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Introduction

As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India’s banking sector is sufficiently capitalised and well-regulated. The financial and economic conditions in the country are far superior to any other country in the world. Credit, market and liquidity risk studies suggest that Indian banks are generally resilient and have withstood the global downturn well.

Indian banking industry has recently witnessed the roll out of innovative banking models like payments and small finance banks. The central bank granted in-principle approval to 11 payments banks and 10 small finance banks in FY 2015-16. RBI’s new measures may go a long way in helping the restructuring of the domestic banking industry.

Market Size

The Indian banking system consists of 26 public sector banks, 25 private sector banks, 43 foreign banks, 56 regional rural banks, 1,589 urban cooperative banks and 93,550 rural cooperative banks, in addition to cooperative credit institutions. Public-sector banks control nearly 80 percent of the market, thereby leaving comparatively much smaller shares for its private peers. Banks are also encouraging their customers to manage their finances using mobile phones.

Standard & Poor’s estimates that credit growth in India’s banking sector would improve to 11-13 per cent in FY17 from less than 10 per cent in the second half of CY14.

Healthy Growth of Banking Sector - Deposits

• During FY06–16, deposits grew at a CAGR of 11.47 per cent and reached 1.46 trillion in FY16.
• Strong growth in savings amid rising disposable income levels are the major factors influencing deposit growth.
• Deposits under PradhanMantri Jan DhanYojana (PMJDY), have also increased. As of October 2016, US$ 6,755.5 million were deposited, while 249.8 million accounts were opened.

Healthy Growth of Banking Sector - Credit

• Credit off-take has been surging ahead over the past decade, aided by strong economic growth, rising disposable incomes, increasing consumerism and easier access to credit.
• In March FY16, total credit extended surged to US$ 1,016 billion.
• Demand has grown for both corporate and retail loans; particularly the services, real estate, consumer durables and agriculture allied sectors have led the growth in credit.

Offers protection in adverse conditions.

Our initial study of PradhanMantriFasalBimaYojana (PMFBY) shows it offers hope to banks lending to agriculture in adverse conditions. The new scheme has seen ~100% increase in the sum insured in FY2017, greater interest from private insurance players and higher participation of farmers. Strict timelines, mandatory use of technology and a relatively transparent mechanism amenable to quick/easy audits could effectively reduce the risk of sharp rise in impairments for banks. 

Significant increase in outlay; more than the cumulative allocation in all previous years

There are some positive signs that the lending to agriculture is taking a better form that should lower the “volume” risk associated to famers as new schemes offer greater protection. The government has modified the crop insurance program under the new scheme, PMFBY, which is seeing greater levels of participation by all segments. The government has budgeted to spend `130 bn in FY2017 for the scheme as compared to the initial budget of `55 bn, which is ~6X increase over FY2016 and similar to the total funds allocated to the scheme since FY1997. The budget for FY2018 is lower at `90 bn but we wait to see the year end given that the focus is to increase the area under the scheme to ~50% over the next two years from ~25% currently.

100% increase in sum insured gives comfort, but a few more years needed to ensure stability

We are seeing some early success of the scheme as there has been more than 100% growth in premium in FY2017 across key players like Agriculture Insurance Corporation, ICICI Lombard,HDFC Ergo. The total sum insured has doubled in the Kharif crop for 2016 to `1.4 tn and one should expect this to have increased further as some bottlenecks resulted in select states that did not implement it last year. The government is extending this scheme for non-loan farmers as well giving a wider business opportunity for private insurers. FY2017 may not be a good test case as there is likely to be lower claims given the bountiful rainfall witnessed. Private insurance companies gave away a substantial portion of risk to reinsurers and we need a stronger reinsurance market till market players get confident in the underlying data.

Banks stand to benefit as well; a weak monsoon is probably of lesser concern

The key objective of the note is to understand the impact on bank’s portfolio given the spate of debt waiver announcements. In a prudish manner, the success of this scheme will imply that volume related risks have been taken away. This also implies banks are relatively better off during the weak monsoon but a surplus monsoon, as in FY2017 creates ‘price-risk’ where the current solution is not effective. A strong commodity derivatives market along with adequate infrastructure for post-harvest storage could be useful to address a part of these risks.

