Rs.500 and Rs.

1000 Currency no longer Legal Tender

Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi While addressing the nation on Novem
ber 8 2016, made a historical announcement that the Rs.500 and Rs.1000 currency
notes currently in use will no longer be legal tender from midnight 8th November
2016 that is these notes will not be accepted for any kind of transactions from
midnight onwords.
The aim behind such move is to curb corruption , black money, money launderi
ng, terrotism creating an environment of panic.
However one Hundred, fifty,twenty,ten,five,two and one rupee note will remai
n legal tender and will not be affected by the decision.
On recommendation of RBI, government of india has decided to issue Rs.2000 n
otes and new notes of five hundred for circulation.
How to get the new denomination notes:
Citizens can deposit old notes of Rs.500 and Rs.1000 in their bank or post offic
e accounts from 10th November till 30th December 2016 without any limit.
From 10th November to 24th November the limit of exchange will be Rs.4000 wh
ile from 25th November to 30th December , the limit will be increased.
For an immedite needs, citizen can go to any bank, head post office or sub P
ost office, with an identity proof like Aadhaar Card, Voter Card, ration Card, P
assport, PAN card or other approved proofs, and exchange old five hundred or tho
usand ruoee notes for new notes.
ATM will not Work on 9th November and in some places on 10th November also.
There will be a limit of Rs.2000 per day per card in first few days. Later the l
imit will be raised to 4000.
If for any reason , any person is not able to deposit the old five hundred o
r thousand rupee notes by 30th December 2016 they can go to specified offices of
the Reserve Bank of India up to 31st March 2017 and deposit the notes after sub
mitting a declaration form.
To reduce the difficulty of the common man, some special steps have been taken b
y the government . For the first 72 hours till the midnight on 11th November the
old notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 will be accepted at the following places for
transaction.
Government hospitals and Pharmacies
Railway ticket booking counters
Ticket counters of government buses
Airline ticket counters
Petrol,diesel and CNG gas stations
Consumer co-operation stores
Milk booths authorised by State governments.
Crematoria and burial grounds.
Features of New Rs.500 Note
The note size is 63mm x 150mm
Color is Stone grey and
The new theme is Indian heritage site-Red Fort.
Ashoka piller emblem on the right.
Color of windowed security thread changes from gree to blue when it is tilte
d.
Devnagari script used for denoting numeral
watermark of electrotype and portrait of mahatma gandi
On top left and bottom right side of the note the numerals are increasing fr
om small to big.
 Mahatma Gandhi portrait position shifted to center.
Governor's signature, promise clause, Guarantee clause, and emblem of RBI ti
tled towords right
Back Side of the note depicts
Year of printing the note appears on left
Swacchh bharat logo and slogan on bottom left
Image of red fort with Indian flag
Denomination value in devanagai on right top
Features of Rs.2000 notes
The note size is 66mm x 166mm
Color of the note is Magenta
Front side of the note depicts:
Mahatma Gandhi portrait in the center.
Denomination value 2000 in devanagari
Ashoka pillar emblem on the right.
On top left and bottom right side of the note the numerals are increasing fr
om small to big.
Governor's signature, promise clause, Guarantee clause, and emblem of RBI ti
tled towords right
Bharat', RBI and 2000 inscribed with windowed security thread whose color ch
anges from green to blue when tilted
Latent image of 2000 can be seen when the note is held at 45 degree angle at
the eye level
When the note is held against light denominational numeral 2000 can be seen
through registers.
Reverse side of the note depicts
Year of Printing on the note on left
Swacchh bharat logo with slogan
Language panel in the centre
Image depicting Mangalyan
RBI issued Clarifications on Hedging for External Commercial Borrowings
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued Clarifications on hedging of currency for
external commercial borrowings (ECBs) in a notification on its website.
About the Hedging to Currency.
The ECB borrower will be required to cover both principal as well as coupon paym
ents through the hedges done, starting from the day of borrowing.
The hedging period will be for the entire life of the liability with a minim
um one-year rollover option, ensuring that the total exposure is not unhedged at
any point of time.
The borrower has to hedge in such a manner that the projected cash flows mat
ch the expectation of the borrowers irrespective of the fluctuations in the fore
ign currency.
The following Clarifications are issued:
Coverage:Wherever hedging has been mandated by the RBI, the ECB borrower wil
l be required to cover principal as well as coupon through financial hedges. The
financial hedge for all exposures on account of ECB should start from the time
of each such exposure (i.e. the day liability is created in the books of the bor
rower).
Tenor and rollover: A minimum tenor of one year of financial hedge would be
required with periodic rollover duly ensuring that the exposure on acount of ECB
in not unhedged at any point during the currency of ECB.
Natural hedge: Natural hedge , in lieu of financial hedge, will be considere
d only to the extent of offsetting projected cash flows / revenues in matching c
urrency, net of all other projected outflows. for this purpose, an ECB may be co
nsidered naturally hedged if the offsetting exposure has the maturity/cash flow
within the same accounting year. Any other arrangements/ structures, where reven
ues are indexed to foreign currency will not be considered as natural hedge.
The designed AD Category-I bank will have the responsibility of verifying th
at 100 per cent hedging requirement is complied with.All other aspects of the E
BC policy shall remain unchanged.
RBI Opened Second Banking Ombudsman Office in New Delhi
The RBI has opened a second office of the Banking Ombudsman in New Delhi , t
aking into account the significant increase of the banking network.
The first office increase of the banking ombudsman at RBI, New Delhi, would
have jurisdiction over Delhi and Jammu &Kashmir. The second office would have j
urisdiction over Haryana(except Panchkula,Yamuna Nagar and Ambala districts)

RBI doubles the E-wallet Limit to Rs. 20,000

The Reverse Bank of India on November 23, 2016 declared to increase the lim
it of the Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) from Rs.10,000 to Rs. 20,000 per mo
nth and Rs. 50,000 for Merchant Bank to facilitate digital transactions.
The decision was taken to ease the problem faced by the public with the demo
netization move of the Government
RBI introduced incremental CRR to manage excess liquidity
The Reserve Bank of India increasing the cash Reserve Requirement (CRR) for
incremental deposits between September 16 and November 11 to 100% while the curr
ent CRR is 4% , effective from November 25,2016.
The RBI move will require all excess deposits that Banks in India are getti
ng-estimated to be about Rs 3.25 lakh crore by Friday-
Because of the demonetization move, excess deposits amount collected in bank
s was nearly Rs 3.25 lakh crore
This deposit amount is kept with the central bank, only the depositors can
get 4% interest.
Islamic Banking to be opened in Indian banks
The RBI has planned to open "Islamic window" in conventional banks
Aim: Gradual introduction of Sharia-compliant (interest-free banking) in the
country.
The Centre and RBI are taking steps to introduce Islamic banking to make fin
ancial inclusion available to those sections of the society that are neglected d
ue to religious reasons.
16 of 2 public sector banks skipped Dividends in FY 16 due to Increase in NPA
Due to increasing bas loans in the banking sector, 16 Public Sector banks in
India out of 22 Skipped paying dividends in 2015-16 to the government. The gove
rnment of India received Rs 1,444.6 crore as dividend from PSB. This amount is 6
7% less than that the received in the previous fiscal which was Rs 4,336.22 cror
e.
as per existing rules, profit making banks have to pay a minimum dividend of
 20 per cent of their equity rules, profit making banks have to pay a minimum di
vidend of 20 per cent of their equity or 20 per cent of their post tax profit, w
hichever is higher.
The highest dividend during 2015-16 was paid by State Bank of India, which a
mounts to Rs 1,214.6 crore, which makes 84% of the total dividend.
RBI relaxes withdrawal limits for deposits made in legal tender
To encourage people to deposit valid currency notes in banks, RBI on Novemb
er 29,2016 allowed bank customers to withdraw the deposits made in current legal
tender notes of Rs.500 and Rs.2000 beyond the current withdrawl limits of Rs.24
,000 per week. For current accounts, the withdrawl limit is Rs 50,000 a week for
small traders.
For example, if someone deposits valid legal tenders (Rs 2,000 , Rs 500, Rs
100, Rs 50, Rs 20,Rs 10, Rs 5) of Rs 4,000, the withdrawl limit for that person
would rise by Rs. 4,000 over and above weekly withdrawl limit of Rs 24,000.
The decision is aimed at discouraging hoarding of valid currency notes and i
ncreasing its circulation to overcome cash crunch issue of demonetization of old
Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes.
According to Reserve Bank of India certain depositors are hesitating to depo
sit their money into bank accounts due to the current limits on cash withdrawals
. so it has been decided, on careful consideration, to allow withdrawals of depo
sits made in current legal tender notes on or after 29 November 2016 beyond the
current limits.
People have exchanged and d3posited about Rs 8.45 lakh crore worth of scrapp
ed Rs. 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes at different banks til 27 November.
Telangana Goa joins hand with IDFC bank introduces Coupon for Cashless Purchase
Telangana government joined hands with Mumbai based IDFC Bank to enable cash
less transactions and to solve the change problem.
Aadhar Card based Coupon was introduced at Rythu Bazaar in Kukatpalli, Hyder
abad.
BSE opened Regional Investor Servise center in Shimla
Leading stock exchange BSE has opended its regional investor service center
in Shimla on November 19, 2016 to expand its and conform to SEBI's directives.
BSE is now available in 24 cities across the country with the opening of thi
s new service centre.
IL&FS raises first ever masala loan worth $50 mn from Export Development Canada
Canada's export credit agency Export Development Canada (EDC) sanctioned the
first-ever masala loan of Rs.340 crore($50 million) to Indian firm Infrastructu
re Leasing & Financial Services(IL&FS). This is the first lending of EDC in Indi
an Rupees. In a masala loan the borrower saves on the hedging cost because the r
epayment is in rupees.
With this IL&FS Financial Services became the First Indian company to raise
money through a ruoee-denominated masala loan from overseas investors.
Bharti Airtal Starts First Payments Bank Service in Rajasthan
Airtel Payments Bank Ltd (Airtel Bank), a subsidiary of the country's largest te
lecom operator Bharti Airtal, started its first pilot banking services in Rajast
han from November 23, 2016.
Aim: The banking service is aimed at testing systems and processes before a full
scale pan Indian is launched.
 According to the pilot service Airtel Payments Bank will provide basic banki
ng services along with the facility to open bank accounts at Airtel retail outle
ts.
Features of the Pilot Payment Banking Service.
Any user can Open an account with Aadhaar based paperless e-KYC without the requ
irement of any extra documents simply at any airtel retail outlet. Customer's Ai
rtel mobile number would be his/her bank account number.
The Company will give an interest rate of 7.25% per annum on deposits in sav
ings accounts.
The customers will get a personal accidental insurance of Rs. 1 lakh with ev
ery savings accounts.The users have the convenience to transfer money to any ban
k accounts in India.
Airtel Bank does not offer ATM/Debit Card facility, at present. Customers ca
n deposit withdraw cash at any of the designated Airtal retail outlets.
