Lender moves

While fintechs celebrate branchless banking, India's largest lender is expanding its physical territory. In the battle for low-cost retail deposits, brick-and-mortar remains the ultimate moat.

Chennai-headquartered non-banking financial company Orange Retail Finance India Private Limited has strengthened its FY27 liquidity and lending capacity on two fronts—raising ₹100 Crore through listed Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs) arranged by UMI Capital (anchored by its ₹50 Crore inaugural tranche) and executing a ₹100 Crore co-lending partnership with retail lending giant Shriram Finance Limited.

Under the partnership, Shriram General Insurance will distribute motor and non-motor insurance products across SK Finance’s 700+ branch network in Tier-2, Tier-3, and rural markets.

The Board of Directors of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank Limited has approved a preferential allotment of up to 6,31,91,619 equity shares at an issue price of ₹64.73 per share, aggregating to approximately ₹409.04 crore.

Backed by State Bank of India and French asset powerhouse Amundi, the country’s largest AMC—commanding over ₹12.5 Lakh Crore in AUM—prepares for an October debut via an entirely secondary Offer for Sale.

The private placement offering, carried out via the National Stock Exchange’s (NSE) electronic bidding platform (EBP) on September 16, 2026, witnessed healthy institutional participation, logging 111 bids across mutual funds, pension funds, insurance firms, and corporate treasury desks.

In corporate finance, the best time to raise equity is not when you desperately need it, but when regulatory tailwinds and credit demand align. By opting for an uncompromised primary raise, Muthoot FinCorp is arming its balance sheet to compete aggressively with listed peers and commercial banks for retail market share.

The recent arrest of S. Vasudevan, Chairman and Managing Director of Ozone Urbana Infra Developers Pvt. Ltd., has brought the differing speeds of India’s economic-offence machinery into sharp focus.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested Chandigarh-based businessman Mohit Goyal, proprietor of M/s Chandigarh Mega Store and M/s Bhagwati Agencies, unearthing detailed forensic evidence of how public funds were laundered into physical cash in the ₹504 crore (aggregate ₹657 crore) IDFC FIRST Bank and AU Small Finance Bank fraud.

The Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) ongoing probe into the ₹657 crore bank fraud involving IDFC FIRST Bank and AU Small Finance Bank has unraveled a dramatic nexus between rogue internal banking executives, shell laundering networks, and personal extravagance.

After former branch managers were arrested and 11 accused were chargesheeted under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the private lender completed full financial restitution for affected victims.

The regulator penalized the private lender for relying on generic banking helplines and submitting screenshots of an insurance portal that failed to generate complaint acknowledgments during live tests.

The regulatory order concludes a multi-year inquiry originating from a 2019 onsite inspection, highlighting unverified event management spends and delays in policyholder free-look cancellations.

When the capital markets regulator establishes that sector-specific regulatory arbitrage does not constitute securities fraud, structured corporate transactions gain vital legal clarity.