Investments/developments

Key investments and developments in India’s banking industry include:

• RBL Bank Limited, an Indian private sector bank, has raised Rs 330 crore (US$ 49.6 million) from a UK-based development finance institution CDC Group Plc, which will help RBL to strengthen the capital base to meet future requirements.
• The State Bank of India (SBI) signed an agreement with The World Bank for aRs 4,200 crore (US$ 625 million) credit facility, aimed at financing grid connected rooftop solar photovoltaic (GRPV) projects in India.
• JP Morgan Chase, the largest bank in United States by assets, plans to expand its operations in India by opening three new branches in Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai in addition to its existing branch in Mumbai.
• Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), an investment management company, has bought a large stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd from Japan-based Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
• India’s first small finance bank called the Capital Small Finance Bank has started its operations by launching 10 branch offices in Punjab, and aims to increase the number of branches to 29 in the current FY 2016-17.
• FreeCharge, the wallet company owned by online retailer Snapdeal, has partnered with Yes Bank and MasterCard to launch FreeCharge Go, a virtual card that allows users to pay for goods and services at online shops and offline retailers.
• Exim Bank of India and the Government of Andhra Pradesh has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote exports in the state.
• Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited has bought 19.9 per cent stake in Airtel M Commerce Services Limited (AMSL) for Rs 98.38 crore (US$ 14.43 million) to set up a payments bank. AMSL provides semi-closed prepaid instrument and offers services under the ‘Airtel Money’ brand name.
• Ujjivan Financial Services Ltd, a microfinance services company, has raised Rs 312.4 crore (US$ 45.84 million) in a private placement from 33 domestic investors including mutual funds, insurance firms, family offices and High Net Worth Individuals (HNIs)).
• India's largest public sector bank, State Bank of India (SBI), has opened its first branch dedicated to serving start-up companies, in Bengaluru.
• Global rating agency Moody's has upgraded its outlook for the Indian banking system to stable from negative based on its assessment of five drivers including improvement in operating environment and stable asset risk and capital scenario.

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Indian Pharma Market remains sluggish; focus now shifts to GST impact

* The Indian Pharma Market’s (IPM) growth remained subdued in May’17, with the overall growth rate at 7%. We attribute the ongoing slowdown partly due to the continuing government intervention in the sector.

* The key reasons for the poor sector growth has been the declining price growth and softer volume growth. Declining price growth is attributed to the crackdown on FDCs (Fixed Dosage Combinations) where companies had greater leeway in pricing.

* Weak volume growth in the past has been a function of anemic economic activity. We believe some of the recent tepid volume trend may also be due to demonetization.

* The past 3 years’ data clearly shows that price growth has declined in the Indian market since early CY16 and is now the lowest for nearly 18 months. This despite the WPI index (on which price revisions are indexed) rising over the same period. We believe that the weakness in price growth seems to have coincided with the government’s unsuccessful crackdown on FDCs, which constitute c45% of the IPM by value. While the move was stayed by courts, our discussions with industry players clearly indicate that most companies are now trying to move away from the lucrative FDC-led growth model. We believe this has had a significant impact on the overall price growth in the sector.

* Surprisingly, volume growth has also been sluggish. Overall volume growth, which averaged well over 5-5.5% in CY16, is well below 3% in YTD CY17. Weak volume growth usually is accompanied by either muted economic growth or poor underlying wage growth. The only data shoring up the overall IPM seems to be NI growth, which though trending downward, is still healthy at c5%. We have detailed the impact on continuing govt. led crackdown impacting sector growth in our note titled Healthcare industry in government crosshairs dated 5th May 2017.

* We believe that the street would focus on the extent of disturbance caused by the impending GST implementation and its impact on the industry growth. This would last only for a quarter, but post that we expect focus to return to whether IPM growth can revert to mid-teens, which given the above data appears difficult. We believe that in the medium term, the overall IPM growth would be sluggish for most companies.

* May 2017: Domestic pharma market grew by 7% (as per IMS)

* IPM reported sales of Rs97.6bn in May’17, a growth of 7% against 6% in Apr’17.

