Some
months back we had lot of voices about RBI tinkering on growth with
CRR
, repo rate ,restrictions on FDI etc etc as measures which would
de-rail growth . Although my belief was CRR and such measures are
good
for the long run and used it for buying as over-reaction from markets
giving a bounce after making panic lows. Now lets c US scenario the
free credit and that too leveraged credit was exactly opposite.
Although
I know hardly about the banking system but would try to sum up things
from what i get from peers in the domain and their views. Will list
down some positives or differences which may be due to fortunate
circumstances or RBI or because Indian banking system is not yet that
developed. If there is something wrong people can comment !!!
1) US sub-prime loans While
going thru wikipedia - or second chance lending is a term used for
it.
Higher interest rates gave these lenders a better profit ratio and
gr8
bonuses to the big-wigs but the high risk involved led to a major
crisis in US financial institutions. Out here in India RBI does have
strict regulations even on pvt banks , home finance and other
institutions which curtails over-exposure or leverage for banks. PSU
banks, PSU financial firms conservativeness keeps them safer.
2) Mortgage , Securitization and Complex
derivatives.
This
is where the real crisis started as the above terms were highly
mis-understood or presented differently. Mortgage , Home finance was
given at 100 % to value which left a big risk for banks. Further to
alleviate the problems banks started packaging mortgage/loans into
securities and complex derivatives which were sold to create
liquidity
and good returns for corporates which were entirely speculative but
complexity hided the fact. Indian banks have still not
developed much on the mortgage portfolio of loans , and majority of
the
chunk is used for business financing. Also the indian mentality of
not
mortgaging assets will take time to make a shift for that portfolio
of
loans to grow. Also securitization , complex derivatives have not yet
grown to a big extent but yes they have made their big scratches on
profits but still away from asset detoriation like
US.
3) Real Estate Slump Kills the
system.
The
US banking system was majorly flowing on the real estate prices
booming
which made the leverage and exposure of banks go higher and higher.
The
securitization and complex derivatives package made banks/corporates
takes big exposures as speculative gains were enormous with real
estate
price upmove. I would give it a new term "" Liquid real estate "".
The
securities sold by Banks created liquidity for them to give out more
loans and to buyers it gave a chance to make profits out of a real
estate growth with a liquidity to find buyers. So the demand kept the
liquidity higher and the realization of the risk far -away. Suddenly
the real estate bubble blew and the crisis grew. The complexity of
securitization and derivatives took a lot of time for the banking
system to realize !!! and killed the system.
Luckily
or can be termed unfortunately that the real estate deals are done at
20-50 % cash or black money. On that banks give only 80 % of the
white
amount. So this gives a buffer of safety to the banking system. Also
the mortage/securitization/complex derivatives are not a grown market
to make the system over-leverage. Although this can create a buffer
on
assets but the aggressive pvt banking sector is seeing lots of
revenue/profits coming down and also losses due to defaults and
increasing NPAs. According to a brief calculations say
100
rs flat . 60 rs agreement cost . loan given 50 rs loan given. till
the
price doesnt fall below 60-70 rs on combined deal the loan-owner
would
prefer to settle the loan !! and get some money back of the Cash
payment. So a brief calculation says a drop more then the extent of
30-40 % or even more could lead to major defaults but still it may
not
heard that deeply into assets as it does for US or other banking
systems.
4) Collapse / Bankruptcy like Nine
pins- I-Banks
Its
an old saying it takes years to building but 4 dynamites to break
them
in days. This same applies to institutions which may have been 160
years but doesnt take much time for them to collapse. The banking
system depends on the or money frm the market in the core principle.
The profits arise only after working out ratios like CRR, PLR etc .
But
when liquidity crunches the balance goes haywire if the system is not
kept ready for a mad rush from depositors and unavailability from
money
market. The mad rush doesnt take much time so the process of banks
falling in line should not take a big period . Thats the prime reason
why we are seeing every week a new foreign bank on the newspapers,
many
of them being investment banks. The dream job at an I-bank is now a
nightmare. Suddenly Goldmans want to become retail banks for the same
reason of control, regulation.
In India
luckily or unfortunately whichever way one takes it Investment
Banking
has not grown and is in nascent stages so ideally great lessons being
learnt !!!. Apart from that retail-commercial banking has strict
guidelines/restrictions and regulations to be followed so that a mad
rush may be encountered much more easily. CRR cuts were done to
reduce
the liquidity but at the same time it reduced the leverage for banks
and the RBI can definitely arrange for liquidity if required !.
All
in all Indian banking is in trouble but not in CRISIS like the US
banking system. So India could ideally be learning lessons which if
used could lead to a much stable banking structure in the future.
Consequences being faced by US banks are severe but as i have been
saying the mad rush and collapse is quick so as before my expectation
remains for an economic data peaking out in September/October and
would
term it very close to the peak !!!! NOW.
Best
Regards,
Nooresh
09819225396
http://nooreshtech.blogsp
ot.com/
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