Day: February 8, 2021

RBI move to harmonise MFI norms to improve sector competitiveness: Ind-Ra

wayne February 8, 2021


The Reserve Bank of India, which is in the process of harmonising regulatory norms for microfinance lenders, needs to remove uneven playing field which gives disproportionate benefit to entities other than finance companies.


The provisioning norms, rules for margins and access to credit information bureaus need to be harmonized.



RBI’s move to bring harmony across class of lenders in microfinance field in positive step. It would reduce the competitive intensity among the various forms of entities operating in this sector, India Ratings (Ind-Ra) in a statement.


There are four sets of lenders in micro finance space – finance companies, universal banks, small finance banks (SFBs) and not for profits companies and trusts.


RBI rules are clear for non-banking finance companies which work as micro-finance institutions (NBFC-MFIs). However, these guidelines are not explicitly applicable for microfinance by non NBFC-MFIs. Hence the other forms of entities operating in microfinance benefit disproportionately from this asymmetry.


In 2014, RBI prescribed rules for NFBC-MFIs placing limits on loan ticket size, loan tenor, the income profile of borrowers, processing fees, yields and code of conduct.


ALSO READ: Securitisation recovers in

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Byford rail fails study; $380m shortfall

wayne February 8, 2021

The Byford Rail Extension failed a cost benefit analysis and was not endorsed by Infrastructure Australia, but the federal and state governments will push ahead nonetheless.

Costs of the project would exceed social benefits by about $380 million, according to the state government’s business case, Infrastructure Australia said in its assessment.

That assessment was made in October.

Consequently, the rail line was not added to the national priority infrastructure list.

Early works on the extension commenced last year, and in late January, the state government announced two potential alliances led by Downer EDI and Laing O’Rourke would be in the hunt to win the project.

The contracting alliance is expected to be picked by mid-2021.

While the federal government had previously signalled federal funding for rail projects would be dependent on Infrastructure Australia endorsement, national cabinet changed the minimum threshold for assessment late last year.

Now, only projects needing more than $250 million of federal funding will head to IA, up from $100 million.

Byford is set to receive $241 million from the commonwealth, half the expected capital cost of the project, with the state funding the remainder.

Then there’s ongoing operational costs, which are also included in the economic

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PhonePe retains top position with 42% UPI market share in January

wayne February 8, 2021


Walmart-backed PhonePe has, once again, emerged the top Unified Payment Interface (UPI) app in January, with 968.72 million transactions worth Rs 1.91 trillion, accounting for 42 per cent of the UPI market alone, the data put out by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) shows.


In January, on a month-on-month (MoM) basis, PhonePe saw its transactions go up by a little over 7 per cent and their value nearly 5 per cent. This is the second time in a row that PhonePe has bagged top position.



In December, PhonePe saw 902.03 million transactions, worth Rs 1.82 trillion, happening on its platform. PhonePe is followed by Google Pay with 853.53 million transactions amounting to Rs 1.77 trillion, accounting for almost 37 per cent of the UPI market in terms of volumes. Together, these apps control 79.13 per cent market share in terms of volumes and more than 85 per cent market share in terms of value.


In December, they accounted for more than 78 per cent in volumes, and 86 per cent by value. They were more than 82 per cent by volumes and more than 86 per cent by

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What is Company Voluntary Administration?

wayne February 8, 2021

Company Voluntary Administration, or CVA, is a legal agreement settled between a company and its creditors.

Essentially, what CVA does is it helps companies repay their debt without going into to administration, thus avoiding declaring bankruptcy. The company will pay debts over a set period of time.

The agreement between the two parties is based on having a vested interest in preserving the company, rebuilding sales and profits and then, of course, the company will repay the creditors over the set period.

It must be the case that 75 per cent of creditors need to be in agreement and in full support of the CVA.

Once the agreement has been made, the company can carry on trading as they usually would, the directors can conduct their usual duties and the personal guarantees usually will not get called in, which will give the business the chance to survive.

Who can get a CVA?

A CVA can only be proposed if a company is insolvent or contingently insolvent. It will be monitored by a supervisor who will be a licensed insolvency practitioner. The arrangement will usually last between 3 to 5 years, depending on a number of factors. It is therefore

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