US FDA shows it has a bark and a bite

* New US FDA commissioner acts on his promise to limit access to opioid substances by requesting Endo Pharma to withdraw opioid brand Opana ER from the market

* The new regime at FDA had specifically highlighted abuse of opioid medicines and faster generic approval timelines with lower backlogs as key targets for the agency

* Indian generic industry has limited exposure to Opioids space but with the agency showing that it is serious about pursuing its agenda, should be cause for concern for the entire generic industry from an increasing competitiveness perspective.

The US FDA last week has asked Endo Pharma (ENDO) to withdraw its opioid painkiller Opana ER (oxymorphone hydrochloride) from the market on the grounds that risks from the product far outweigh its benefits (Link here). Opioid addiction is a public healthcare crises in USA where by painkiller/controlled substances are often misused for addiction. To put this in context, in India similar reasons have been expounded by the government in order to restrict or ban (unsuccessfully) certain codeine based syrups.

* While the Indian generic companies has limited exposure to Opioid business (largely with SUNP and CDH), the development is still very important from the perspective of the US FDA getting more serious on the issues it has highlighted to resolve. The new US FDA commissioner Scott Gotlieb has been quite vocal on two specific issues 1). To limit or restrict access to Opioid drugs in order to contain the opioid epidemic plaguing US healthcare system & 2).to get the FDA to step up the pace of generic approvals including streamlining the approval process to allow ANDA filings to jump queues, prioritize ANDA applications where drug costs are high, eliminate within a year the backlog of 2640 generic drug applications etc. We have written extensively on this earlier in our note titled Radical moves by new US FDA head for shorter generic timelines dated June 7, 2017.

* While ENDO likely to explore legal options in order to continue the Opana franchise, the FDA acting against Endo shows its strong intent to pursue the objectives set out under the new regime at the agency. Note that this is the first time that FDA has taken steps to remove a currently marketed opioid product from the market place.

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ICICI Prudential Life boosts industry growth.

ICICI Prudential Life delivered 100% individual APE growth in May 2017, pushing private sector growth to 46%, which would have been 30% otherwise. We expect ICICI Life’s high growth to moderate in 2HFY18 on a high base. On the other hand, HDFC Life’s low base will benefit from June 2017 leading to higher (20% yoy in May 2017) growth over the next 10 months. Other players continue to deliver steady (about 20-30%) growth.

High growth for most; ICICI Life pulls up industry growth rate

Most large private players reported 20-30% growth in APE; high growth at ICICI Prudential Life (up 100% yoy) lifted private sector individual APE growth to 46%; excluding ICICI Prudential Life, the rest of the private sector reported 30% individual APE growth. LIC remained muted at 5% yoy. Overall industry was up 24% in individual APE during the month.

ICICI Prudential Life will moderate in 2H

According to the management of ICICI Prudential Life, the business is now in a secular growth mode across channels and doing away with seasonal trends. While individual APE growth was 100%, ticket size growth in individual non-single segment was 52% yoy, flat qoq, i.e. about half its yoy growth was driven by volumes. The company reported Rs5.7 bn of individual APE in May 2017; it has maintained a run-rate of Rs5-6 bn since November 2017. ICICI Life’s management expects the run-rate to continue or trend up marginally throughout the year and as such yoy growth rate in 2H will be lower.

Behavioral pattern of deposits and interest rates is not straightforward

As against the expectations of a strong inverse correlation between savings deposit growth and interest rates and a positive correlation between growth in term deposits and interest rates, the data too are not playing out in India. Urban/metro region shows this relationship in savings but not term (see Exhibits 32-33). Rural and semi-urban shows in term deposits but not in savings (see Exhibits 28-31). We believe that a combination of new depositors coming to the fold, especially in rural and semi-urban as well as weak performance by nonhouseholds, especially in urban markets, could explain this contradiction.

20-30% growth in individual APE for most large players

* HDFC Life delivered 20% yoy growth, following a long period of subdued growth. Its base was a bit large at 43% growth in May 2016. The company has delivered average growth of 3% between June 2016 and March 2017. As such, we expect yoy growth rate to be significantly higher from June 2017 onwards. One of the reasons for low growth for HDFC Life was slowdown at HDFC Bank due to streamlining of its KYC process; this is now back on track. HDFC Bank’s partnership with Birla SL may take away some share of the banks franchise though the terms of the agreement are not yet clear.

