DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Australia, India agree on strengthening economic, defence ties
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Krishn Kaushik | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Altaf HussainNEW DELHI, March 10 (Reuters) - Australia and India have agreed to accelerate a broader economic partnership and to boost their defence ties, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in New Delhi on Friday. Last year the two countries signed a free trade deal called the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), the first signed by India with a developed country in a decade. However, a much larger Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) has been stuck in negotiations for over a decade. India and Australia are security partners through the Quad group, which also includes the United States and Japan. Australia and India made "significant and ambitious" progress in strengthening defence and security ties and also discussed climate change issues, Albanese said.

☆ Sri Lanka to announce debt restructuring strategy in April - cenbank chief
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Uditha Jayasinghe | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The bailout is the culmination of months of negotiations as Sri Lanka looks to emerge from its worst economic crisis in more than seven decades. Weerasinghe said the country would expedite negotiations with commercial creditors and announce the debt restructuring strategy in consultation with them, before finalising the debt restructuring terms. Currently, Sri Lanka has to repay about $6 billion annually until 2029, President Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament on Tuesday, but Weerasinghe said this amount will be reduced post-debt restructuring. Sri Lanka also has a $1.5 billion swap arrangement with China but that can only be used if domestic reserves support three months of imports. Weerasinghe also said that inflation is likely to come down faster than earlier forecast, even by the central bank.

The bank raised its standing deposit facility rate and standing lending facility rate by 100 basis points each to 15.50% and 16.50%, respectively, it said in a statement. The country is awaiting approval of a $2.9 billion IMF bailout package as it endures its worst financial crisis since independence from Britain in 1948. The central bank raised rates by a record 950 basis points last year to tame inflation and then kept them steady until Friday's 100 basis point increase. "There have been some differences between the CBSL and IMF staff on the inflation outlook," the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) said in its statement. But depends on whether the market reads this as positive for getting IMF (bailout) in March."

☆ Since David Solomon became Goldman Sachs CEO, more than 80 partners have left. See the running list here.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Carter Johnson | Dakin Campbell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

David Solomon has been Goldman Sachs' CEO for more than four years since succeeding Lloyd Blankfein. There's been a lot of talk about the morale at Goldman Sachs. In reality, Solomon said, there were fewer "partner transitions at Goldman Sachs" in 2022 than any year "going back to 2014." "At the moment, year-to-date, our turnover is at a 5-year low, not just for partners, in the whole firm," Solomon added. Here is a running list of Goldman's partners that have retired from the firm — or moved on to roles at other companies — since Solomon became CEO.

☆ Why Goldman’s consumer ambitions failed, and what it means for CEO David Solomon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Hugh Son | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

That's because many of the decisions Solomon made over the next four years — along with aspects of the firm's hard-charging, ego-driven culture — ultimately led to the collapse of Goldman's consumer ambitions, according to a dozen people with knowledge of the matter. Goldman executives were eager to seal the deal with the tech giant, which happened before Solomon became CEO, they added. The rapid growth of the card, which was launched in 2019, is one reason the consumer division saw mounting financial losses. Within months, Ismail left Goldman, sending shock waves through the consumer division and deeply angering Solomon. Goldman should plow some of those volatile earnings into more durable consumer banking revenues, the thinking went.

☆ Analysis: Goldman Sachs CEO, after missteps, to take center stage at investor day
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Saeed Azhar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

"It's a pretty important investor day," said Mike Cronin, investor director at fund manager abrdn, which owns a stake in the bank. In 2020, Solomon kicked off Goldman's inaugural investor day by telling participants they should feel free to "break into open applause." A deal could broaden Goldman's revenue beyond trading and investment banking, which can be buffeted by economic cycles. The investor day is also an opportunity for the company to address questions around Solomon's leadership after bad press, Mayo said. But several presenters from the 2020 investor day have since left.

