Page 18 - Banking Finance December 2021

MUTUAL FUND

The communique from the capital grown, and the market has become vola- flows during the period.
market regulator, which came a week tile. Compared to mutual funds with so SBI Mutual Fund saw inflows of Rs
ago, has sparked speculation among much retail money and the AIF industry, 39,282 crore. A significant part of the
some of the portfolio managers about the PMS industry has light-touch regula- net inflow in SBI Mutual Fund was due
Sebi taking a closer look at the invest- tions - even though disclosure and some to its NFOs of SBI Balanced Advantage
ment patterns through the PMS route. of the rules were tightened a year ago. Fund and a couple of equity ETFs. Kotak
More so, with many high net worth It's possible that Sebi would like to know Mutual Fund witnessed inflows of Rs
individuals preferring to park a slice of whether there were large exposures to 20,649 crore in the same period.
their money under PMS and with alter- some stocks," said a senior official of a Nippon India Mutual Fund garnered Rs
native investment funds (AIFs) like pri- large mutual fund. 13,290 crore.
vate equity and venture capital outfits.
SBI, Kotak and Nippon In- Fund houses that saw the highest net
A portfolio manager does not accept outflows were Aditya Birla Sun Life
anything below Rs. 50 lakh (or, securi- dia Mutual Fund see high- with Rs 3,453 crore, IDFC with Rs 3,119
ties worth that amount) from a client. est inflows in FY 21-22 crore, and Franklin Templeton with Rs
The cut-off investment was raised from 2,123 crore.
SBI Mutual Fund, Kotak Mutual Fund,
Rs. 25 lakh last year.
and Nippon India Mutual Fund wit- Among ETFs, SBI Mutual Fund received
Attracted by higher commissions (com- nessed the highest inflows in the sec- the highest flows during the quarter
pared to what mutual funds pay), many ond quarter of the financial year, ac- ended September 2021, with net in-
distributors of financial products have cording to a Morningstar report. Aditya flows of Rs 11,938 crore, followed by
been hard-selling PMS products. "There Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund, IDFC Mu- UTI and Nippon India, which received
has been a rise in the number of bou- tual Fund, and Franklin Templeton Rs 3,702 crore and Rs 3,339 crore,
tique PMS outfits, the PMS pie has Mutual Fund witnessed largest out- respectively. T

At least 600 illegal loan apps operating in India

As many as 600 apps available on different app stores in India have been termed as "illegal loan apps", by a Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) Working Group (WG) on digital lending. These apps, mostly used to dupe unsuspecting people, are
available on several app stores for Android users in the country, the WG said in a report. The Reserve Bank had
constituted a Working Group (WG) on digital lending on January 13 in order to study all aspects of digital lending
activities in the regulated financial sector as well as by unregulated players so that an appropriate regulatory ap-
proach can be put in place.
As per the findings of the WG, there were approximately 1100 lending apps available for Indian Android users across
80+ application stores (from January 1, 2021, to February 28, 2021). "Number of App Stores in which Indian loan
apps are available (81), number of unique Indian loan apps that have the keywords: loan, instant loan, quick loan,
etc. (1100), number of illegal loan apps (600)," the RBI report added.

Union Bank of India net jumps 183% to Rs. 1,510 crore

Union Bank of India reported a 183 per cent jump in its consolidated net profit to Rs 1,510 crore for the September
2021 quarter, primarily driven by recovery from the DHFL account that was written off earlier. The lender's net
profit had stood at Rs 533.87 crore in the corresponding quarter last year, according to a BSE filing.
The bank's core net interest income grew 8.52 per cent to Rs 6,829 crore on a loan growth of about three per cent
and an expansion in net interest margin to 2.95 per cent as against 2.78 per cent in the year-ago period. The non-
interest income during July-September 2021 grew 65.32 per cent to Rs 3,978 crore, mainly on the back of a Rs 1,764-
crore recovery in written-off accounts. Speaking to reporters, its Chief Executive and Managing Director Rajkiran Rai
G said the overall recoveries are Rs 5,341 crore, out of which Rs 1,650 crore came from DHFL recovery alone, which
helped the profit.

18 | 2021 | DECEMBER | BANKING FINANCE