Management of Interest Rate Risk in Indian Banking

In a move towards effective management of interest rate risk in Indian banking, in addition to the existing return on Interest Rate Sensitivity under Traditional Gap Analysis, a new return is being introduced to monitor the interest rate risk using Duration Gap Analysis (DGA), called Interest Rate Sensitivity under Duration Gap Analysis (IRSD). The DGA involves bucketing of all Risk Sensitive Assets (RSA) and Risk Sensitive Liabilities (RSL) as per residual maturity/re-pricing dates in various time bands and computing the Modified Duration Gap (MDG). One of the important things to note is that the RSA and RSL include the rate-sensitive off-balance sheet assets and liabilities as well. MDG can be used to evaluate the impact on the Market Value of Equity (MVE) of the bank under different interest rate scenarios. The past few years have seen banks’ foray into financing long-term assets, such as home loans and infrastructure projects. Banks have been allowed to raise funds through long-term bonds with a minimum maturity of five years to the extent of their exposure of residual maturity of more than five years to the infrastructural sector. This article attempts to illustrate the significance of interest rate risk management and approaches towards its management in the Indian context.