scorecardresearchGovernment asks PSU banks to share bond portfolio data: Report

Government asks PSU banks to share bond portfolio data: Report

Updated: 24 Mar 2023, 02:01 PM IST
TL;DR.

More than 60% of banks' investment book is in the held-to-maturity (HTM) portfolio, analysts at Macquarie Research wrote

Nirmala Sitharaman will hold a meeting with all PSB heads on Saturday where she will review their work

Nirmala Sitharaman will hold a meeting with all PSB heads on Saturday where she will review their work

The Union finance ministry has told public sector banks (PSBs) to share details of their bond portfolios ahead of their meeting with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, reported Business Standard.

In a bid to determine the resilience of banks against interest-rate risks, the ministry has specifically requested details on holdings under the held-to-maturity (HTM) and available-for-sale (AFS) portfolios, bankers said.

While the HTM portfolio protects banks from potential losses on bond holdings, the government wants to ascertain how banks will respond in the case of large bond sales from that book, sources said.

Sitharaman will hold a meeting with all PSB heads on Saturday where she will review their work, including lending to infrastructure and flow of cash transfers to beneficiaries under various government flagship schemes.

The Silicon Valley Bank episode was primarily triggered by the adverse consequences of sharp rate increases by the US Federal Reserve on the value of the bank’s bond holdings. Bond prices fall when yields rise.

“HTM is a protected portfolio in India from the MTM perspective. From the finance ministry side, this is a stock-taking measure to establish what could be the hypothetical losses if banks were in a situation where they would have to sell from their HTM portfolio,” a banker said on condition of anonymity.

“It is being done in response to the Silicon Valley Bank crisis. For instance, if a bank bought a bond during the demonetisation period in 2016-17 when yields fell sharply – they would have bought the bond at around 6 per cent yield or so. Now of course, yields are much higher. So hypothetically, those securities would be at a loss,” the banker said.

HTM portfolio

The HTM portfolio provides banks protection from interest rate risks as securities kept in this portfolio do not have to be marked to market. During the pandemic, the RBI increased the limit on HTM portfolios in order to help banks better manage bond holdings amid a huge increase in debt supply.

The other two portfolios are the AFS book and the held-for-trading (HFT) book. These two portfolios are marked to market and hence are at risk of losses when yields rise. Securities from the AFS book can be sold at any time, while those in the HFT book must be sold within 90 days. The AFS book is marked to market every quarter.

About 60 per cent of banks’ investment book is in the HTM portfolio, analysts at Macquarie Research wrote. As on February 24, scheduled commercial banks’ investment in central and state government securities was at 53.37 trillion, up from 46.69 trillion a year ago, the latest RBI data showed.

First Published: 24 Mar 2023, 02:01 PM IST