How to perform fundamental analysis of financial institutions like retail banks, NBFCs, payment processors etc. These institutions are in the business of lending money to customers (unsecured loans, home/auto loans, etc). Which means in the short to medium term, these institutions are like to have a negative cash flow, specially the smaller and mid size banks. Every time a bank does a financial statement release, there are new terms that can come out. Things like NIM, ICR etc. Moreover, the kind of services these institutions provide are often not comparable. For example, I’m not sure how can I compare HDFC bank with Ujjivan finance or Motilal Oswal financial services.
What do you mean by comparing? By defenition, you can’t compare HDFC Bank or any other bank
to ujivan or similar NBFCs. NBFCs has the potential risk of insecure loans , whereas banks are safe with factor of fractional cash flow. Which is bad for economy but good for banks .
Well, what comes before any sort of comparison is analysis. Analysis that is required to even make up mind to decide to invest in the finance sector. And once that decision is made, the next decision is decide if I want to invest in a retail bank or a micro finance bank or a industry development bank or a fintech company or any other stream within the umbrella of finance.
One thing that I find difficult to understand are the terms that needs to be given weightage when it comes to analysing a financial institution. Is there a template that I should keep in mind when I analyze a financial institution.