Customers cab access money transfer services using the Airtel money app or t
hrough USSD by dialing *400#. Money transfers from one Airtel number to another
Airtel number within the bank will be free
Initially the Airtel Bank will test the piolt services at 10,000 Airtel reta
il outlets. However it plans to expand its merchant network in Rajasthan to 100,
000 by the end of the year, giving a big boost to digital payments ecosystem.
Vasundhra Raje, Chief Minister of Rajasthan appreciated the initiative which inc
lines with the prime Minister's vision for financial inclusion and Digitel India
, and will be a boon to residents in far flung areas who are yet to have access
to formal banking.
NABARD sanctions Rs 21,000 crore to district cooperative banks
NABARD has sanctioned Rs. 21,000 crores to the District Central Cooperative
Banks (DCCBs) to help farmers in Rabi agricultural seasons.
The DCCBs will disburse loans to farmers through the network of Primary Agri
cultural Coorperative Societies (PACS). Government has chosen DCCB for loan disb
ursal because 40% of the small-scale farmers go to co-operative banks.
Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam Berhad inks deal with Ramco for ERP integrated solu
tion
Brunei's largest bank Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam Berhad has signed a deal
with India's Ramco Syatems to integrate its business processes across HR and ent
erprise resource planning fuctions with Ramco System's Enterprise Resource Plann
ing (ERP).
The scope of engagement includes finance and accounting, inventory and procu
rement, as well as core HR functions, time and attendence, payroll, training and
recruitment.
IBBI Notifies regulation Under Bankruptcy Code, 2016
The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board (IBBI) of India on 23 November 2016 noti
fied three sets of regulations directing the eligibility criteria of becoming a
professional member of an Insolvency Professional Agency or for registering with
the IBBI as an Insolvency Professional Agency
The regulation is applicable to
Insolvency Professionals,
Insolvency Agencies and
Model Bye-Laws and Governing Board of Insolvency Professional Agencies.
 These regulations were notified under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code,
2016 and will come into effect from 29 November 2016.
Individuals eligible for registration as an insolvency professional
Advocates, Chartered Accounts, Company Secretaries and Cost Accounts with 10
Years' of practice or employment.
A Graduate with 15 years of post-qualification managerial experience on pass
ing the limited Insolvency Examination.
Any individual who has passed the National Insolvency Examination.
However,Advocates,Chartered Accounts,Company ecretaries and Cost Accounts wi
th more than 15 years of practice experience can register without any examinatio
n till 31 December 2016 and such registration Shall be valid for a limited perio
d of six months.
There will be National Insolvency Examination and Limited Insolvency Examina
tion. The Syllabus and formet of these examinations will be published on the web
site of the Board at least one month before the examination.
A limited liability partnership, a registered partnership firm or a company
can be recougnised as an insolvency Professional entity if a majority of the par
tners or a majority of the whole-time directors are registered as insolvency pro
fessionals under the Code.
An insolvency professional can use the organisational resources of a recogni
sed insolvency professional entity subjected to the condition that entity as wel
l as the insolvency professional will be liable for all acts of omission or comm
ission of its partners as insolvency professionals.
30 banks join mobile-based national funds transfer system
According to National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), 30 private and f
oregin banks were joined the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to allows money tr
ansfer between any two bank accounts by using a mobile phone.
UPI Project had started with 21 banks in August 2016. Earlier this month, fi
ve new banks including SBI,Allahabad,Bank of Baroda,HDFC Bank and IDFC Bank join
ed with NPCI's UPI
Yes Bank,Gujarat Roadways join hands to digitise bus travel payments
Maharastra based YES Bank, announced a partnership with Gujarat State Road T
ransport Corporation (GSRTC) on November 24, 2016 to digitise payment of bus tic
kets for Gujarat People.
Yes bank will install over 125 points of sale (PoS) terminals to facilitate
booking through credit and debit cards at all GSRTC bus stops. The location of t
hese terminals will suport the 'less-cash' economy envisaged by the Centre.
SEBI relaxes norms for Angle Investors
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on November 23,2016, has relax
ed the rules for angel funds in order to boost more investment for new start-ups
in the country.
Relaxed norms
The market regulator has raised the total number of angle investors to inves
t in a start-ups to 200 from 49 and reduced the minimum investment amount to Rs.
25 lakh from the previous Rs.50 lakhs.
The regulator has allowed angel funds to invest in start-ups that were set u
p within 5 Years before the date of investment, which earlier was 3 years.
The minimum lock-in period has also been reduced to 1 year from previous 3 y
ears . Angel investors will also be allowed to invest up to 25% of their funds i
n overseas start-ups.
 The move will provide easy accessibility of funds for enterpreneurs so that
they start new businesses.
ESAF ties up with FIS for micro finance bank
India's largest microfinance providers ESAF selected FIS as the bank's techn
ology partner to launch ESAF's small finance bank.
The Small Finance Bank was created to serve micro-and small-credit needs for
women in parts of India.
FIS will provide a fully integrated banking and payments platform through a
totally outsourced delivery model,which switch.
South Indian Bank launches contactless debit card
Kerala based South Indian Bank has launched contectless debit Card which is
based on Near Field Communication (NFC) technology on November 2, 2016.
Customers can also use this card as contact clip card. If customers use this
card at the contectless PoS terminal, the customer simply has to just wave the
card on this terminal and the payment is processed wirelessly in a fast and secu
re manner.
Canara Bank and Bajaj Allianz General Insurance sign agreement to sell insurance
product
Public sector Bank Canara Bank has signed a corporate agency agreement Bajaj
Alianz General Insurance for the distribution of Bajaj Allianz's general insura
nce products through its branches.
As per the agreement Bajaj Allianz General Insurance will offer its leading
general insurance plans to the customers of Canara Bank.
Both institutions have set a target of Rs 400 cror in the Financial Year 201
7-18 by selling general insurance plans through the 5,920 branches of Canara Ban
k.
INOX partners with SBI for cash withdrawal at its multiplex
INOX Leisure, multiplex chain in India has parterned with State Bank of Indi
a(SBI)_ to enable cash withdrawl of Rs 2000 at their multiplex.
The initiative has been taken to reduce the loads on ATMs and banks for cash
withdrawl and ease the process of cash withdrawl and support the demonetization
move of government.
As per the RBI guidlines a citizen can withdraw cash from INOX multiplex by
swipingt their debit cards, entering the PIN and Can withdraw upto a limit of Rs
2000 per card per day.
Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board set up two advisory panels headed by Mohandas Pa
i and Uday Kotak
Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of india (IBBI) sets up two high-level under
the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code to consolidate and amed laws relating to reo
rganisation as well as insolvency resolution of corporate persons, partnership f
irms and individuals in a time-bound manner.
Advisory committee on service providers consists of 9 members, the panel is
lead by educationist Mohandas Pai
Corporate insolvency and liquidation panel is chaired by noted banker Uday K
otak. Other members of the committee includes BSE CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan, Credi
t Information Bureau Chairman M V Nair and Corporate and Economic Research Group
Advisory's Chairperson Omkar Goswami.
Ola Partners SBI, PNB for setting up Mobile ATM
 India's largest ride-hailing service Ola cabs has tied up with lenders like
State Bank of India (SBI) and Punjab National Bank(PNB) to set up mobile ATM in
the cab to help people withdraw cash easily.
Ola will first introduce the service on test basis in its cab in Kolkata and
Hyderabad where the taxis with POS machine and a bank officer will be parked at
different locations and an amount of Rs. 2,000 can be withdrawn per card.
Centrum Direct launched CentrumPay payment Solution to help Forginers from Cash
Crunch
Due to the demonetization move of the government, the foregin exchange outle
ts at the airport are facing cash shortage which in turn is causing inconvenienc
e to the foregin travelers in and out of the country.
To provide some relief to the foreign tourists, the Forex player Centrum Dir
ect has launched CentrumPay which is a unique mobile wallet which also offers a
physical card to withdraw money from any ATM or POS.
Features of CentrumPay
Foreign tourists will have an alternate channel for making payments as well
as avail legal tenders for their forex. The mobile wallet and physical card are
combined into a single digital payments solution. MasterCard will issue the card
s while yes Bank will issue the PIN issuer.
Can be used as a virtual mobile wallet for any type of Payments for onl;ine
shopping, taxis, payments at hotels , etc using the QR code or to withdraw cash
at any merchant PoS/ATMs which accept MasterCard products as per the permissible
limits.
An Indian user can load up to Rs 1 lakh a month , a foreigner can load up to
Rs 2 lakh in the walet. Since the Card is not linked to any bank account it can
be refilled through debit/credit cards or online banking facility of the custom
er any number of times for a period of five years.
Centrum Direct will charge a flat Rs 150 for a card from both foreigners as
well as domestic customers.
Economy likely to grow at 7.6 per cent in 2016-17: NCAER
Economic think-tank NCAER has pegged India's GDP growth at 7.6% for 2016-17,
following a pick-up in rural demand and "positive signals" on the manufacturing
front.
The manufacturing sector is giving positive signals with Purchasers' Manager
s Index, Index of Industrial Production for core sectors.
According to NCAER, the anticipated improvement in the agricultural sector a
nd the associated increase in rural demand will give an upward push to economic
growth.
The Monetary Policy Committee has also forcasted a 7.6% growth.
USAID and RBL Bank Announce $75 million in Loan Guarantee for clean energy
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Mumbai-based RBL B
ank announced new loan portfolio guarantee that will facilitate up to $75 milli
on for lending to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in off-grid, sol
ar rooftops, and energy efficiency sectors.
This guarantee, the first of its kind between USAID and an indian private se
ctor bank, will support innovative solutions and business models to improve acce
ss to clean energy sources for electricity.
India needs more than USD 100 billion in energy investment per year untill 2
040 to meet its need for electricity.
India's gross-value added growth to hit 7.6% this yr:DBS
 India's gross-value increased growth is expected to quicken to 7.6% this yea
r from 7.2% in 2015-16, driven by sustained support from public capex spending w
as reported by DBS.
According to the global financial services major, while private sector activ
ity remains depressed, high frequency fiscal numbers point to sustained support
from public capex spending.
The upcoming seasona; festival boost should provide some relief, followed by
better consumption on wage increases and a normal monsoon.
YES BANK launches YES MOBILE 2.0
YES BANK, Country's 5th largest private sector lender has launched its "YES
MOBILE 2.0" mobile Banking app with multiple industry first features, and extens
ive support for Banking transactions on Apple and Anroid based Smart Watches.
Some of the industry first features of the app are: One touch comprehensive
bill payment, Register Quries/Complaints in a hands-free manner using advances S
peech to text capabilities and bill payment from Wearsbles including Apple Watch
and Andriod Smart Watches.
Earthport receives RBI nod for Outbound Cross Border Payments
Reserve Bank of India has given an approval to british payments company Eart
hport for outbound cross-border payment services to banks in India.
The company is already into faciliting the inbound payments into the counytr
y.
India is amongst the fastest growing economics in the world and plays a very
important role in the cross border payments ecosystem globally
Five more banks join the Unified payments Interface (UPI)
Five new banks have joined the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) bandwagon, T
hereby tasking the total number of banks using UPI to 26.
It include public sector lenders, State Bank of India, Allahadabad Bank and
Bank of Baroda and made available to the public through the andriod play store,
SEBI granted in-principle approval to BSE for global exchange.
