The Reserve Bank of India delivered on its promise of easier capital recognition norms for banks, including revaluation of real estate, which may release an equivalent of as much as Rs 40,000 crore that could be counted as equity capital.
The central bank also allowed banks to recognise some of their foreign currency reserves in their overseas operations and liberalised the treatment of deferred tax liabilities. "On a number of dimensions, we have been stricter than Basel norms,'' RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had said.
"We are looking if there is a possibility that while still remaining conservative, we can allow banks a little more room to use these. For example, you may have real estate assets that we allow only as a fraction of their value to count as capital."
RBI's permission to recognise some of the assets of banks, which were till now not permitted, comes at a time when they are struggling to meet capital adequacy norms due to soaring provisions for bad loans.
The central bank forced them to declare more loans as bad and provide for their losses, eating into their capital, as it wants to clean up the system by March 2017.
Foreign currency reserves after translating financial statements of a bank's foreign operations to another reporting currency have also been allowed to be considered as Tier I at 25% of the value.
RBI has also allowed deferred tax assets up to 10% of a bank's Tier I capital to be recognised as core capital freeing up further money for banks. Unlike many developed nations and even private sector lenders, state-run banks own a lot of properties - be it their branch offices, or guest houses across the country - as they looked to cap their rental expenses. And many of the banks hold them at their book value, in some cases a multi-storey building being valued at Rs 1, the they bought in the 60s and 70s.
"As the value of the real estate goes up, banks will also create a capital buffer on the liabilities side,'' said Abhishek Bhattacharya, associate director at India Ratings.
"Some banks like Canara, Indian Bank, Bank of India and Bank of Baroda have already created a reserve for real estate. These banks will benefit. While some large ones like SBI and PNB have not, and they will have to create reserves to benefit from this. Our rough estimates are that banks will benefit 5-6% of their core Tier I."
This could also be a boon for banks which were disappointed with the Rs 25,000 crore of capital that the government provided from its finances for this fiscal.
The Economic Times, New Delhi, 02 March 2016
The central bank also allowed banks to recognise some of their foreign currency reserves in their overseas operations and liberalised the treatment of deferred tax liabilities. "On a number of dimensions, we have been stricter than Basel norms,'' RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had said.
"We are looking if there is a possibility that while still remaining conservative, we can allow banks a little more room to use these. For example, you may have real estate assets that we allow only as a fraction of their value to count as capital."
RBI's permission to recognise some of the assets of banks, which were till now not permitted, comes at a time when they are struggling to meet capital adequacy norms due to soaring provisions for bad loans.
The central bank forced them to declare more loans as bad and provide for their losses, eating into their capital, as it wants to clean up the system by March 2017.
Foreign currency reserves after translating financial statements of a bank's foreign operations to another reporting currency have also been allowed to be considered as Tier I at 25% of the value.
RBI has also allowed deferred tax assets up to 10% of a bank's Tier I capital to be recognised as core capital freeing up further money for banks. Unlike many developed nations and even private sector lenders, state-run banks own a lot of properties - be it their branch offices, or guest houses across the country - as they looked to cap their rental expenses. And many of the banks hold them at their book value, in some cases a multi-storey building being valued at Rs 1, the they bought in the 60s and 70s.
"As the value of the real estate goes up, banks will also create a capital buffer on the liabilities side,'' said Abhishek Bhattacharya, associate director at India Ratings.
"Some banks like Canara, Indian Bank, Bank of India and Bank of Baroda have already created a reserve for real estate. These banks will benefit. While some large ones like SBI and PNB have not, and they will have to create reserves to benefit from this. Our rough estimates are that banks will benefit 5-6% of their core Tier I."
This could also be a boon for banks which were disappointed with the Rs 25,000 crore of capital that the government provided from its finances for this fiscal.
The Economic Times, New Delhi, 02 March 2016
Comments
Post a Comment