Thursday, 2 May 2019

Are We heading towards NBFC Fiasco....

Today the banking sector is eye-catching sector in INDIA. We are facing significant challenges in financial sector. From the last decades we have seen the challenges in manufacturing and industries that impact the financial sector.

The NBFCs in India have gone through a remarkable evolution over the past few years. They are recognized as one of the critically important components of the financial system and have shown consistent growth year after year. NBFCs play a major role in the core expansion of infrastructure, transport, employment generation, wealth creation opportunities, and financial support for economically weaker sections; thereby, making a significant contribution towards the overall development of the country.



With the demonetisation more money pumped into the system. It was a first instance where liquid money first introduced to the banking sector then mutual fund and insurance sector respectively. After that it finally came to the NBFC and HFC’S. Over the last 2 quarters currency circulation were rapidly increasing but along with that banks were charging higher interest for the credit services hence liquidity conditions were reasonably tight. So the market situation is like that more money is going into non-liquid assets and which challenges the financial sector.

NBFC crisis:
 
The crisis in India’s NBFCs, triggered by the IL&FS debacle, has taken centre stage in the economic debate even as the tussle between the Union government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on a host of issues, including refinancing for NBFCs, is heading for a climactic showdown.
   

Until just about a decade ago, Indians thought of EMIs for homes and vehicles, but in the past five years, more and more have become cheerful participants in a deepening retail economy to buy jewellery, smartphones, luxury handbags, air tickets, furniture, etc. and a lot of that boom has been funded by NBFCs big and small. If the price looks steep for a straight purchase, an NBFC will finance it for you. You just pay an EMI often interest-free. NBFCs aren’t as strict about creditworthiness and documentation before financing you. They aren’t as stringent as banks. 

There are over 11,000 NBFCs registered with the RBI across the country, which has increased India’s consumer economy as retailers across sectors have latched onto the EMI bandwagon to lure the consumer. After IL&FS defaulted on payments to lenders and triggered panic in the markets, there is now speculation that the entire sector might cave in unless desperate measures are taken to keep it afloat. 

How the crisis unfolded:

Like every other business, NBFCs have short-term and long-term cash requirements. They take long-term loans from banks as well as institutions by raising debentures. These loans mature, and additional loan disbursements need to take place. As part of their regular business, these NBFCs keep borrowing short-term money through commercial papers of three or six months from mutual funds. With the IL&FS default, some mutual funds were left cash-strapped. With the stock market going down, there have been more withdrawals from mutual funds. 

The IL&FS fiasco has made investors more careful. There's no denying the fact that, NBFCs are growing at a fast clip and they already seem to pose a threat to the conventional methods of banking. There are more players whose risk management and fundamental skills will not be as sharp and face challenges.

Other ways for NBFC to sustain in the market is through consolidation and combination.

But, here are few points that we need to consider before extrapolating things:

The concept of NBFCs is still new in India and the industry is yet to see difficult times. Will they be able to absorb the shockwaves of a recession? That remains to be seen.

There's a cutthroat competition among various number of players which makes the industry seemingly unorganized.

So, it is too early to say anything. The answer lies in the 'future'.

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