* Max Life remains steady with 22% growth in May 2017; this compares with 25% growth in FY2017. Interestingly, its ticket size is reducing – down 11% yoy, 19% qoq. This may likely be due to increase in policies in the protection segment and lower share of unit-linked policies.

* Reliance Life delivered moderate (15%) growth; the company has been shifting its focus on traditional business from unit-linked policies leading to slow growth/yoy decline in last few months. Interestingly, the company reported 47% growth in average ticket size in the individual non-single segment even as its ticket size at Rs28,000 is lowest amongst large players.

* Bajaj Life and Birla SL remained strong with 67% and 32% growth respectively. Both reported about 35% growth in average ticket size.

Private sector up in group business; single business remains strong for LIC

LIC continues to have high share of single premium (81% in May 2017in its overall business)

; the ratio has been stable for last two years.

Private players have generally been selective in this segment; the share of single premium of private players was 40% in May 2017: 35-40% for last three years. The ratio has been highfor Bajaj Life, Birla SL and HDFC Life at about 60%.

In the group business, the share of private players has been stable at about 18-19%.

increased to 25% from 19% in the last two financial years. Bajaj Allianz Life lost share to

ICICI Prudential Lifeon mom basis.

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Market mood to remain cautious on the last trading day of week

The Indian markets showing a lackluster trade ended marginally in red in the last session. Today, the start is likely to remain cautious and traders will be eyeing the major global developments following the mixed cues after an exit poll suggested British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative party not getting majority. On the domestic front traders will be getting some support with UN trade report that despite stagnant foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow of $ 44 billion in 2016, India will most likely remain most favoured destination due to its attractiveness among MNCs for cross-border mergers and acquisitions. Meanwhile, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian has expressed concern over growing protectionism in global markets and felt that India needs open markets to grow at 8-10%. He said that the biggest beneficiaries of the open market policy or globalisation have been middle income countries and the continuation of this is in their interest. There will be some buzz in the power and coal stocks on report that India’s coal imports in May declined 6 per cent due to lacklustre demand from the power sector and sufficient supply of domestic fuel.

Indian benchmarks settle with moderate losses; Nifty ends below 9650 mark

It turned out to be a lethargic performance from Indian benchmark indices on Thursday, as they failed to snap the session in the green territory and settled marginally below the neutral line. Today’s session largely remained characterized by choppiness, as the aimless indices moved only sideways in a tight band for most part of the day, as investors and foreign funds were adopting a cautious approach, ahead of key political and economic events in the U.S. and Europe. Sentiments remained subdued after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised concerns over the possibility of fiscal slippages due to the farm loan waivers. RBI Governor Urjit Patel said unless that state governments' budgets allow that fiscal space to go in for a loan waiver, it would be risky to tread on that path. RBI also cut the economic growth projection to 7.3% for the current fiscal from 7.4% earlier. The central bank, however, used a less hawkish tone and reduced the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) in its second bimonthly momany liquor stocks gained traction after Karnataka state government decided to send a proposal to the union government seeking to denotify the national highways (NH) pass through urban local bodies in Karnataka as local roads. Likewise, shares of steel companies were trading higher in an otherwise subdued market on the expectations of a revival in consumption during the current financial year 2017-18. The market breadth remained pessimistic, as there were 1328 shares on the gaining side against 1351 shares on the losing side, while 177 shares remained unchanged.netary policy for financial year 2017-18.

Traders turned anxious after chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian expressed his unhappiness over the Reserve Bank's inflexibility on interest rates. He warned that real policy rates are becoming tighter and rising at a time of low inflation and slowing growth. However, losses remained capped with UNCTAD’s latest report that India would be the top prospective foreign direct investment (FDI) destination globally after the US and China. It also said that an improved economic outlook in major Asian economies such as India, China is likely to lift investor confidence and help boost FDI inflows by about 15 percent in 2017

