Loan demand in June quarter exceeds pre pandemic levels
As per its Credit Market Indicator (CMI) report, Transunion Cibil said that the Loan demand in the June quarter exceeded pre-pandemic levels along with a corresponding increase in new accounts opened.
The CMI reached 99 in June 2022, a level last seen in December 2019 before the pandemic hit the world. The latest CMI is a significant 21 points rise from its low of 78 in January 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 surge, and is supported by significantly improved credit health in the top 12 states, it said.
The company opines that momentum has returned to India’s credit market supported by progressive government policies and active implementation by ecosystem players.
CMI is a comprehensive measure of data elements summarised monthly to analyse changes in credit market health, and categorised under four pillars of demand, supply, consumer behaviour, and performance.
According to a report by CRISIL, securitisation volume jumped by 48% in the first six months of the current fiscal to hit Rs 75,000 crore. This was led by the stable asset quality in retail loans. Of this, volumes during the first quarter stood at Rs 35,000 crore, according to an earlier report by the agency. Securitisation activity had suffered a lot during FY22 because of the devastating second wave of the coronavirus pandemic which made loan recollections difficult.
Mortgage-backed securitisation loans remained the largest segment among asset classes, accounting for around 40% of market volume in H1FY23, although its share declined from 45% in the same period last year. The securitisation in property-backed loans was followed by commercial vehicle and microfinance loans.Direct Assignment (DA) transactions, including mortgage, gold and microfinance loans, accounted for 62% of the volume, the share of Pass-Through Certificates (PTCs) declined to 38% from 44% a year ago.
As per CRISL, the long track record of stable performance of securitised pools, despite several episodes of adversity, may have eased investor concerns, but added that some investors continue to be apprehensive.
PhonePe in talk to raise $ 700 million from investors
Digital payments firm PhonePe is in talks with its parent Walmart, General Atlantic, and other existing investors to raise about $700 million. The round is expected to more than double the firm’s valuation to around $12 billion and make it India’s most-valued financial technology firm ahead of Razorpay, which is valued at $7.5 billion.
PhonePe was last valued at about $5.5 billion in December 2020 after raising $700 million in primary capital from existing Flipkartinvestors including Tiger Global, and Walmart, the world’s largest retailer.
Sources said the new funding round is not related to PhonePe’s IPO plans, which are at least three years away. The funding is expected to help PhonePe scale up its operations and help it compete with Google Pay, Paytm, and Amazon Pay in the Indian fintech space, which is expected to touch $350 billion in enterprise value by 2026, according to a report by Bain and Company.
According to the provisional payroll data of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO)Retirement fund body, EPFO net added 16.94 lakh new subscribers in August 2022, registering a 14.4% rise as compared to the year-ago period, of which around 9.87 lakh have come under the ambit of the EPFO for the first time.
Month-on-month growing trend in net member addition was observed in states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Gujarat and Delhi continued to remain in lead by adding approximately 11.25 lakh net members during the month, which was 66.44% of the total net payroll additions across all age groups.