Participants at the meeting, however, are likely to focus on the war in Ukraine. The G20 bloc includes the wealthy G7 democracies, as well as Russia, China, India, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told Reuters that G20 financial leaders must condemn Russia's aggression against Ukraine and that Europe was working on new sanctions against Moscow. G7 chair Japan's finance minister, Sunichi Suzuki, told reporters that the group would closely monitor the effectiveness of sanctions and "take further actions as needed". German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said the pressure on Russia must be kept high to "completely isolate" Russia's economy.

☆ Indian PM Modi urges G20 to focus on unsustainable debt
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MUMBAI, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The financial viability of many countries is being threatened by unsustainable debt, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday, as he called for the Group of 20 (G20) to focus on the world's most vulnerable citizens. Even the financial viability of many countries is threatened by unsustainable debt levels," Modi said. Many societies are suffering due to rising prices," Modi said in his address to delegates. Reuters reported last week that India is drafting a proposal for G20 countries to help debtor nations by asking lenders, including China, the world's largest sovereign creditor, to take a large haircut, or accept losses, on loans. Reporting by Swati Bhat and Shilpa Jamkhandikar; editing by Sudipto Ganguly, Robert BirselOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

MUMBAI/ISLAMABAD, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Inflation in Pakistan could average 33% in the first half of 2023 before trending lower, and a bailout from the International Monetary Fund alone is unlikely to put the economy back on track, a senior economist with Moody's Analytics told Reuters. "Our view is that an IMF bailout alone isn't going to be enough to get the economy back on track. What the economy really needs is persistent and sound economic management," senior economist Katrina Ell said in an interview on Wednesday. Low income households could remain under extreme pressure as a result of high inflation on account of being disproportionately exposed to non-discretionary items. The weaker rupee, which is plumbing record lows, is adding to imported inflation while domestically high energy costs on the back of tariff increases and still elevated food prices is likely to keep inflation high.

The central bank said that its policy stance remains focused on the withdrawal of accommodation, with four out of six members voting in favour of that position. Reuters GraphicsThe monetary policy committee (MPC), comprising three members from the central bank and three external members, raised the key lending rate or the repo rate (INREPO=ECI) to 6.50% in a split decision. We have to remain unwavering in our commitment to bring down CPI headline inflation," RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said, while announcing the committee’s decision. In a poll conducted ahead of the federal budget on Feb. 1, more than three-quarters of economists, 40 of 52, had expected the RBI to raise the repo rate by 25 bps. Das said that the inflation-adjusted, real interest rate remains below the pre-pandemic levels and liquidity remains surplus, even though it is lower than during the pandemic.

☆ Goldman’s Marcus is a lesson in self-made failure
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( John Foley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Being a consumer bank was a good idea when Goldman’s leaders cooked it up eight years ago. Fast forward to 2023, and consumer banking is still highly lucrative. The practice of working through the night is common in the investment banking division Solomon once headed but rare in consumer banking. For example, Goldman’s engineers had to fight to host consumer banking systems on the cloud rather than on the bank’s own servers. That year, nobody from the consumer bank was promoted to the firm’s prestigious partner level.

☆ Sri Lanka holds rates steady to rein in inflation, as expected
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

COLOMBO, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's central bank held interest rates steady for a third straight meeting on Wednesday, as widely expected, saying the prevailing tight monetary stance is critical to reining in inflationary pressures. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka had increased rates by a massive 950 basis points between August 2021 to July 2022 to tame stubbornly high inflation. The Standing Lending Facility (LKSLFR=ECI) rate was held steady at 15.50% while the Standing Deposit Facility Rate (LKSDFR=ECI) was kept unchanged at 14.50%. Thirteen out of 14 economists and analysts polled by Reuters expected CBSL to hold rates. Reporting by Swati Bhat and Uditha Jayasinghe; Editing by Jacqueline WongOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Sri Lanka hopeful of completing debt restructuring in six months, says cenbank chief
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Uditha Jayasinghe | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

COLOMBO, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka is committed to meeting all its debt repayments and is hoping to complete debt restructuring negotiations in the next six months, the country's central bank chief P. Nandalal Weerasinghe said on Tuesday. India last week told the IMF that it strongly supports Sri Lanka's debt restructuring plan. The biggest uncertainty is the timeframe for the debt restructuring. It is only after debt sustainability is assured can Sri Lanka return to a sustainable growth path," he added. Sri Lanka's National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) (LKNCPI=ECI) eased year-on-year to 59.2% in December, after a 65% rise in November, data on Monday showed.

