Monday, December 29, 2008

How Has India Avoided the Financial Crisis?

. Monday, December 29, 2008

Lots of regulation:

“In India, we never had anything close to the subprime loan,” said Chandra Kochhar, the chief financial officer of India’s largest private bank, Icici. (A few days after I spoke to her, Ms. Kochhar was named the bank’s new chief executive, in a move that had long been anticipated.) “All lending to individuals is based on their income. That is a big difference between your banking system and ours.” She continued: “Indian banks are not levered like American banks. Capital ratios are 12 and 13 percent, instead of 7 or 8 percent. All those exotic structures like C.D.O. and securitizations are a very tiny part of our banking system. So a lot of the temptations didn’t exist.”


But different norms also may have played a role:

Part of the reason is cultural. Indians are simply not as comfortable with credit as Americans. “A lot of Indians, when you push them, will say that if you spend more than you earn you will get in trouble,” an Indian consultant told me. “Americans spent more than they earned.”


Other factors played a role too, including interest rates as high as 20%, a banking system that is 70% nationalized, and stronger regulators. Perhaps India has sacrificed some growth potential in their financial markets, but they've also created one of the most stable banking industries in the world.

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How Has India Avoided the Financial Crisis?
 

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