For people who work in banking, insurance & mutual funds
You picked up the words on the job. Nobody showed you how it all connects.
So here it is — one idea at a time, each one causing the next, across banking, insurance and mutual funds. Plain words, real rupees.
Start with any industry
Learn the shape once and you already half-know it everywhere else. Every → below means "causes" — that's the whole trick.
- 1BankingHow a bank turns other people's deposits into profit, what the regulator forces it to hold, what bad loans do to the spread, and how you read the whole story off a handful of numbers. Mapped from cause to effect. 33 ideas
- 2InsuranceAn insurer runs two profit engines: underwriting (take premium, pay claims and costs, keep the difference) and the float (hold policyholders' money between premium-in and claim-out, and invest it). Most Indian general insurers lose money on the first and are rescued by the second. Life insurance runs on a different clock again. Mapped from cause to effect. 31 ideas
- 3FundsA mutual fund sells you "returns", but the number that matters is the return you keep after cost — and cost is a silent daily drag on NAV, not a bill you ever see. It maps what's underneath: how a fund is priced, what it charges, what it actually earns net of that charge, the product shelf SEBI defines, the SIP flows that build its AUM, and the benchmark-and-risk scorecard that judges it. Mapped from cause to effect. 37 ideas
Same idea, different counter
| The idea | Banking | Insurance | Funds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core-engine profitabilityThe single number that verdicts what you actually earn on the core activity — one metric, three industries. | NIM | Combined Ratio | Net Return after TER |
| The base the economics scale onThe pool everything else is charged on or earned against — grow it and the whole model scales. | Balance Sheet | Technical Reserves | AUM |
| Sticky, near-free fundingOther people's money that keeps arriving cheaply and quietly funds the base. | CASA | Float | SIP Book |
| The cost dragThe recurring cost that eats the gross number before anyone sees the net. | Cost of Funds | Expense Ratio | TER |
Core-engine profitability
The single number that verdicts what you actually earn on the core activity — one metric, three industries.
- BankingNIM
- InsuranceCombined Ratio
- FundsNet Return after TER
The base the economics scale on
The pool everything else is charged on or earned against — grow it and the whole model scales.
- BankingBalance Sheet
- InsuranceTechnical Reserves
- FundsAUM
Sticky, near-free funding
Other people's money that keeps arriving cheaply and quietly funds the base.
The cost drag
The recurring cost that eats the gross number before anyone sees the net.
- BankingCost of Funds
- InsuranceExpense Ratio
- FundsTER