Latest news with #ReserveBank
The Age
5 hours ago
- Business
- The Age
How to make the most of the interest rate cut? Get a room
Room bookings by leisure travellers surged nearly 15 per cent at one of the country's largest hotel chains after last week's interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank, a sign the cost-of-living crisis may be easing or at least taking a holiday. The desire for a break after years of mortgage pain and rising living costs was evident in a 14.8 per cent lift in leisure travel bookings, an indicator of domestic demand, across global operator Accor's Australian network of hotels in the week following the Reserve's 25 basis point cut. 'With the reduction of the cash rate in February and then just now in May, we've seen an immediate positive increase in forward bookings for leisure destinations,' Accor's Pacific chief operating officer, Adrian Williams, said. The group runs more than 400 hotels in Australia and New Zealand under the Sofitel, Pullman, Swissôtel, Mövenpick, Grand Mercure, Peppers, The Sebel and Mantra brands, among others. Leisure bookings typically make up about two-thirds of travellers staying in its hotel network. Loading Last week's rate cut was followed by this week's slightly higher-than-expected inflation figure of 2.4 per cent, although CreditorWatch chief economist Ivan Colhoun said the Reserve was still factoring in two more rate cuts, 'so further easing is still likely – though back-to-back cuts are now less probable due to inflation and global trade uncertainty.' Williams said the surge in leisure bookings was a sign of the hotel sector's recovery as the group recorded its strongest annual performance in Australia since 2019. That's despite a 21 per cent increase in new hotel rooms being built and added to Melbourne's accommodation market, where over a five-year period to January this year, 22 new hotels opened with more than 5000 rooms.
Sydney Morning Herald
5 hours ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
How to make the most of the interest rate cut? Get a room
Room bookings by leisure travellers surged nearly 15 per cent at one of the country's largest hotel chains after last week's interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank, a sign the cost-of-living crisis may be easing or at least taking a holiday. The desire for a break after years of mortgage pain and rising living costs was evident in a 14.8 per cent lift in leisure travel bookings, an indicator of domestic demand, across global operator Accor's Australian network of hotels in the week following the Reserve's 25 basis point cut. 'With the reduction of the cash rate in February and then just now in May, we've seen an immediate positive increase in forward bookings for leisure destinations,' Accor's Pacific chief operating officer, Adrian Williams, said. The group runs more than 400 hotels in Australia and New Zealand under the Sofitel, Pullman, Swissôtel, Mövenpick, Grand Mercure, Peppers, The Sebel and Mantra brands, among others. Leisure bookings typically make up about two-thirds of travellers staying in its hotel network. Loading Last week's rate cut was followed by this week's slightly higher-than-expected inflation figure of 2.4 per cent, although CreditorWatch chief economist Ivan Colhoun said the Reserve was still factoring in two more rate cuts, 'so further easing is still likely – though back-to-back cuts are now less probable due to inflation and global trade uncertainty.' Williams said the surge in leisure bookings was a sign of the hotel sector's recovery as the group recorded its strongest annual performance in Australia since 2019. That's despite a 21 per cent increase in new hotel rooms being built and added to Melbourne's accommodation market, where over a five-year period to January this year, 22 new hotels opened with more than 5000 rooms.
Hans India
17 hours ago
- Business
- Hans India
RBI for ethical adoption of AI
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank will prepare a framework for responsible and ethical adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in the financial sector during the current financial year, the central bank's annual report said. Driven by rapid advances in computing power and the vast availability of digital data, AI and machine learning (ML) technologies have seen growing interest and significant progress in recent years, with financial institutions globally and domestically increasingly adopting these technologies. The Reserve Bank will prepare a framework for responsible and ethical adoption of AI in the financial sector, as per the agenda for 2025-26 spelt in the RBI's annual report for 2024-25. 'The Reserve Bank is exploring and implementing AI/ML-driven solutions in its own functions,' it said. It has constituted an external committee in December 2024, comprising experts with a mandate to recommend a Framework for Responsible and Ethical Enablement of AI in the financial sector. The Reserve Bank said it undertook several measures to safeguard the financial system by further strengthening the regulatory and supervisory framework of banking and non-banking sectors in line with global best practices. Going forward, the RBI said concerted efforts would be made, inter alia, towards rationalisation and harmonisation of regulations across regulated entities; preparing a framework for responsible and ethical adoption of AI in the financial sector; and strengthening of liquidity stress tests of commercial banks, among others. Further, fine-tuning the existing complaint management and grievance redress mechanism, including exploring the use of AI, would remain in focus, the report said. On AI governance policy, the report said framework for AI Policy for the Reserve Bank for responsible and ethical use of AI/machine learning (ML) technologies by employees, vendors, and third-party partners will also be initiated. By providing clear guidelines on data handling, consent and security, the policy seeks to maintain the integrity of the Reserve Bank's operations while using the opportunities that AI offers, it said.
