Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, May 16, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version | Audio
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, May 16, 2008 ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version | Audio |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Money & Banking
-
Consumer Finance Citigroup not to exit consumer finance biz in India
The objective of the research programme is to support changes that will have a positive impact on emerging financial markets and its participants, which will include SMEs. Our Bureau Mumbai, May 15 Citigroup has no plans of exiting its consumer finance business in India even though there are bad debts, Mr Sanjay Nayar, CEO of Citi India, said. “We have a large portfolio in Citi Financial which offers finance to low and middle-income consumers. We are not exiting the business but there will be some repositioning, re-segmentation of some consumer base,” said Mr Nayar. He was responding to questions on reports that Citi Financial may sell a section of its loan portfolio and construction equipment loans to other banks after rising defaults and a drop in the margins. The CEO said that a number of new players were coming in and more unsecured lending was taking place. Consumers were overleveraged while their underlying capacity remained unchanged, he elaborated. Mr Nayar also said that Citigroup had recently infused capital of $250 million into its Indian operations for 2008. Citi India announced a three-year programme on Thursday along with Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business to study, develop and recommend measures that will promote financial inclusion and improve capital market access to small investors and enterprises. Citi Foundation will provide a $1.5-million grant to the Centre of Analytical Finance (CAF) at the ISB to conduct the study. The objective of the programme is to support changes that will have a positive impact on emerging financial markets and its participants, which will include SMEs. The CAF will put together recommendations to support regulators, practitioners and other opinion leaders to execute financial development in the country. “With this research programme, our longstanding relationship with ISB will be further strengthened. CAF is uniquely positioned to undertake this project as it has prior experience of doing quality work in this and other related areas,” said Mr Nayar. Highlighting the need for a detailed study, the ISB Dean, Mr M. Rammohan Rao, said it was necessary to ramp up financial growth in rural areas to make the economic growth more robust and complete. Using the grant support, CAF would organise several projects, international conferences, workshops/lectures and extensive dissemination of the project findings over the next three years. Indian operations a drag on Citigroup income Sluggish growth in Citibank India profitability, operational efficiency More Stories on : Consumer Finance
Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page
|
Stories in this Section |
 |
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | The Hindu ePaper | Business Line | Business Line ePaper | Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | The Hindu Images | Home |
Copyright © 2008, The
Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu Business Line
|