015

1.  The New Development Bank (NDB), set up by five BRICS nations including India, will start lending in local currency by April next year and member countries will primarily be the focus of credit facility,  according to its chief and eminent banker K V Kamath.  He said a decision to open membership for other countries will be taken in the next few months by the bank's Board of Governors.

3. The loan and deposit portfolios of scheduled commercial banks as on June 26, 2015 showed an uptrend,  the Reserve Bank of India said.  According to RBI, scheduled commercial banks saw a growth in their credit portfolio (loans, cash credits and overdrafts) to Rs.66,593.36 billion as on June 26, 2015 up from Rs.60,949.44 billion  as on June 27, 2014. Similarly, deposits of the banks stood at Rs.87,985.35 billion as on June 26, 2015, up from Rs.78,993.37 billion.

4.   Bandhan Bank has inducted four former top bank executives into its board and has roped in former chief  economic advisor Ashok Kumar Lahiri to head it, aiming to compete better with established lenders like State Bank of India and ICICI Bank, which are in the race for customers in the unbanked population.                        
Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, the founder of Bandhan Financial Services, which started as a mircofinance institution in 2001, will be the managing director and chief executive officer. The 10-member board includes Bhaskar Sen, former chairman and managing director of United Bank of India, and B Sambamurthy, former chief of Corporation Bank.  The board gets representation from private banks as well Axis Bank's for mer deputy ma naging director SK Chakrabarti and former ex ecutive director Snehomoy Bhattacharya have joined as directors.  The bank will be formally un veiled on August 23 in Kolkata by President Pranab Mukherjee.

5. ICICI Bank may sell its housing finance arm, ICICI Home Finance, to investors such as private equity funds, according to people close to the development. The bank may be expecting a valuation of around $700 million, or Rs 4,400 crs, according to two potential investors who have been approached. Citibank has the mandate for the transaction.