What’s going on here?

Bajaj Housing Finance is eyeing a whopping $6.94 billion valuation through its upcoming initial public offering (IPO) set to launch on September 9.

What does this mean?

This IPO aims to raise $782 million via a price band of 66-70 rupees per share. Running from September 9 to 11, it marks one of India’s biggest IPOs this year, right behind Ola Electric Mobility and Bharti Hexacom. Bajaj Housing Finance plans to issue new shares worth up to 35.60 billion rupees to bolster its capital base while Bajaj Finance will sell shares worth up to 30 billion rupees. As of August 28, over 200 companies have cumulatively raised $7.11 billion through IPOs this year, more than double last year’s figure for the same period.

Why should I care?

For markets: India’s IPO wave continues.

India’s IPO market is red-hot, and Bajaj Housing Finance’s massive $6.94 billion valuation is set to keep the momentum going. With a successful IPO, it would join the ranks of Ola Electric Mobility and Bharti Hexacom. This influx of IPOs, raising a total of $7.11 billion so far this year, signals a robust investor appetite and continuing confidence in the Indian market.

The bigger picture: Regulatory nudges and robust growth.

The Reserve Bank of India compelled non-bank lenders with over 500 billion rupees in assets to list by September 2025, a regulation that helped set Bajaj Housing Finance on this IPO path. Reporting a profit after tax of 17.31 billion rupees in the fiscal year ending March 2024, up 38% year-on-year, and a 34% rise in total revenues, Bajaj’s strong financials underpin this listing, showcasing the health and growth potential of India’s housing finance industry.

The Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT) has formed an anti-financial crime group.

The U.K.-based group announced the effort Monday (Sept. 2), noting it had recruited several tech and finance giants to its cause, including Amazon Web Services, Mastercard, Lloyds Bank, Revolut and Santander.

Also joining the group are regulators such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), with the goal of finding new ways to protect businesses and consumers from fraud.

“Digital verification is considered a key step in mitigating economic crime,” CFIT said in a news release provided to PYMNTS. “An enhanced digital identity for businesses that can be shared and understood across institutions and sectors would help thwart fraudsters and create a more secure economy.”

The group aims to offer standardized, verified information about a business “that is interoperable with other financial systems for data cross-referencing, enhanced authenticity checks and additional fraud detection tools,” the release added. 

Meanwhile, Lloyds Bank, NatWest Bank and Monzo will work together on a proof of concept that tests the impact of a digital corporate ID, “including a reduced scope for accounts to be offered to potential criminals,” CFIT said. A report with recommendations on how British institutions could implement a digital verification solution is expected in March of next year.

In other fraud prevention news, PYMNTS spoke recently with Max Spivakovsky, senior director of strategy and operations, global payments risk management and onboarding at Galileo, about the tightrope banks walk as they provide digital services and payments choices to their end customers while protecting against scammers and cybercriminals.

He said this balancing act requires financial institutions (FIs) to take both proactive and reactive approaches, while also employing technological tools, as they defend themselves while creating a personalized, convenient customer experience.

“The legacy solutions just don’t work anymore,” he told PYMNTS. “Leveraging a single tool used to be the ‘paramount’ strategy of fraud mitigation years ago, but now it’s just not applicable. … The FIs must think about fighting fraud with a holistic perspective.”

The holistic approach can pay dividends while protecting banks from financial losses and harm to their reputation, he said.

“The client experience drives the engagement, and utilization of [banking] apps and programs,” Spivakovsky added.

Weeks of fuel scarcities in Nigeria are compounding a cost-of-living crisis, with the state-run oil company acknowledging “financial strain” was hampering supplies.

Olufemi Soneye, a spokesman for government-controlled Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), blamed the lingering scarcity on financial issues, in a statement at the weekend.

Nigeria, a major African oil producer, often sees sporadic fuel shortages that cause long lines at NNPCL-run petrol stations that sell fuel at cheaper prices than private operators.

“This financial strain has placed considerable pressure on the company and poses a threat to the sustainability of fuel supply,” Soneye said in the statement.

It comes after NNPCL declared a record profit of 3.3 trillion naira (about $2 billion) last month and an initial public denial of its huge debt burden.

As well as vehicles, most households in Nigeria rely on petrol and diesel to power their generators as the public power supply is unreliable and prone to blackouts.

Though an OPEC oil producer, Nigeria imports most of its fuel needs because it has very little working refining capacity.

Africa’s most populous country is already struggling under higher living costs after government reforms to end a fuel subsidy and free the naira currency drove a spike in inflation.

“The fuel scarcity is really hard,” Ismael Abdullai, 36, a delivery bike rider for a food delivery company, told AFP. “We look, but you always have to look harder to see fuel.”

Fuel scarcities have been more frequent since President Bola Tinubu removed the costly fuel subsidies that saw the government pay billions of dollars a year to keep the price of petrol artificially low.

Its price has since more than tripled in some states, with a knock-on effect on food and transport costs.

“The cost of transportation is now very high due to the hike in the price of fuel,” a video editor Hogan Samuel told AFP.

“I spent 1,100 naira ($0.70) to get to the office this morning instead of the usual 750 naira.”

– ‘Long queues’ –

Many stations were shuttered on Monday morning in parts of the commercial capital Lagos. Long lines formed at those that were selling, causing traffic jams.

“We would queue from 6:00 am and still not get fuel until 12:00 or 1:00 pm or 2:00 pm,” Sola Adewusi, a 36-year-old private driver told AFP. “It is because of our leaders, they are bad.”

Drivers looking to save as much as 15,000 naira on a full tank form longer queues at NNPC filling stations where it is sold at the cheapest rate of 560 naira for a litre. But it goes for as much as 950 naira elsewhere.

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“Most of us like to buy at NNPC because of the difference in the price between the NNPC and the private fuelling stations,” Abdullai said.

The junior oil minister Heineken Lokpobiri told an energy labour summit in Nigeria’s capital Abuja last week that NNPCL needed to hike the price of petrol it sells to independent marketers, claiming that the current price of 600 naira was fuelling the smuggling of the product out of the country.

“The situation does not make us happy,” a painter Uzochukwu Christian told AFP in Abuja. “Government should help us.”

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