BES aimed to operationalise the international exchange by early next year. M
ock trading for the same commenced from October 3.
The BSE board at its meeting held on May 5,2016, had approved creation of tw
o fully-owned subsidiary companies for the purpose of setting up the first inter
national exchang corporations.
BSE revised transaction charges for currency derivatives.
Top stock exchange Bombay Stock Exchange(BSE) has decided to impose transact
ion charge in a phase manner from this month on trades done in currency futures
and options contracts.
The exchange has increased the transaction charge to Rs.12 per Rs.1 crore of
return on both active and passive trades done on its currency future contracts.
Earlier, Rs.10 per crore transaction fee was imposed on such contracts.
BSE had launched its currency derivatives platform in November 2013 and did
not impose any transaction charges for trades done on this segment for almost a
year. However, since December 2014 it began charging for currency derivatives.
State Bank of India cuts home loan interest rates to lowest
State Bank of India has slashed its home loan rate to a six-year low to 9.10
%
Under this scheme woman brrowers will be able to get home loans at 9.10% whi
le other borrowers will be able to get loans at 9.15%.
These rates will be applicable top loans up to Rs 75 lakh with effective fro
m 1st November. There will be a reduction in intrest rate by 0.15% on Home Loan
of Rs 50 lakh.
ICICI Bank launches overdraft facility for salaried home loan borrowers
ICICI Bank has launched home l;oan overdraft facility for salaried customers
againest their home loans.
Under the 'ICICI Bank Home Overdraft' scheme a salaried customer can avail l
oans from Rs 5 lakh to Rs. 1 crore for personal needs againest his/her property.
The minimum and maximum loan over the Home Overdraft facility is Rs.5 lakh a
nd Rs. 1 crore, respectively.
ATM Manufacture NCR bags largest ATM order from SBI for over 7,000 machines
US-based ATM manufacturer NCR Corporation has bagged the signal largest orde
r from SBI to install over 7,000 cash-vending machines said Deputy Managing Dire
ctor and Chief Information Officer MrutyunjayMahapatra
It is the Signal largest ATM order in the country and it will worth Rs 334 c
ror
It has to be executed over the next seven years, and it will deploy 7,070 ca
sh-vending machines, software solutions and provide services support.
Banks to report frauds of Rs 1 crore and above to CVC
with high level fradus involving industrialists such as Vijay Mallya loan de
fault case revealed, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has now made it comp
ulsory for the public sector banks to report to it all such matters involving fu
nds over RS.1 crore.
Vigilance Commissioner TM Bhasin announced that CVC has now made it mandator
y for the public sector banks to share their reports relating to all oan fradus
involving funds over Rs.1 crore. Till no this report was shared with the RBI onl
y.
The banks will also now have to report the procedure of all the alleged frad
us to the CVC which will share these details with other banks to prevent such ca
ses being repeated.
HCC became first firm to get debt recast under RBI's S4A Scheme
Construction major HCC's Rs.5,000-crore debet recast has become the first ca
se to get approval from a high-level panel organize under Reserve Bank of India'
s new Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A).
The RBI-mandated Overseeing Committee(OC) under the S4A has accepted HCC's R
s.5,000-crore debt recast passed by an ICICI Bank-led joint lender forum in Sept
ember 2016.
52% of the debt (nearly Rs.2,600 crore) was found to be sustainable and can
be serviced as per original terms and conditions, including about interest rate
and tenure.
LIC retained its most attractive BFSI brands status
Life Insurance Corp., has been the country's most attractive brand in the ba
nking and financial services segment fro the third year.
Another public sector entity, the State Bank of India, saw an improvementof
17 ranks to 48th rank in itys overall attractivenes ranking. HDFC got the Third
Position in the BFSI category, and made it to the top 50 Most Attractive Brands
list at 49th rank.
The private sector bank, ICICI Bank that made it to the top 10 list include
Axis Bank (All india rank of 147), Yes Bank (All India Rank of 152), and Kotak M
ahindra Bank(All India rank of 267).
LG has taken the national crown of India's Most Atrractive Brand in this 201
6 study. The South Korea-based Consumer Electronics giant has taken the 1st rank
, moving up from 2nd place last year.
UCO Bank to raise Rs 271 crore equity from LIC
UCO Bank told that it would raise Rs.271 crore from Life Insurance Corporati
on of India in preferential allotment of equal shares at Rs.37.74 apiece.
UCO Bank is one of the maany money lender which are placing shares with LIC
on preferential basis to carry government stake and raise public stocks.
The special of 7.17 equal shares would raise LIC's stake in UCO Bank to 14.5
% from 10.38% at present, the bank told in a notice to National Stock Exchange
Axis Bank launched a new credit card for online shoppers.
India's third largest private sector bank Axis Bank has announced its partne
rship with Flipkart to launch 'Axis Bank Buzz Credit Card'.
The Buzz credit card is a contactless payment solution that offers various b
enifits to enhance customers' online shopping experience, while they enjoy the b
est discounts and offers.
Axis Bank Buzz Credit Card powered by Flipcart is specifically designed to p
rovide to the significantly growing and popular online shopping segment in India
.
Standard Charteres Bank launched 'Unified Payments Interface'(UPI) Solution
Standard Chartered Bank launched 'Unified Payments Interface'(UPI) Solution
on 8th November 2016 for its corporate and financial intitutional and commercial
banking customers.
This UPI solution will enable clients to send and receive money through a Vi
rtual Payment address Without entering additional bank account details.
UPI enables real time 'Push and Pull' of funds, making the payment process e
asier for end customers. Installing UPI app the clients can send request for col
lection and payment of funds.
Standard Chartered is a U.K based banking and financial services company he
adquartered at London.
City Union Bank unveils artificial intelligence powered robot-Lakshmi
Kumbakonam based City Union Bank has introduced a robot on pilot basis to i
mprove customer service. The robot is named CUB-LAKSHMI. The robot has been intr
oduced in Thyagaraya Nagar Branch of Chennai.
Lakshmi designed and developed by a French Company, has been programmed to a
nswer about 120 general banking questions/ query in English language. However in
near future it will be programmed to speak in Tamil and Malayalam languages als
o.
A single robot cost around Rs 7-8 Lakhs and can perform work of 3-4 persons.
The bank has a plan to deploy 25 robots by the end of the year 2016, if the tra
il run succeeds.
Ujjivan Small Finance Bank Limited Issued Licency By RBI
Ujjivan Small Finance Bank Limited, subsidiary of the Company, Ujjivan Finan
cial Services Ltd has been issued licence (the licence no. MUM 122) from the Res
erve Bank Of India (RBI) on November 11, 2016 to set up Small Finance Bank busin
ess in
However, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank LImited also requires getting necessary
approvals, registrations and licensing from various departments of the RBI and
other agencies before starting the banking business.
 Once the required approvals are granted, the Ujjivan Small Finance Bank Limi
ted will commence its operations of a Small Finance Bank.
First small finance bank Kicked off its operation
India's first small finance bank Capital Small Finance Bank Ltd, has commenc
ed operations with 10 branches from November 12 2016 in Jalandhar , Punjab. The
bank ceases t exist with effect Apirl 24, 2016.
In the current fiscal, The bank would consolidate in Punjab by adding 29 bra
nches.
The bank's business is projected to incrtease four-fold from Rs 3,000 crore
as on March 31, 2016 to Rs 12,000 crore and branch network to 216 by March 2021.
Federal Bank to open its first overseas branch in Dubai
Federal Bank has received Reserve Bank if India (RBI)'s permission to open i
ts first international branch at the Dubai International Financial Center, Dubai
.
The propoaed branch at Dubai will help the Bank serve its Non-Resident clien
tele better.
Federal Bank has an IFSC Banking Unit (IBU) in Gujarat International Finance
Tec-City (Gift City). This bank has totally 1,252 branches and 1,524 ATMs in In
dia.
IMF approves largest-ever loan for a Middle East nation
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a 3 year loan program of
$12 billion for Egypt, Which is the largest such package in the record of Middle
East nation.
The loan will help Egypt to restore investor's confidence and help revive th
e African nation's economy by boosting Egypt's foregin currency inflows, which d
eclined since the 2011 Arab Spring uprising.
Egypt will receive an immediate disbursement of $2.75 billion , IMF said.
SBI rolls out new Rs 500 notes in Bhopal
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took major step and announced demonetisation of
Rs.500 and 1,000 currency notes with effect from midnight to curb black money o
n November 8, 2016. From November 10th onwords mostly all banks started to issue
only Rs.2000 notes
A new Rs 500 notes was rolled out first by started distribution of Rs 500 no
tes.
The new 500-note is expected to ease pressure on banks' cash position and im
prove liquidityin the market. Hoverever, 500 and 2,000 rupee notes dispensed thr
ough ATMs will be possible after recalibration of such machines as these are of
different sizes.
Masterpass QR Payment Solutions launched by Mastercard
Global payments & technology company Mastercard launched Masterpass QR in In
dia on November 16, 2016.
Masterpass QR is a quick response (QR) mobile payments solution to help mobi
le banking users to safely pay for face-to-face purchases using their smartphone
s or feature phones without the nees to carry Cash or Card.
Mastercard has also tied up with Ratnakar Bank (RBL Bank) that will integrat
e the Masterpass QR service with its mobile platform- the OnGo digital wallet.
Yes Bank partners with Crownit for digital meal vouchers
Maharastra based Yes Bank has partnered with Crownit, amerchant discovery an
d privileges platform to launch a digitised meal vouchers.
It is the app based digital meal wallet and it can be linked with a Meal Deb
it MasterCard to enables employees to avail unlimited food, beverage & grocery r
edemption options, both online and offline.
For employees, the solution promises ease of access and use, along with tax
savings ranging up to INR 10,000 per employee per year
Oxigen Partners Federal Bank for Cash Management Services
Federal Bank has tied up with Oxigen to expand the bank's e-collection facil
ity to the about 3 lakh-retail outlets of Oxigen.
The agreement was exchanged between Chief Operating Officer, Federal Bank, S
halini Warrier, and Promod Saxena, Founder and Chairman of Oxigen, in the New De
lhi on November 17,2016.
'smile campaign' organised by bank of baroda
Karnataka, Andhrapradesh and Telangana (KAT) Zone of Bank of Baroda (BoB) or
ganised an online Light up a Smile Campaign at the SOS Children Village at Benga
luru to bring smiles on the faces of more than 150 children residing in the vil
lage.
Bank staff along with their family members and General Manager - Kakkera Ven
kateswarlu spent and shared time, effort, skills, and household articals along w
ith food items to help the children and their mothers in the vilage.
Bank of Baroda KAT Zone Celebrated this day as the Festival of Philanthrophy
with the theme of 'Joy of giving' and ' Light up a smile'
Canara Bank introduced Mobile ATM's
Canara Bank has introduced Mobile ATM to lower the burden of the people due
to the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes.
Due to the Storage of the cash at the bank counters and ATMs within minutes,
Canara Bank has introduced the mobile ATM that will provide monetary help at do
orstep.
The mobile ATM van has started its services at Kolar district and in bangalo
re rural district.
The Bank has planned to add few more vans by next week to cover wider geogra
phies in the state where there are no ATMs.