Asian markets end mixed on Thursday

Asian equity markets made a mixed closing on Thursday as investors awaited directional cues from three big upcoming events today and next week's Federal Reserve meeting. The European Central Bank (ECB) will announce its latest interest rate decision later today, with traders on the lookout for any hints of policy changes on rate and stimulus outlook. Polls have opened in the UK with the latest polls predicting a narrow victory for Theresa May's party over the main opposition Labour Party. Former FBI Director James Comey's testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee also remained in the spotlight after he confirmed media reports that President Donald Trump demanded his loyalty and asked him to drop at least part of the bureau's investigation of former National Security Adviser Mike Flyn. Japanese shares ended lower as the yen edged higher in late Asian deals on a report that the Bank of Japan was re-calibrating its communications to acknowledge it is thinking about how to handle a withdrawal from its monetary stimulus. Meanwhile, Chinese shares ended higher after Chinese exports and imports data topped expectations. Exports advanced 8.7 percent year-on-year in dollar terms in May, faster than the 7.2 percent increase economists had forecast. Imports climbed 14.8 percent, much above expectations for 8.3 percent growth.

US markets closed higher following Comey's testimony

The US markets closed higher on Thursday, with the Nasdaq Composite Index finishing at a record, marking its 38th all-time closing high in 2017. The former FBI Director James Comey’s appearance in front of the US Senate Intelligence Committee concluded without any significant revelations. The street had signaled that above events don’t appear to threaten the stock market’s extended push into record territory, which has been driven by President Donald Trump’s promises of tax cuts, infrastructure spending and deregulation.

The Dow Jones added 8.84 points or 0.04 percent to 21,182.53, Nasdaq was up 24.38 points or 0.39 percent to 6,321.76, while S&P 500 edged higher by 0.65 points or 0.03 percent to 2,433.79

Indiato be one of the top prospective FDI destination: UNCTAD

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in its latest report ‘World Investment Report 2017’ has saidthat India would be the top prospective foreign direct investment (FDI) destination globally after the U.S. and China. The report however noted that although new liberalization efforts continue to improve the investment climate in India, tax-related concerns remain a deterrent for some foreign investors.

UNCTAD report said that an improved economic outlook in major Asian economies such as India, China is likely to lift investor confidence and help boost FDI inflows by about 15 per cent in 2017. Besides, it has said that the country’s renewed policy efforts to attract FDI may also contribute to higher inflows in 2017, adding that foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) are increasingly relying on cross-border M&As (mergers and acquisitions) to penetrate the rapidly growing Indian market.

It said that in major recipients such as China, India and Indonesia, renewed policy efforts to attract FDI could contribute to an increase of inflows in 2017. However, the report found that FDI in India remained almost flat in year 2016 at about $44 billion, up only 1 per cent from 2015. At the same time India's outward FDI declined by about third from $7.572 billion in 2015 to $5.12 billion in 2016. UNCTAD has also reported that FDI inflows to developing Asia shrank by 15 per cent to $443 billion in 2016, the first decline since 2012.

Record jumpin FDI from $34,487 billion to $61,724 billion since 2013: Modi

Giving an overview of his three-year-old government, Prime Minister NarendraModi has said that there has been a record jump in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from $34,487 billion to $61,724billion since 2013. Terming India a bright spot in the cloudy global

economy, he said that doing business here has been made easier and the tax regime is more predictable and stable. He pointed out that the goods and services tax (GST) regime is also going to have long standing benefits for the nation.

Talking about his 'guiding tenet-reform to transform', Modi said that the reform agenda of government is comprehensive and inclusive, covering all sections of society, all regions of India and all aspects needing attention. He also said that it was a matter of immense happiness that a friendly spirit of competition has developed among the states for accelerating reforms and getting more investment.

On matters related to next-gen infrastructure for a new India, PM said that they are giving the added push to infrastructure projects with a special emphasis on timely completion. Adding further, he said that the government’s goal is a new India, powered by the skills and talent of the youth. He also said that substantial ground has been covered in the last three years and India is poised to scale newer heights of progress.

Farm loan waivers may harm country’s fiscal health, spur inflation: RBI

Raising concerns over the recent spate of farm loan waivers across the country, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel has said that rush for such actions may harm the country’s fiscal health and may have inflationary spillovers. He said that past episodes have shown when there are significant fiscal slippages they do permeate through inflation sooner or later.