In November, the State Bank of Pakistan's Monetary Policy Committee unexpectedly pushed up its key rate by 100 bps, meaning it has now raised it by a total of 725 bps since January 2022. The country - struggling after last year's devastating nationwide floods - posted a 24.5% annual inflation rate in January. Although some moderation was seen in inflation in November and December, it remains high and core inflation has been on a rising trend for the last 10 months, the central bank added. The lack of fresh financial inflows and ongoing debt repayments have led to a steady drawdown in official reserves, the central bank said. "The current account deficit narrowed by around 60 percent to $3.7 billion in H1-FY23," the central bank said.

☆ Analysis: India's rising home prices, rentals a new inflation threat
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Siddhi Nayak | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Housing rentals and ancillary costs have a 10.07% weightage in India's consumer price inflation basket and are near three-year highs, posing a fresh worry for the central bank that had to contend with rising food prices for most of last year. Urban housing inflation rose to 4.47% year-on-year in December 2022, versus 3.61% in the same period a year ago and 3.21% in December 2020, data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation showed. "Core inflation has continued to remain sticky and hence an increase in housing inflation poses a significant risk to the overall inflation outlook," said Aditi Gupta, an economist at Bank of Baroda. While housing prices are not part of the consumer price inflation basket, their effect is captured through construction and raw material prices, and analysts do not expect a slowdown any time soon. Analysts said rising house prices would also feed into higher demand for services like electricity and repairs, ultimately working their way into the overall inflation basket.

☆ HDFC Bank, India's biggest private lender, says net profit jumps 18.5%
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Net profit for the quarter was 122.59 billion rupees ($1.51 billion), up from 103.42 billion rupees in the same quarter a year earlier. That was above analysts' forecast of 118.33 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv IBES data. Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and paid, rose 24.6% to 229.88 billion rupees from 184.44 billion rupees. HDFC's advances for its third fiscal quarter rose 19.5%, retail loans grew 21.4%, commercial and rural banking loans were up 30.2% and other wholesale loans rose 20.3%. Provisions and contingencies fell slightly to 28.06 billion rupees from 29.94 billion rupees last year.

☆ Goldman Sachs' consumer banking unit head steps down - memo
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Jan 3 (Reuters) - The head of Goldman Sachs Group Inc's (GS.N) direct-to-consumer unit, Swati Bhatia, is stepping down from the role, according to an internal note seen by Reuters. The move comes as Goldman Sachs in October signaled it was scaling back its ambitions for the loss-making consumer unit, Marcus. read more read moreChief Executive Officer David Solomon, who took the helm in 2018, has tried to diversify the company's operations with Marcus. Bhatia, formerly the chief payments risk officer at digital payments company Stripe, had joined the bank in February 2021. Separately, the bank appointed Zeeshan Razzaqui as co-head of merchant point-of-sale lending at Platform Solutions, its unit focusing on financial technology products.

☆ Indian rupee's worst behind it; inflows crucial in 2023 - analysts
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Anushka Trivedi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MUMBAI, Dec 30 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee is likely to hold in a tight range in the early part of 2023 but the worst is possibly behind it, said traders and analysts. Plus, an easing of commodity prices could help our trade deficit," he added. And while global commodity prices and the U.S. dollar retreated in the last quarter of 2022, the rupee failed to capitalise on it. The rupee is set to end the year down nearly 11% against the greenback, its worst annual performance since 2013. How the flows play out will be crucial to the rupee's fortunes in 2023.

Indian companies raised around 5.38 trillion rupees ($64.95 billion) through private placements in 2022, largely aided by the banking system's massive cash surplus, data showed. Public issues were only to the tune of around 80 billion rupees. Indian companies raised 127.1 billion rupees and 175.3 billion rupees through public issues in 2020 and 2021 respectively, SEBI data showed. Fundraising through private placement stood at 8 trillion rupees and 6.31 trillion rupees respectively. "I think public issues are rising because the repricing of bank fixed deposits was very gradual, while public issues are realigning to market realities much faster," said Sudhir Agrawal, executive vice president and fixed income fund manager at UTI Mutual Fund.