Delhi displaces Mumbai as India's economic capital, claims Oxford Economics repo
rt
As per the latest data released by Oxford Economics, Delhi has dislodged Mum
bai as the economic capital of India.
The data revealed that Mumbai ranks 31st among 50 top metropolitan economic
entities in 2015 wheres Delhi has moved up to grab the 30th rank in the global r
anking.
Mumbai Extended Urban Agglomeration (EUA), which includes Mumbai, Navi Mumba
i, Thane, Vasai-Virar, Bhiwandi and Panvel, had a GDP of USD $368 (approx Rs 2.5
1 lakh crore).
While the Delhi EUA, which includes Delhi NCR, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Nodia and
Ghaziabad, had a GDP at ppp of USD $370 (approx Rs 2.53 lakh crore)
RBL Bank ties up with Bajaj finance for co-branded credit cards
Maharastra based RBL Bank has tied up with non banking finance company Bajaj
Finance to launch a series of Co-branded credit cards for Indian customers
The credit cards are expected to launch in the fourth qurater of FY17. It wi
ll be available to both existing and New customers of the NBFC.
The co-branded cards are targeted at the large segment of people in metros a
nd non-metros who has no credit cards.
Utkarsh Micro Finance gets final nod to set up small finance Bank
After Ujjivan Small Finance Bank got final license from RBI for its set up i
n November, Utkarsh Micro Finance has also received final license from RBI to st
art operations as Small Finance Bank (SFB)
It is one of the 10 entities that got in-principle approval to set up small
finance bank in september last year.
HSBC rolls out UPI solution for corporates in India
HSBC has rolled out 'Unified Payments Interface' (UPI) solution for corporat
es in India. This UPI offering will provide improved collection solution to corp
orates, enabling them to drive sales through increased digitization of flows.
Corporates adopting HSBC's UPI offering can expect to reduce the incidence o
f paper and extent of cash and provide their customers with an ability to affect
payments through a mobile phone anywhere. Collection cycles are expected to be
faster.
BoFA lowers GDP forecast to 7.1% for FY 2017
Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA) has lowered India's economic growth est
imates by 30 basis points to 7.1 per cent for the current fiscal after the demo
netisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
Besides, the global financial services major has lowered its GDP number by 3
0 bps to 7.3 RPT 7.3 per cent for the next fiscal (2017-18)
Earlier, BofA had estimated GDP growth at 7.4 per cent for 2016-17 and 7.6
per cent for 2017-18
ICICI Bank to convert 100 villages into digital in 100 days
Mumbai based ICICI Bank announced to transform 100 Villages into 'ICICI Digi
tal Villages' in 100 days to enable villages will be able to open go in cash le
ss banking and payments transactions.
People from 100 villages will be able to open bank accounts using Aadhra-bas
ed e-KYC and make cashless payments to retail stores through a unique SMS/USSD-b
ased mobbile solutiuon.
According to plan, ICICI bank will proviode Vocational training to 10,000 vi
llagerts in first 100 days and ofer them credit linkages so that the villagers
can start their own business ventures
Morgan Stanley l;owers India's groeth forecast by 40 bps to 7.3% for FY'17
American Morgan Stanley has lowered its growth forecast for FY'17 to 7.3% fr
om 7.7% earlier on currency rep[lacement programme.
As global growth accelerates to 3.4% in 2017 from 3.4% in 2017 from 3% in 20
16, morgan Stanely expect India's exports to support recovery in 2017 after bein
g a drag in 2016.
2018 will be first year of recovery in private capacity expansion after six
year of a weak trend.
Public Sector Bank's Gross NPAs increased nearly Rs 80,000 crore in july-septemb
er 2016
Public banks have seen an increase of almost Rs. 80,000 crore in gross non
-performing assets(NPAs) in the thrtee months ended September 2016.
On september 30, gross NPAs of public sector banks increased to Rs.6,30,323
crore against Rs.5,50,346 crore by June end.
This works out to an increase of Rs.79,977 crore on quarter on quarter basis
.
Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar listed measures like ena
ctment of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) and amendment the Securitisat
ion and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Insert Ac
t (SARFAESI) and the Recovery of Debet Due to Banks and Financial Instructions (
RDDBFI) Act aimed at improving resolutiuon or recovery of bank loans.
During the first quarter ended June 2016, public sector banks have written o
ff Rs 15,163 crore loans as against Rs 5,441 crore.
In the last financial, public sector banks had written off Rs 59,547 crore w
hile private peers Rs 12,017 crore.
Mahindra Group, IBM to develop blockchain solution for supply chain finance
The Mahidra Group and IBM joined together to develop blockchain solution. It
is the first projects of its kind in India outside of banking industruy
The blockchain solution is cloud-based application which is designed to tran
sform supplier-to-manufacturer trade finance transactions through a permissioned
distributed ledger.
This solution will enable all parties involved in the transaction to act on
the same shared ledger, wioth each party updating only their part of the process
, ensuring efficiency, consistency, trust and transparency, while safeguarding s
ensitive information.
Coal India arm signs pact with SBI Capital markets
Central Mine Planning and design Institute Ltd (CMPDI) the consultancy arm o
f Coal India Ltd has signed a memorandum of Understanding(MoU) with Mumbai based
SBI Capital Markets to increase their market share in the rapidly growing cons
ultancy area.
The agreement was signed by Sashi Kant, General Manager, Business developmen
t, CMPDI and SBI Capital Markets to increase their market share in the rapidly g
rowing consultancy area.
The agreement was signed by Sashi Kant, General Manager, Business developmen
t, CMPDI and Supriyo Gupta Vice-president SBI Capital Markets Ltd on November 30
,2016
The MoU covers areas like providing help for due diligence for the overseas
coal and mineral properties for clients, advising bidders in mineral sector and
also advising governments for managing mineral sector.
Siby Sebastian Appointed As CEO of SBM Bank (Mauritius), India
State Bank of Mauritius (SBM) Group was appointed Siby Sebastian as Chief Ex
ecutive for its 4 branches operations in India on November 20, 2016.
Sebastian has over 20 years of banking experience and has joined SBM Group f
rom ICICI Bank.
Equitas SFB ropes in R Ashwin as brand ambassador
Tamil Nadu based private sector bank Equitas Small Finance Bank has roped in
Indian off-spinner RavichandranAshwin as its brand ambassador for its products
and services through advertising campaigns and other promotional programmes.
This was announced by PN Vasudevan, MD at Equitas Small Finance Bank.

SBI offered Hope Loans at reduced interest rates

Hope loans comes with the added benefit of reduced interest rates that SBI h
as just announced due to the reduction in the marginal cost of lending rate (MCL
R).
On an Rs.50lakh home loan, for example, one would get to save approximately
3.5lakh for a 30 year tenor compared t the same period last year..
With the reduction in MCLR,the effective interest rate for home loans would
be 9.25 per
With the reduction in MCLR, the effective interest rate for home loans would
be 9.25 per cent for women and 9.30 per cent for men and for auto loans, it wou
ld be 9.65 per cent respectively.
Black money worth Rs.65, 25 crore disclosed under Income Declaration Scheme : Ar
un Jaitley
Finance minister ArunJaitley announced that the government would earn an est
imated Rs.30,000 crore after thousands of Indians revealed previously undeclared
money under a one-time opportunity to clean up their accounts.
Union Finance ArunJaitely announced that the Central Board of Direct Taxes (
CBDT) had received total disclosure of Rs.65, 250 crore under the Income Disclos
ure Scheme, 2016 in the form of cash and other assets.
Kotak Mahindra Bank acquires BSS Microfinance
Kotak Mahindra Bank has acquired Karnataka-focused BSS Microfinance for Rs.1
39.2 crore.
This acquisition will allow Kotak to tap the lower end of he customer base a
nd will also help the bank in meeting the priority sector lending (PSL) targets.
BSS Microfinance in a non-banking financial company, classified as an NBFC-M
FI.
Total turnover of BSS Microfinance in 2015-16 was Rs.49.5 crore
RBI Governor Urijit Patel cuts interest rates, bats for growth in first monetary
policy
In order to ease the inflation, the Reserve Bank of India cut policy rate (repo
rate) by 25 basis points to 6025% from 6.5%
Bank Rate Reduction:
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) all members of policy decided for 25 basis p
oint rate cut.
This was the fourth bi-monthly monetary policy of the RBI. It was first mone
tary policy statement after Urijit Patel took over as governor on September 04,
2016.
On the basis of an assessment of the current and evolving macroeconomic situ
ation MPC decided to reduce the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment
facility (LAF) by 25 basis points from 6.5% to 6.25% with immediate effect.
A lower repo rate- - - the rate at which banks borrow from RBI-would mean ho
useholds may expect cheaper bank loans to buy houses and good such as cars, whic
h peak during the festival shopping season in October and November.
The BSE Sensex rose 85 points to 28,328 mirroring the stock markets heightene
d expectations about lower rates.
Indian s economy grew 1% during April to June, the slowest in 6 quarters, but
the RBI and the MPC expect a revival in the coming months boosted by good rains,
a pay bonanza for government employees and festive season buying.
The RBI retained its earlier growth projection of 7.6 percent for 2016-17.
IMF revised India s economic growth upwards to 7.6% for fy17 and 18
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised projections for India s economic
growth by 0.2 percentage points to 7.6 percent for 2016-17 and 2017-18.
The projection came in at a time when the fund said global economic growth w
ould be subdued this year, following a slowdown in the US and Britain s vote to ex
it the European Union. The projection came at a time when it retained global eco
nomic growth at 3.1 per cent for 2016 and 3.4 per cent for 2017.
In its World Economic Outlook, IMF also kept gross domestic product (GDP) ex
pansion for China unchanged at 6.6 per cent in 2016 which would decelerate to 6.
2 per cent in 2017.
India would keep its position of fastest growing economy that it snatched fr
om China in 2015-16.
SBI becomes first domestic bank to open branch in Yogan
SBI has announced its entry into Myanmar by opening a branch in the Yangon,
former capital city of Myanmar.
The Yangon branch is the 54th foreign branch of the SBI. This branch extends
the global presence of SBI in 37 countries through 198 offices.
Ghanshyam Srivastava has been appointed as the chief executive of SBI Yangon
branch
World Bank India s GDP Growth Would Be 7.6% This Year, 7.7% in 2017
Describing South Asia as a global hotspot, the World Bank announced India GD
P growth would remain strong at 7.6 percent in 2016 and 7.7 percent in 2017.
India s economic growth is expected to be at 7.6% in 2016-17, followed by a mo
dest acceleration to 7.7% in 2017-18 was released by World Bank in its India Dev
elopment Update-Financing Double Digit Growth report, which is published twice a
year.
RBI panel moots easing bank branch norms
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the Report of the Internal Working
Group (IWG) on Rationalization of Branch Authorization Policy. The Group is chai
red by Lily Vadera, Chief General Manager, Department of Banking Regulation.
Recommendations of the Internal Working Group (IWG)
In the first phase, the recommendations focus on broadening of the current f
ramework to include all banking outlets which are fixed point locations and brin
g them on par with branches.
