Briefs: Telcos seek Indian bank licences, CBA's premium pricing, China cuts deposit ratio, ANZ's mob

Bernard Kellerman
  • The Reserve Bank of India has received 41 applications for "payments banks", a new class of provider that can accept deposits but may not lend. The deadline was Monday (2 February), with large telcos such as Vodafone India and Bharti Airtel among the latest batch of applicants, aiming to build on their mobile payments experience. The RBI is also considering 72 applications for small finance banks to provide basic banking activities to unserved and under-served sections of the population.

  • CBA is is valued 23 per cent higher than its Big Four competitors, ANZ, NAB and Westpac, based on forward price-to-earnings multiples, reports the AFR. This is well above a historical premium of 8 per cent, according to calculations by Morgan Stanley analysts. The shares are trading at 15.7 times estimated earnings for this financial year, according to Morgan Stanley, against an average of about 12.9 over the past decade or so.

  • Rate cuts and other moves by central banks to ease of monetary policy settings are becoming contagious, it seems, with news breaking overnight that the People's Bank of China has cut its reserve requirement ratio (the amount of deposits it requires banks to hold as reserves) by 50 basis points to 19.5 per cent. The cut, effective today (5 February), is the first since May 2012, and comes amid growing concerns about the rate of expansion in the world's second-largest economy, CNBC reports.

  • MoneyMinded, ANZ's adult financial literacy program, is being expanded to include a dedicated mobile banking module. The program, which was introduced in 2010 to boost financial inclusion in countries where ANZ operates, has been delivered to some 6000 people across the Pacific through partnerships with local community organisations and governments. ANZ said the latest addition to its program reflected the growth of mobile phone banking in areas such as the Solomon Islands, especially in rural provinces where people have limited access to bank branches.