Time of India
a day ago
- Business
- Time of India
Metros' share in loans dips to 58.7 pc in 5 years: RBI
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Mumbai: The share of metropolitan branches in the overall credit by banks has declined to 58.7 per cent in March 2025, from 63.5 per cent five years ago, the Reserve Bank said on is primarily due to faster credit growth in rural, semi-urban, and urban branches, the central bank said."With higher credit growth in rural, semi-urban and urban areas compared to metropolitan area, the share of metropolitan branches in total credit declined to 58.7 per cent in March 2025 from 63.5 per cent five years ago," it from a deposits perspective, bank branches in metros are notching up higher growths in accretions rather than the other cohorts, it in metropolitan areas, which constituted the dominant share in deposits, recorded 11.7 per cent annual growth in March 2025; whereas rural, semi-urban and urban centres registered 10.1 per cent, 8.9 per cent, and 9.3 per cent annual growth, respectively, it overall bank credit growth decelerated to 11.1 per cent in FY25 from 15.3 per cent in FY24, while the deposit growth came down to 10.6 per cent from 13 per cent during the same rates on term deposits led to saving deposits' share decreasing to 29.1 per cent from 30.8 per cent in the year-ago period, and 33 per cent two years ago, the data in credit growth was observed across all bank groups in FY25, it said, pointing out that private sector sector banks witnessed the steepest decline to 9.5 per cent FY25 after sustaining the number above 15 per cent for the preceding three in personal loans, which include housing, education, vehicle, personal credit cards, consumer durables among others, moderated sharply to 13.2 per cent, the RBI said, adding that its share has now gone up to 31 per durables and other personal loans accounted for nearly one-third of total personal loans, it said, pointing out to the reduced share of loans bearing interest rate of 11 per cent and above within this segment at 47.4 per cent from 50.3 per cent in the year-ago to industry accounted for nearly one-fourth of total bank credit and grew at 9.4 per cent in March 2025, down from 10.4 per cent in FY24, it share of women among the overall deposits was unchanged at 20.7 per cent, it said, adding that over a fifth of total deposits came from senior of term deposits of over Rs 1 crore in size increased to 45.1 per cent in March 2025 from 43.7 per cent in March 2024.
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Business Standard
a day ago
- Business
- Business Standard
RBI to prepare framework for ethical adoption of AI in financial sector
The Reserve Bank will prepare a framework for responsible and ethical adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in the financial sector during the current financial year, the central bank's annual report said. Driven by rapid advances in computing power and the vast availability of digital data, AI and machine learning (ML) technologies have seen growing interest and significant progress in recent years, with financial institutions globally and domestically increasingly adopting these technologies. The Reserve Bank will prepare a framework for responsible and ethical adoption of AI in the financial sector, as per the agenda for 2025-26 spelt in the RBI's annual report for 2024-25. "The Reserve Bank is exploring and implementing AI/ML-driven solutions in its own functions," it said. It has constituted an external committee in December 2024, comprising experts with a mandate to recommend a Framework for Responsible and Ethical Enablement of AI in the financial sector. The Reserve Bank said it undertook several measures to safeguard the financial system by further strengthening the regulatory and supervisory framework of banking and non-banking sectors in line with global best practices. Going forward, the RBI said concerted efforts would be made, inter alia, towards rationalisation and harmonisation of regulations across regulated entities; preparing a framework for responsible and ethical adoption of AI in the financial sector; and strengthening of liquidity stress tests of commercial banks, among others. Further, fine-tuning the existing complaint management and grievance redress mechanism, including exploring the use of AI, would remain in focus, the report said. On AI governance policy, the report said framework for AI Policy for the Reserve Bank for responsible and ethical use of AI/machine learning (ML) technologies by employees, vendors, and third-party partners will also be initiated. By providing clear guidelines on data handling, consent and security, the policy seeks to maintain the integrity of the Reserve Bank's operations while using the opportunities that AI offers, it said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