A banking outlet is defined as a fixed point service are provided for minimu
m 4 hours per day for at least five days a week.
Banks need to open banking outlets to meet the 25 percent norms of opening b
anking outlets in unbanked rural centers that does not have a CBS-enabled bankin
g outlet a Scheduled Commercial Bank.
Finance Ministry set up debt management cell
Union Finance Ministry constituted a public Debt Management Cell (PDMC). The
cell was created to streamline government borrowings and better and management
with the overall objective of deepening bond markets.
The cell which would function from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) premises
here would be Management Agency (PDMA)
MasterCard launches its selfie pay biometric authentication app in Europe
Financial services company MasterCard rolled out Selfie Pay app in Europe. T
his app will use facial biometrics for payment authentication.
It will supports both selfies and fingerprint biometrics, offering users a c
hoice of authenticating a mobile payment at the point of purchase.
RBI issued guidelines for small and payments banks
 The Reserve Bank of India issued separate operating guidelines for payments
banks and small finance banks in view of their differentiated nature of business
and focus on financial inclusion. The RBI had granted in-principle approvals to
11 payments banks (August 2015) and 10 small finance bank (September 2015).
As per the guidelines, PBs could accept deposit only up to Rs.1lakh. Small F
inance Banks would have to follow norms relating to minimum balance, inoperative
accounts, nominations and cheques/ drafts.
PBs would have to maintain a minimum investment to the extent of not less th
an 75 percent of demand deposit balance as on three working days prior to that day
, in Government securities/Treasury Bills with maturity up to one year that were
recognized by RBI as eligible securities for maintenance of Statutory Liquidity
Ratio (SLR).
Adoption of GST tax would boost India s medium-term growth: IMF
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had asserted that adoption of GST (Goo
ds and Services) tax would boost India s medium-term growth.
India s strong reform push in 2016 was welcome and should continue quickly. Ad
option of the goods and services tax is self-contained to boost India s medium-ter
m growth was announced by the IMF in its latest Asia Pacific regional economic u
pdate.
India s GDP growth is projected at 7.6 percent in both 2016/17 fiscal year (en
ding in March 2017) and 2017/18 fiscal year, up 0.1 percentage point relative to
the April 2016 World Economic outlook, a survey conducted and published by the
IMF.
SEBI propose ban on training tips through SMS, Social media
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has proposed a ban on unau
thorized trading tips through social media platforms like SMS, Whatsapp and Face
book
SEBI also proposed to curb unsolicited investment advice through the electro
nic and broadcasting media platforms and a detailed advertisement code for those
providing such advice.
Government issued more draft norms under bankruptcy code
The Government came out with another set of draft rules, including for liqui
dation of insolvent corporate persons, under the Insolvency and bankruptcy code.
As part of implementing the code, the government had already constituted the
Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) while the draft norms would be
finalized after taking into consideration views of the stakeholders.
The centre had notified six draft regulations under the code prepared by a w
orking group of experts. As part of the process for implementing the Insolvency
and Bankruptcy Code, the ministry had set up a working group of practitioners an
d experts.
The draft rules for insolvency process outline the duties of the resolution
professional during the resolution process. The board would have 10 members. Apa
rt from the chairman, currently there are four government nominated members and t
he rest are expected to be appointed in coming months.
ICICI Bank Executes India s First Transaction on Block chain
ICICI Bank has successfully executed transactions in international trade finance
and remittances using block chain technology in partnership with Emirates NBD.
About the Tie-up,
ICICI Bank is the first bank in the country and among the first few globally to
exchange and authenticate remittance transaction messages as well a s original i
nternational trade documents related to purchase order, invoice, shipping and in
surance, among others, electronically on block chain I real time.
ICICI Bank executed these pilot transactions via its block chain network wit
h Emirates NBD on a custom-made block chain application, co-created with Edge Ve
rve Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Infosys.
The pilot transaction was executed to showcase confirmation of import of shr
edded steel melting scrap by a Mumbai-based export-import firm from a Dubai-base
d supplier.
Bank of Maharashtra Renews Tie-Up with United India Insurance
Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) has renewed its corporate agency tie-up with Unite
d India Insurance Company (UIIC)
Customers can buy the entire gamut of UIIC products at any of the 1,896 bran
ches of the bank across the country.
They can buy insurance products related to motor, fire, marine, overseas tra
vel policy and personal accident from the bank s branches.
Standard Chartered Bank forms tie-up with Uber
Foreign lender Standard Chartered Bank announced a tie-up with Uber under wh
ich its credit cardholders, across six countries, will get a cash-back of up to
25 per cent for hailing cabs from the app.
This is the first multi market partnership for the two companies. The partne
rship also activated in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.
SEBI banned 21 entities in tax evasion case
Securities and Exchange Board of India, SEBI has banned 21 entities in a cas
e related to tax evasion and illegal gains through misuse of stock exchange mech
anism.
Sebi in an interim order dated June 1 had barred Dhyana finstock and 75 othe
r entities, volume and price of the scrip to provide illegitimate gains to prefe
rential allottees.
The end purpose is to claim long-term capital gains (LTCG) benefits. Sebi ha
s prima facie found that the entities acted in concert for implantation of the d
ubious plan, device and artifice that has led to the misuse of stock exchange me
chanism.
In a first, Bank deposits cross Rs 100 lakh crore
According to a data released by the RBI shows that India banking system repo
rted total deposits of Rs 100 lakh crore for the first time ever in September
Demand deposits crossing Rs10 Lakh crore and time deposits crossing the Rs 9
0 lakh crore mark, the month saw the highest-ever monthly rise of Rs 5.32 lakh c
rore more than the total deposits in the banking sector 20 years back.
USAID launches scheme to drive cashless payments in India
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) announced the launch of
a new initiative Catalyst: Inclusive Cashless Payment Partnership.
The multi-stakeholder partnership is designed to scale up digital payments s
ystems in India which will act as a catalyst in the increase of cashless payment
s in select locations.
These locations will be selected based on criteria such as smart phone penet
ration, the local economy and administrative feasibility.
RBI launches survey to seek information on order books in manufacturing companie
s
 RBI has launched the survey to seek quantitative information on order books,
inventories and capacity utilization of companies in the manufacturing sector,
a key input for monetary policy formulation.
The survey seeks quantitative information on order books, inventories and ca
pacity utilization, such as pending order books, backlog order books, total inve
ntories, finished goods inventories, work in progress inventories and installed
capacity from companies in the manufacturing activities.
The information on installed capacity, quantity produced, value of productio
n, etc, is used for calculating utilization at industry as well as national leve
l.
IRDAI Slaps Rs 6 Lakh Penalty On Shriram Life Insurance
Regulator IRDAI has imposed a penalty of Rs 6 lakh on Shriram Life Insurance
for casual approach towards certain norms, among other violations.
The company was charged a penalty of Rs 5 lakh, the insurer had covered the
loan term of less than three years and provided flat cover of Rs 5,000 for the b
alance period.
A penalty of Rs 1 lakh for the group claims paid date for the financial year
s 2011-12 and 2012-13 revealed that death claims were settled in favour of Group
Master Policyholder.
3.2 million debit cards of SBI, HDFC, YES Bank & Axis Bank compromised
Banks in India will either replace or ask users to change the security codes
of as many as 3.2 million debit cards because several victims have reported una
uthorized usage from locations in China.
Out of 3.2 million cards, 2.6 million cards are on the Visa and Master-Card
platform and 6, 00,000 on the Rupay platform.
The worst-hit of the card-issuing banks are State Bank of India, HDFC Bank,
ICICI Bank, YES Bank and Axis Bank.
Jorhat, which will cater to the banking needs of the people of Mizoram, Trip
ura and Manipur along with the Barak valley.
World Bank to loan $2billion to Bangladesh to fight climate change
World Bank president Jim Yong Kim announced USD 2 billion loans for Banglade
sh to help Bangladesh to fight climate change.
The USD 2 billion for climate change is in addition to USD 1 billion pledged
by World Bank to killed by cyclones in recent years.
RBI relaxes norms for foreign investment in startups
The RBI relaxed foreign investment norms in financial services firms, startups a
nd in investments y foreign regulated capital investors. Foreign Capital Investo
rs (FVCIs) can invest in Indian startups without prior permission of the RBI.
Sebi-registered FVCI have also been permitted to invest in unlisted firms in
sectors like biotechnology, nanotechnology and dairy without prior permission o
f the RBI. They will not require any approval form Reserve Bank and can invest in
equity or equity linked instrument or debit instrument issued by an Indian start
up irrespective of the sector in which the startup is engaged,
RBI decides to allow FDI up to 100% in other financial services
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has opened the gates for more overseas investmen
ts coming to India by a series of steps liberalizing the foreign direct investme
nt rules, even as it braces for a possible $26-billion outflows on account of FC
NR-B deposit (foreign currency nonresident-bank) maturities.
 Such FDI shall be subject to conditionalities, including minimum capitalizat
ion norms as specified by the concerned regulator or government agency.
India central bank allows banks to approve extension of offshore company s debit
The Reserve Bank of India has allowed banks to approve extension of external com
mercial borrowings on their own provided the debt is unpaid and has not defaulte
d before.
Andhra Pradesh, Singapore s MAS pact for financial services
Andhra Pradesh government signed an agreement with the Monetary Authority of Sin
gapore (MAS) to promote innovation in financial services in their markets.
About the Agreement,
Under the FinTech Cooperation Agreement, MAS and the state government joint inno
vation projects on technology such as digital payments and block-chain collabora
te on development education programmes and curricula on fintech (financial techn
ologies).
The Singapore s central bank (MAS) and the Andhra Pradesh government have also
agreed to discuss emerging FinTech trends and exchange views on regulatory issu
es related to innovations in financial services.
This agreement will pave way for greater FinTech collaboration between Singa
pore and Andhra Pradesh. We are looking to create a market place in India for Fi
nTech solutions developed in Singapore.
India inked loan pact with world bank for eastern Freight Corridor
The Union Government has signed $650 million loan agreement with the World B
ank for construction of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC)-III projec
t.
The objective of the EDFC-III Project is to augment rail transport capacity,
improve service quality and enhance freight carriage throughput on the 402 km L
udhiana-Khurja section of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor
Finance Ministry announces sixth tranche of gold bonds
The Finance Ministry announced the sixth tranche of sovereign gold-bonds. Ap
plication for the bonds will be accepted from October 24 to November 2 and the b
onds will be issued on November 17
The price of the gold bonds will be Rs.50 per gram less than the nominal val
ue and it will be sold through banks, Stock Holding Corporation of India, design
ed post offices and stock exchanges.
Minimum investment of one gram will be allowed while the maximum will be 500
gram per person per fiscal year
HDFC RAISED Rs.500 crore via masala bonds
Mortgage lender HDFC has raised Rs.500 crore through rupee-denominated bonds
from overseas investors.
With reference to the earlier letter dated October 12, 2016, informing about
the opening of the fourth issue of rupee-denominated bonds to overseas investor
s, aggregating an amount up to Rs.500 crore.