☆ India's current account gap widens to 9-year high
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Swati Bhat | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MUMBAI, Dec 29 (Reuters) - India's current account deficit widened in the July-September quarter as high commodity prices and a weak rupee increased the country's trade gap, data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed on Thursday. In absolute terms, the current account deficit (CAD) (INCURA=ECI) was $36.40 billion in the second quarter of fiscal year 2022/23, its highest in more than a decade. The median forecast of 18 economists in a Dec. 5-14 Reuters poll was for a $35.5 billion CAD in the July-September quarter. The RBI said services exports reported growth of 30.2% on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, driven by exports of software, business and travel services, while net services receipts increased sequentially and y-o-y. "Slowing global growth entails both merchandise as well as services exports will remain muted," she said.

☆ Indian banks may need to lift deposit rates as credit demand surges - RBI report
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Siddhi Nayak | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

While banks have swiftly transmitted the hikes to their lending rates, deposit rates have been laggards for most. To fund this credit growth, banks are mobilising deposits at a faster pace amid tight banking system liquidity in recent weeks. The transmission repo rate increase during May-October to deposit rates is likely to provide a "fillip" to deposit growth rates, the report said. The RBI said it was imperative that banks ensure due diligence and robust credit appraisal to limit credit risk. "The uncertainties characterising fast-changing macroeconomic scenario amidst formidable global headwinds during 2022-23 can pose new challenges to the banking sector," the RBI said.

☆ India cenbank chief says next financial crisis will come from private cryptocurrencies
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

MUMBAI, Dec 21 (Reuters) - India's central bank chief on Wednesday warned that the next financial crisis will come from private cryptocurrencies adding that he still holds the view that cryptocurrencies should be prohibited. Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das also added that cryptocurrencies have no underlying value and pose risks for macroeconomic and financial stability. Reporting by Swati Bhat and Siddhi Nayak; Writing by Nupur Anand; Editing by Muralikumar AnantharamanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The monetary policy committee (MPC), comprising three members from the RBI and three external members, raised the key lending rate or the repo rate (INREPO=ECI) to 6.25% in a majority decision. "The MPC was of the view that further calibrated monetary policy action was warranted to keep inflation expectations anchored, break core inflation persistence and contain second round effects,” Das said as he announced the monetary policy committee's decision. We see a possibility of another 25 bps rate hike before a prolonged pause," Upasna Bhardwaj, chief economist at Kotak Mahindra Bank said. A 6.8% growth (rate) is robust," Das said. The Indian rupee dipped against the dollar after the policy decision and comments on inflation, while government bond yields rose.

☆ India's c.bank set to raise rates; outlook on growth, inflation in focus
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Swati Bhat | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Reuters Graphics Reuters GraphicsThe central bank's outlook, which will accompany the rates decision, will be an important pointer to future policy moves, economists said. Global crude oil prices have been falling in recent months but has yet to be reflected in domestic prices. Sabnavis, who does not see the RBI reducing its inflation forecast, pointed out that though global oil prices have come down, the government has not relaxed duties or taxes. "Hence, the consumer is still paying the same price and has not derived any benefit from declining oil prices." Lower oil prices may also be countered by higher than expected food prices.

MUMBAI, Dec 1 (Reuters) - A month into India's pilot project for using an official digital rupee for inter-bank and institutional transactions, stakeholders are seeing no benefits, several bankers said. But in the initial trial banks have been using it for settlements with each other - with no particular advantage, according to bankers. Another issue is that, since e-rupee transactions do not wholly replace those using established procedures, they add to banks' accounting work. It would also offer a safer means of digital payment in retail use, the RBI said. UPI, an instant real-time consumer payments system that lets users transfer money between banks without disclosing account details, has been a factor in India's soaring digital payment volume.

Search resuls for: "Swati Bhat"

25 mentions found