The reason that globally rules on who can set up a bank and what regulatory hoops they need to constantly jump through are much tougher than for a biscuit or a car company or even a telecom service provider has to do with the nature of banking itself. If a non-bank fails, the problem is...
Indian households looking for a safe space to put their money have been going from crisis to crisis in the past few years. Banks have failed, debt funds saw deep losses, and in March 2020, we saw six debt funds frozen. Even people who trusted nobody and kept cash under the mattress lost it during...
Indian households, looking for a safe space to put their money in, have been hurtling from crisis-to-crisis past few years. Banks have failed, debt funds saw uncharacteristically deep losses and in March 2020, we saw six debt funds frozen. People who trusted nobody and kept cash under the mattress, lost it during demonetisation. The latest...
The full-page ads are back. So are the stories in some parts of the media where “experts” are advising you to take advantage of the low interest rates and bargain basement prices to invest in real estate. The real estate corporate brokers are pushing the narrative of aisa mauka phir kahan milega (when will you get...
As much as $2.8 trillion, or money almost equal to the GDP of India, was available to buy shares of Alibaba Jack Ma’s Ant Group last week, making the $34.4 billion IPO, which has now run into trouble with the Chinese regulators, hugely oversubscribed. Ant is a Chinese company that began life as an escrow account to facilitate...
It is almost as if you can see the conflict: there is the desire to do the right thing by the customer, but the DNA of an institution that does not believe in consumer rights comes in the way. The insurance regulator is torn with this dichotomy, of watching its capital market counterpart take giant...
The closer you examine the financial sector, the more you get to believe that parts of the industry believe that if there is a way to do something wrong, why do it the right way? Not for all the firms in the market, but a few aggressive ones. And these cause regulators to go on...
A far more confident, poised and assertive Nirmala Sitharaman looked nothing like the fumbling FM just a few months ago when she announced the first fiscal package. The almost ₹1 trillion of spending plus infra push announced can be criticized by arguing that the government is not really spending anything much. And where is the ₹10 trillion...
How to get rich. These four words tickle the aspirations of anybody who is not living in a cave having given up on maya or this world of illusion! The usual answers to this question deal with tips, some stocks, some real estate that is changing from agri to commercial very soon, some new crypto...