In this connection, Housing Development Finance Corporation has now informed
BSE that the corporation has closed the said issue on October 14, 2016. The issue
carries a coupon rate of 7.25 per cent per annum payable semi-annually. The bon
ds will mature on January 9,2020
NABARD sanctions Rs 19,702 cr for 50 irrigation projects
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARAD) has sanctioned
Rs 19,702crore loan to national Water Development Agency (NWDA) for 50 irrigati
on projects.
The loan is sanctioned under Long Term Irrigation Fund (LTIF), announced by
Finance Arun Jaitley during the Budget 2016-17.
This would help create additional irrigation potential of 39.14 lakh hectare
s under these projects in 11 states.
NABARD gave the first installment of Rs 1,500 crore to NWDA, which is an age
ncy of ministry of Water Resources.
ICICI, Axis , Stan Chart got back $2.5 bn of Essar loans.
About $2.5 billion were made to the three lenders as part of the first tranc
he of the repayment schedule. The $13-billion sale of Essar Oil to Russia s Rosene
ft has helped lenders including ICICI, Axis bank and Stan Chart, recover a combi
ned $2.5 billion in part payment of their exposure to the Essar Group.
The two Indian lenders Which together had an exposure of $1.5 billion will g
et nearly half of their money or about $770 million in cash.
BSE launches paperless SIP facility for mutual fund investors.
BSE has introduced a paperless SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) facility for
mutual fund (MF) investors.
It will extremely cut the registration time and also investors to invest in
small amounts periodically instead of lump sums. The frequency of investment is
usually weekly, monthly or quarterly
DIPP notifies 100% FDI in more financial services
The Department of Industrial Policy & promotion (DIPP) notified 100 per cent
foreign direct investment in other financial services carried out by Non-Banking
Finance companies (NBFCs) to attract foreign capital into India.
Other financial service will include activities which are regulated by any f
inancial sector regulator RBI, SEBI, IRDA, PFRDA, NHB or any other financial sec
tor regulator.
Such foreign investment would be subject to conditionalities, including mini
mum capitalization norms as specified by the concerned regulator or government a
gency.
HDFC ERGO ties up with Maruti Insurance Broking
HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company has entered into a tie-up with Maruti In
surance Broking Pvt Ltd (MIBL) to offer motor insurance to buyers of Maruti Suzu
ki cars.
The insurance would be offered to buyers of Maruti Suzuki cars in Pune, Sura
t and Baroda.
HDFC ERGO is present across 91 cities and the MIBL has partnered with 11 ins
urance providers to ensure stress-free service to its customers.
MMTC ties up with banks to sell Indian Gold Coin
State-run trading firm MMTC has tied up with seven banks, including ICICI an
d HDFC Bank, to sell government minted Indian Gold Coin
The coins are currently available at all MMTC outlets across India along wit
h select branches of seven banks Indian Overseas Bank, Vijaya Bank, Federal Bank
, Yes Bank, Andhra Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank.
The Indian Gold Coin is available in denominations of 5 gm and 10 gm coin an
d 20 gm bar and is available at about 383 MMTC outlets across India.
YES Bank partners with ToneTag for sound-based payments
YES Bank has tied up with ToneTag, a Mobile payment solution startup to inte
grate and deploy sound based contactless payments on its mobile wallet YES pay.
ToneTag uses sound waves to enable offline, proximity based contactless paym
ents.
This technology will allow YES Pay wallet users to make cardless and offline p
ayments at merchant outlets through their mobile phone.
ICICI Bank UK launches Money2IndiaEurope in Sweden, Norway and Denmark
The British subsidiary of ICICI Bank UK Pic announced the launch of offline
money transfer services to facilitate transaction from any bank accounts in Swed
on, Norway and Denmark to any recipient account based in India.
The service called Money2Indian Europe verifies the credentials of the custome
rs over video call from Money2India Europe website.
The Website is owned by ICICI Bank UK Pic and it eliminates the need to cour
ier the Know Your Customer (KYC) documents.
GSTN signs MoU with DGFT for sharing of foreign exchange realization data
The Goods and Services Network (GSTN) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (
MoU) with Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) for sharing of foreign exchan
ge realization and Import Export code data.
The MoU was signed by Shri Ajay K Bhalla, Director General of Foreign Trade
and Shri Prakash Kumar, CEO of GSTN.
An electronic bank realization certificate (eBRC) implemented by DGFT
RBI allows start-ups to raise $3 million through ECBs
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued rules permitting these to raise External
Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) per start-up was capped at $3 million per financial
year to support financing for start-ups.
The borrowing could be either in rupees or a convertible foreign currency or
a combination of both. The money could be used for any expenditure of the borro
wer s business.
India s forex reserves rise $1 billion to $367.14 billion
India s forex reserves rose by USD 1 billion n to USD 367.14 billion
In the reporting week, Foreign Currency Assets (FCAs), a major component of
the overall reserves, increased by USD 1.015 billion to USD 341.923 billion.
According to the apex bank, the special drawing rights with the Internationa
l Monetary Fund declined by USD 5.4 million to USD 1.463 billion, while India s re
serve position with the fund dipped by USD 8.8 million to USD 2.347 billion.
SBI cut lending rate by 0.15% and ICICI by 0.10%
The State Bank of India announced a cut of 0.15% in its benchmark lending ra
te under a new system of calculation, signaling a further implement in borrowing
costs ahead of the busy season.
Private sector lender ICICI Bank was the first to announce a cut of 0.10% in
its marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) across tenors, which was f
ollowed by a similar move by the country s largest lender SBI, but of a larger mea
sure of 0.15%
State Bank of Patiala gets special award for excellence in MSME lending
 State Bank of Patiala has been conferred Special Award for Excellence in MSME
lending for its performance in lending to the MSME sector during the year 2013-1
4 and 2014-15 at the National Award Function held at Punjab Agriculture Universi
ty (PAU), Ludhiana. Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi was the chief guest o
f this function.
S A Ramesh Rangan, Managing Director and Devendra Kumar, General Manager, St
ate Bank of Patiala received the award from Kalraj Mishra Union Minister for Mic
ro Small and Medium Enterprises.
Arundhati Bhattacharya gets year-long extension as SBI chief
Arundhati Bhattacharya has secured one year extension as the chairperson of
the State Bank of India (SBI). Her tenure was to end October 6.
She has taken over as SBI chairman on October 7, 2013, and become the first
woman to head the country s largest bank
J&K Bank appoints Parvez Ahmed as Chairman & CEO
Parvez Ahmed was appointed as Chairman and CEO of Jammu and Kashmir Bank for
period of three years on October 6, 2016.
He is the succeedor of Mustaq Ahmed who will be retired on October 5.
Rajeev Rishi elected IBA Chairman for 206-17
Rajeev Rishi was elected as the Chairman of the Indian Bank s Association (IBA
) for the financial year 2016-17 at IBA meeting held in Mumbai on October 7, 201
6.
Presently he was working as the CMD of Central Bank of India. He will replac
e Ashwani Kumar
Other Appointments:
SBI chief Arundhati Bhattacharya, ICICI Bank Managing Director & CEO Chanda Koch
har and Union Bank Chairman and Managing Director Arun Tiwari were elected Deput
y Chairpersons of IBA for the current fiscal.
RBI ED Mahalingam appointed Whole-Time Member at SEBI
Government has appointed Reserve Bank s Executive Director G Mahalingam as a W
hole-Time Member of markets regulator SEBI.
Gurumoorthy Mahalingam has been appointed as WTM for a period of five years
or till he attains the age of 65years, whichever is earlier
Bank of Baroda appoints P V Sindhu and K Srikanth as brand ambassadors
Vadodara based Bank of Baroda has roped badminton Olympians P V Sindhu and K
Srikanth as brand ambassadors of BOB for three years. It was officially announc
ed by Maynak Mehta, executive director of BOB.
They will replace cricketer Rahul Dravid who was appointed as brand ambassad
or of BOB in 2005.
Softbank names Rajeev Misra as head of S100 billion tech fund
Rajeev Misra has been appointed as head of $100 billion fund by Japanese tel
ecom Softbank Corp. Prior to this, Misra was the senior managing director and pa
rtner New York-based investment firm Fortress.
Salim Gangadharan to replace Amitabha Guha as non-executive chairman in South In
dian Bank
 Former Reserve Bank of India chief general manager Salim Gangadharan is appo
inted as the next non-executive chairman of South Indian Bank. It is effective f
rom November first week.
Gangadharan will replace Amitabha Guha will resign on November 1, 2016.
Ananthakrishna retires from Karnataka Bank
Karnataka Bank extended a warm felicitation to AnanthaKrishna, non-executive
on his retirement.
Mr. AnanthaKrishna was associated with the bank for over 45 years in various
capacities and retired on attaining the age of 70.
World Bank appoints Kristalina Georgivea as chief executive officer
The World Bank has appointed Kristalina Georgivea from Bulgaria as its chief exe
cutive officer on October 28, 2016. It will effective from January 2017. She wil
l report to the bank s president Jim Yong Kim.
She will be replacing the bank s managing director and chief operating officer
Sri Mulyani.
Ashok Chawla Took Over As Non-Executive Chairman of Yes Bank
Yes Bank, India s fifth largest private sector Bank announced the appointment
of Mr. Ashok Chawla as an Additional Director (Non Executive) with effect from M
arch 05, 2016. YES BANK has also applied to the Additional to the Reserve Bank o
f India to seek approval on this appointment.
Chawla, who has also served as Union Finance Secretary, took over after hold
ing the post by Radha Singh ended her term as the bank s director

SEPTEMBER 2016
India s economic growth recorded 7.1 % in First qurter of September Fiscal
Eventhough the finance Ministry is still optimistic of close to 8 per cent g
rowth this fiscal, the Central Statistics Office on Wednesday said the country s G
DP grew at 7.1 per cent in the first quarter.
The GDP grew at 7.1 per cent Apirl-june period of current fiscal and it had
recorded 7.5 percent growth in the Apirl-June qurter of last fiscal, while 7.9 p
ercent in January March qurter.
The gross value added at basic pries grew 7.3 percent in the first qurter, m
arginally higher than the 7.2 percent expansion a year ago.
Agriculture, mining , and construction registered weak or no growth in the f
irst qurter, offsetting the over 8 percent growth registered in manufacturing, e
lectricity generation, financial services, public administration and trade.
Canadian Province Biritish Columbia issued a Masala Bond listed in London Stock
Exchange
The Canadian Province of British Columbia becomes the first foreign governme
nt entity to issued a Masala Bond , choosing London, the global home for Masala
bonds, for its listing.
The Canadian province of British Columbia is book building for its debut iss
ue of offshore rupee bonds . Initial price guidance for the benchmark-sized offe
ring with a tenor of three years and four moths is 6.68-6.73 percent.
British Columbia s bond with a three year tenor was priced to yield 6.62 per c
ent semi-annually. The Masala bonds will be issued in 144a/Reg S formet and will
 be listed on the London Stock Exchange.
DCB bank unveiled mVisa for making payments through mobiles
DCB Bank, an emerging new-generation private sector bank, announced the laun
ch of mVisa , a mobile based payment solution that will make payments at retail
outlets much easier.
mVisa is a card-leaa solution that offers Customers the convenience of makin
g digital payments at retail outlets. Customers of any mVisa issuing bank can ma
ke digital payments at an mVisa enable retail outlets.
DCB Bank has partnered with Chennai-based digital payment companies, M2P Sol
utions and GI Technology, to implement mVisa.
Mobikwik launches one step offline payments with Bubble Pin
Mobikwik , fin-tech player has launched one-step offline payments with Bubble
pin
The pin is a combination of numbers and alphabets.Bubble pin also makes the
transaction more secure as no phone nuber is required to be shared.
This pincan be generated on the Mobikwik app by clicking on Pay at store and i
s valid for 60 seconds.
ICICI Bank announces development of Software Robotics for business process
ICICI Bank has announced the deployment of Software Robotics for business pr
ocess across various functions of the bank. The bank said that the software robo
ts have reduced the response time to customers by up to 60% and have increased a
ccuracy to 100%.
Chanda Kochhar, MD and CEO of Bank said that there will be no loss of jobs a
fter introducing the software Robotics for business process.
RBI allowed 100% FDI in Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Lts.
Reserve Bank has allowed foreign investors to buy up to 100 per cent in Crom
pton Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs)/Registered Forign Portfolios Investor
s(RFPIs) can now invest up to 100 per cent under the Portfolio Investment Scheme
(PIS).
HDFC ERGO implements crop Insurance Scheme in Assam, MP and Uttarakhand
World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and New Development Bank President K
.V.Kamath signed a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU0 to strengthen their cooperat
ion in addressing global infrastructure needs in Washington D.C on Sept. 9,2016.
This partnership paving the way for the two institutions to explore country-
level cooperation that would primarily focus on infracture.
Tata Power, ICICI Venture team up, eye power assets
Electricity generator Tata Power and ICICI Venture grouped together to take
over stressed power assets in India.
Tata Power holds a 26 per cent stake and ICICI Ventures holds 74 percent sta
ke in Resurgent Power Ventures.
Bombay Stock Exchange filed for the much-awaited IPO on NSE
BSE Ltd,India s second-biggest stock exchange filed for an initial public offering
(IPO) in order to list its shares on larger rival Natioal Stock Exchange(NSE).
BSE s IPO:-
BSE filed draft papers with markets regulator Sebi to raise an estimated Rs 1,20
0 crore to Rs 1,300 crore through initial public offering(IPO).
BSE will be the first Indian stock exchange and the second bourse in the cou
ntry to be listed In 2012, Multi Commodities Exchange (MCX) become the first bou
rse in the countrty to get listed. NSE, the largest stock exchange in India by t
urnover, is also gearing up for listing.
Freecharge partners with Axis Bank, launches UPI payment
FreeCharge partnership with Axis Bank on September 12,2016 launched Unified
Payments Interface(UPI) that allowes instant transactions from a smartphone usin
g a virtual payment address(VPA)
The Partnership allows Freecharge Users to pay for transactions from their b
ank accounts and they don t have Axis Bank account.
CBDT launches e-nivaran to resolve Income Tax grievance
E-nivaran(electronic resolution) for online redressal of taxpayers grievances
launched by CBDT(Central Board of Direct Taxs)
Taxpayers can register complaints related to delay in refunds, filling of e-
returns, Tax Deducated at Source(TDS),PAN issues, and those pertaining to their
Assessing Officer(AO).
Is s Link has recently been activated on the e-filing portal of the department
-http://incomtaxindiaefiling.gov.in-where taxpayers can register their complaint
s through their Pc and receive a special PIN number on their registered mobile a
nd email, as their unique number to keep track of the issue.
India among top prospective markets for global luxury brands
India is among the 10 richest countries in the world with total individual w
ealth of USD 5,600 billion India is among the top prospective markets for luxury
brands worldwide, with the country expected to see over two-fold growth in this
segment in the next 10 years.
According to the study by New World Wealth, India , along with Sri Lanka, Vi
etnam, Mauritius and China, offered strong opportunity for growth in luxury and
wealth management space.
These markets were not yet fully developed and still offer strong opportunit
ies for growth, especially in the luxury and wealth management space.
Large number of entrepreneurs, good educational system and a large English s
peaking population was a big positive for the growth of the luxury segment, addi
ng that the 10-year growth forecast stands at 120 percent.
Axis Bank, BHU team up for banking courses
Private sector Bank, Axis has tied up with Banaras Hindu University (BHU) to
offer specialized banking courses.
The bank along with the Faculty of Commerce at BHU will develop the design a
nd curriculum of specialized banking courses.
SBI , PNB, Paytm to issue e-toll tags for vehicles
The National Highways Authority (NHAI) reported that the government had expa
nded the number of lenders and wallets, who could issue the electronic tags for
vehicle
The motive behing such move was to increase the number of automatic pass-th
roughs at toll plazas to 50 percent in two years
India s foreign exchange reserves up at $371 bn
 The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) announced India s foreign exchange reserves wen
t up to $371.27 billion as on September 9.
According to data released by the RBI, the reserves stood at $367.76 billion
as on sep 2.
Tata AIG, Paytm to ofer health insurance to cab drivers
Tata AIG General Insurance Company Limited had joined hands with mobile paym
ents company paytm to provide health insurance to cab and auto drivers.
Tata AIG General Insurance had designed cashless insurance scheme, as requir
ed by paytm, to provide drivers, quality medical care as per their need and budg
et.
The new health insurance scheme would cover hospital expenses upto Rs 50,000
Federal Bank launches Federal Skill Academy at Coimbatore
Federal Bank, Kochi-based private Sector Bank has launched its Second Federa
l Skill first one being inaugurated last year at Ernakulam.
Students of 18-25 years age, who have passed Plus 2/ITI/Polytechnic/Degree o
r Engineering dropout students and whose annual family income does not exceed R
s.2 lakh per annum, are eligible to apply for the course.
IDFC issues commercial papers of Rs 700 crore.
Infrastructure Development Finance Company(IDFC) Limited has issued commerci
al Papers of Rs.700 crore.
The company issued Commercial Papers for an aggregate amount of Rs 700 crore
on September 12, 2016 having maturity date of September 29, 2016.
BSE ties up with Twitter to feed investors with better updates
BSE Sensex collaborate with Twitter to provide live updates of S&P to its in
vestors
It is the first collaboration in Asia between a stock exchange and a social
networking site.
For this Twitter has activated four new features. They are
Hourly tweets,
Autoresponder tweets for Sensex 30 stock prices,
Auto direct messages for opening and closing figures of Sensex 30,
Live display photo that will change every two minutes to project the Sensex
figure.
India s rating upgrade in 2 years if reforms tangible: Moody s
Moody s reported that the reform process was slow and gradual with muted priva
te inverstment and NPAs posing a challenge and announced that it could upgrade I
ndia s rating in 1-2 years if it was convinced that reforms were tangible.
Moody s , which has a Baa3 rating with a positive outlook, reported evidence of
policymakers working towards a faster fiscal consolidation, reducing the debt-GD
P ratio and addressing infrastructure and monsoon volatility challenges would de
termine an upgrade.
Moody s Sovereign Group Senior V-P Marie Diron reported that it had a positive
outlook on India. On balance, the risk was on the upside.
Monitoring the rating. The pressure building up in 1-2 years and any tangibl
e change could bring about a change in rating. Moody s listed six agenda on the li
st of pending reforms- land acquisition bill, labour law reforms, significant in
frastructure investment , tangible benefit from Make in India initiative , Tax a
dministration and PSU bank reforms.
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance IPO opens
Incorporated in 2001 as a joint venture between ICICI Bank Limited and Prude
ntial Corporation Holdings Limited, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd
is a Mumbai based largest private sector life insurer in India.
ICICI Bank pwns 68 percent of the company and decided to sell 12.65% stake t
hough this IPO. At the upper end of the price band, IPO would raise over Rs 6000
cr. Britain s Prudential PLC, Which owns nearly 26% of the company, was not selli
ng any of its stake in the IPO.
ADB approves $631 million loan for Vizag-Chennai Industriaql corridor
Multilateral funding agency Asian Development Bank(ADB) approved a lone of $
631 million or Rs.4228.9 crore (at Tuesday s exchange rate) for building India s fir
st costal industrial corridor between Vishakapatanam and Chennai.
The fund would help develop the first key 800-km section of the planned 2,5
00 km East Coast Economic Corridor expected to spur development on India s eastern
Coast and enable seamless trade links with other parts of south and southeast
Asia.
Would Bank to invest Rs 1,000 cr. For improvement of inland waterways in Assam
World Bank wil invest nearly 1,000 rore rupees in Assam for the betterment o
f the inland waterways.
It was conveyed to State transport minister Chandra Mohan Patowary by Union
Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari.
Vijaya Bank rolls out 3 new apps
Public sector lender Vijaya Bank had launched e-deposit facility tio facilit
ate term deposits by customers in its bid to ramp up deposit base of the bank. E
-deposit would facilitate the existing Vijaya Bank customers to open term deposi
t accounts through e-banking facility.
The three innovative information technology products had launched VPAYQWIK,
Vijaya *99# and V-econnect+.
Vijaya Bank aggressively focuses on increasing its CASA ratio through new c
lient acquisition and coming up with technology driven products to facilitate th
e same.
Kotak Mahindra Bank Launches App To Open Accounts
Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB) has Launched an application, Kotak Now that would al
low new customers to open an account.
It is an end-to-end application where in a customer will be able to open a b
ank account within 10 minutes
The customer will have to enter their mobile number and then key in a one-ti
me password (OTP) to establish identity.
Andhra Bank tied up with Cigna TTK, Reliance General Insurance
Public sector lender Andhra Bank announced that it had entered into agreemen
ts with private insurers Cigna. TTK and Reliance General Insurance to Provide he
alth and general Insurance services to is customers.
The tie-up with both the insurance companies would immensely benefit the cus
tomers by services to its customers.
The agreement was signed by Andhra Bank Executive Officer S K Kalra, MD an
d CEO of Cigna TTK Health Insurance Sandeep Patel and CEO of Reliance General
Insurance Rakesh Jain. Andhra Bank shares closed at Rs.60.95 apiece, down 0.08
percent from their previous close.
ftcash team-ups with ICICI Bank to launch UPI for merchants
Mobile payments and loans start-up ftcash in association with ICICI Bank is
the first fintech start-up to launch Unified Payment Interface (UPI) to provide
flexibility to our 5,000-plus merchants to accept electronic payments at a lower
cost and better convenience.
ftcash is a virtual POS for micro-merchants to accept payments through credi
t cards, debit cards, and wallets such as Freecharge, Mobikwik, and PayPal etc.
ICICI Bank is an Indian multinational banking and financial services company
headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra
Samruddhi Cooperative Bank RuPay Card Launched
Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar and Chairperson of Samruddhi
Cooperative Bank Kanchan Gadkari launched the Bank s first-ever RuPay Card in cen
tral India
The bank has fixed deposits worth Rs.43 crore and has disbursed loan to the
tune of Rs.24 coror
Initially 2,000 cards will be given to the bank customers.
HDFC, Airtel and State Bank of India named in the Top 50 valued brands by th
e The third annual BrandZ Top 50 Most Valuable Indian Brands report released by
WPP and Kantar Millward Brown. The top 10 rankings as follows
IRDAI has imposed a penalty of Rs.10lakh on SBI Life Insurance
Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) has imposted a penalty of
Rs.10 lakh and another penalty of Rs.5 lakh has been imposed on SBI Life Insura
nce.
Reason for Penalty:
For violations of various norms, including guidelines on accepting business
from a corporate agent after the expiry of licence. It had done 621 policies aft
er expiry of licence
For violation of the provisions of the regulation on accepting the business
from unauthorised persons.
DCB Bank launches its own UPI app
Maharashtra based DCB Bank launched its Unified Payment Interface (UPI) appl
ication. The UPI interface was billed as a revolutionary of sorts in digital ban
king by the NCPI.
DCB UPI app provides a convenient payment method for customers to send and r
eceive funds anytime, anywhere, from their smart phones with their registered mo
bile numbers.
Govt hired ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund to manage new CPSE ETF
ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund was appointed by the government to manage the s
econd CPSE exchange traded fund (ETF) comprising stocks of PSUs in the current f
iscal with an estimated corpus of Rs.6,000 crore. The appointment criteria and e
valuation process comprises both technical and financial parameters. The competi
tors were Reliance, HDFC SBI, UTI, Kotak and Birla Sunlife.
RBI approves Rs.26,000 crore CCL for paddy procurement in Punjab
The RBI has given approval to Rs.26,000 crore cash credit limit (CCL) for pu
rchasing paddy in poll-bound Punjab.
The state government will seek approval of the Centre by sending the RBI s app
roval letter for the release of funds for the purchase of paddy
Paddy procurement in Punjab will commence from October 1 and the state is ex
pecting procurement of 150 lakh tonne of crop from the state.
TAX dept unveiled draft rules for registration under GST
The first meeting of the GST Council, the tax department today came out with
three draft rules and their formats relating to registration, invoice and payme
nts which would be finalized by week-end.
The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has invited comments on draft
rules. The draft rules would provide for online registration by residents withi
n three days of submission of application.
For non-residents who would come under the purview of GST, they would be req
uired to electronically submit the application for registration at least 5 days
prior to the commencement of business.
Global trade growth to be just 1.7% in 2016: WTO
The World Trade Organization lowered its global trade forecast, warning that
anti-globalisation rhetoric and Brexit were pushing trade growth to its slowest
pace since the financial crisis.
The WTO announced that global trade was now estimated to expand by just 1.7
percent this year, compared to its April projection of 2.8 percent. The new figu
re is also a far cry from the projection a year ago that trade would swell by 3.
9 percent this year.
It is described as wake-up call , the Geneva- based global trade body declared
that the growth had fallen to its slowest pace in around seven years, when the g
lobal financial crisis hit.
Mumbai Richest City In India With Total Wealth Of $820 Billion
According To New world Wealth , India s financial capital Mumbai,home to 45,00
0 millionaries and 28 billionaries, is the wealthiest city in the country with t
otal wealth of $820 billion.
Top 3 cities: Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore
While Delhi,home to 22,000 millionaries and 18 billionaries has total wealth
of USD 450 billion, Bengaluru boasts of a total wealth of USD 320 billion. The
city is home to 7,500 millionaries and 8 billionaries.
Other wealthiest cities include,
Hyderabad (Total wealth of USD 310 billion, has 8,200 millionaires, 7 billio
naires);
Kolkata(USD 290 billion , has 8,600 millionaires and 10 billionaires);
Pune(USD 180 billion, has 3,900 millionaires and 5 billionaires);
Chennai (USD 150 billion and has 6,200 millionaires and 4 billionaires) and
Gurgaon(USD 110 billion and home to 3,600 millionaires and 2 billionaires).
Karnataka Bank inks distribution pact with Birla Sun Life AMC
Karnataka Bank has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Birla Sun
Life Asset Management Company for distribution of mutual fund products.
Birla Sun Life MF, will provide all market mutual fund plans through the bra
nches of the bank.
LIC Mutual Fund Asset Management Company has also tied up with Karnataka Ban
k for distribution of its mutual fund products. The distribution will be through
over 730 branches of the bank across India.
Govt Notifies Constitution Of Monetary Policy Committee Under RBI Act
 Towards the next step in Setting the Stage for next monetary policy review b
y the newly constituted monetary policy committee(MPC), the government on Formal
ly notified the constitution of the MPC under the Resever Bankof India Act, 1934
.
The appointments committee of the cabinet approved the names of Chetan Ghate
, a professor at Indian Statistical Institute, Pami Dua, director at Delhi Schoo
l of Economics(DSE); and Ravindra Dholakia, professor at the Indian Institute of
Management, Ahmedabad,
As MPC members for a period of four years. The six-member MPC-the other thr
ee members are from RBI-will conduct its first monetary policy review on 4 Octob
er, Urjit Patel s first as RBI governor.
The members of the committee from RBI are governor Patel, deputy governor R.
Gandhi, Who is also in Charge of monetary policy , and executive director Michae
l Patra. The RBI governor will have a casting vote in case of a tie.
Government decided to raise EPFO Investment in ETF from 5 to 10 per cent
The Government has decided to raise the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) inves
tment in Exchange Trade Funds from present 5 percent to 10 percent.
Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, the Minister of State(IC) for Labour and Employment
announced that the decision has been taken considering the good returns in ETF
investment. The move was set to ee nearly RS 13,000 rore flow into the stock mar
kets from the EPFO during the current fiscal year.
EPFO is currently investment 5% of the total accretion in ETFs. Accordingly,
for the last one Year, the EPFO has invested RS.6,577 crore in ETFs for the fin
ancial year 2015-16. This investment has Yielded a good return of 13.24 per cent
.
This has resulted into a good return of 13.24 per cent . five per cent EPF h
as been invested in NIFTY 50 and SENSEX. EPFO has already invested Rs.1,500 cror
e in ETFs in the first half of the current fiscal and would invest about Rs.11,5
00 crore in the remaining six months.
Interest rates on small savings schemes cut by 0.1%
Interest rates on small savings schemes have been reduced marginally by 0.1
per cent for the October-December quarter of 2016-17, leading to lower returns o
n Public Provident Fund, Kisan Vikas Patra, Sukanya Samriddhi Accounts, among ot
hers.
Public Provident Fund will fetch intrest rate of 8 Percent in the third qua
rter of the current fiscal as against 8.1 percent in the previous three-months p
eriod.
Interest rate on Kisan Vikas Patra has been brought down to 7.7 percent from
7.8 percent . As a result the KVP will now mature in 112 months instead of 110
months.
The rate of interest for the third quarter for 5-Year Senior Citizens Saving
s Scheme and 5-Year National Savings Certificate has been reduced to 8.5 percent
and 8 percent , respectively.
The Sukanya Samriddhi Account Scheme, for girl child , will now fetch 8.5 pe
rcent interest rate. It was 8.6 percent in July September quarter
Interset rate on 1,2,3,4 and 5 Year time deposits too have been reduced by 0
.1 percent.
Depositors will get an interest rate of 7.3% on five-Year recurring deposit.
The interest rate on savngs deposit has, howerever, been kept unchanged at 4
percent.
Anuradha Rao appointed as MD, CEO of SBI Mutual Fund
SBI Mutual Fund named Anuradha Rao as its Managing Director and chief execut
ive with effective from August 25, 2016. She took charge from Dinish Kumar Khara
, who has been appointed Managing Director of State Bank of India.
 Earlier Rao was Deputy Managing Director at SBI handling New Business Portfo
lio. She has also worked as the Chief General Manager of personal Banking at the
bank.
Jim Yong Kim Wins second term of World Bank President
World Bank President Jim Young Kim effectively won a second five-year term a
fter nominations to lead the global development bank no other candidates propose
d.
Kim, who was Korean-American medical doctor had focused the World Bank on Pr
ograms to reduce extreme poverty, earned solid Backing for a second term from th
e United States, France, Germany, China, and other major shareholders of the ban
k. The US is the World Bank s largest shareholder.

August-2016
Bonanza for 7th pay commission beneficiaries-SBI unveils two new cheap housing l
oans
SBI unveiled a new cheaper home loan scheme for defense and other government emp
loyees.
This new decision reflects to attract the donee of the 7th pay commission s salary
hike. SBI eyes that the surplus income of the employees can thus be utilized by
government employees and defence personel towords purchase of house.
New Housing Loan:-
State Bank of India introduced two new self customizable schemes as per the need
s of the employees without any processing fee in the following terms,
SBI Privilege Lone-government employees,
SBI Shaurya Home Lone-defence personal.
The government employees are relaxed with installment tenure extending up tp 75
Years of age and lower EMI burden post retirement and 0.05 percent concession ov
er the home lone interest.
Raghuram Rajan released the consolidated norms of On-Tap Licensing process to en
act reform in the Banking Industry
In order to switch over bank licensing process from once-in-a-decade affair into
an ongoing process, RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has released the key features r
egarding the consolidated norms of the on tap licensing or continuous licensing pr
ocess.
Guidelines of this On-Tap License:-
On-Tap licensing has initiated the biggest overhaul in India s banking structu
re, after reading the structure for differentiated banking regime with the issua
nce of small finance banks and licences.
If one sees the monetary policy structure reforms too along this , Rajan s gov
ernship has witnessed an era of big reforms in India s banking industry.
As a key point to notice , Individuals who are residents and have 10 years of expe
rience in banking and finance at a senior level and existing non-banking finance
companies (NBFCs) that are controlled by residents .
 The applicant have to pass the Fit and Proper criteria, which constitutes of a
promoting entity/ group should have a past record of proper and efficient finan
cial credentials, integrity and should have a minimum 10 Years of successful tra
ck record.
It is also to be complying by the applicants that the respective entity has
total assets of Rs 5,000 crore or more, than non-financial business of the group
does not account for 40 percent or more in terms of total assets/in terms of gr
oss income.
Tata Capital Housing unveils home lone scheme with 4 rate
Tata Capital Housing Limited announced a Comprehensive Housing finance schem
e called Prapti with an attractive 4% intrest rate for people earning less than
Rs 6 lakhs a Year.
The Scheme categorizes two group upon their annual income.Viz
People with earning between Rs 3 lakh to Rs 6 lakh a Year are recognized as
low income group
People earning less than Rs 3 lakh are considered as Economically weaker seg
ment.
Also the Parpti scheme that intends sections like the lower income group (LI
G), economically weaker section (EWS), scheduled caste (SC), scheduled tribe (ST
) and women in the peripheries of metros, trier I cities along with those living
in tier II and tire III cities.
The initiative is inline with the union government s vision of Housing for All
by 2022.
ICICI lowers its Marginal Cost Leading Rate by 0.05% to 8.9%
India s largest private sector bank, ICICI Bank reduces its Marginal Cost Leading
Rate by 0.05% to 8.9% from previously 8.95%.
The Reserve Bank of India has brought a new methodology of setting leading r
ate by commercial banks under the name Marginal Cost of Funds based Leading Rate
(MCLR). It has modified the existing base rate system from April 2016 onwards.
As per the new guidelines by the internal benchmark lending rates. Based upo
n this MCLR , interest rate for different types of customers should be fixed in
accordance with their risk.
SBI s first phase of new enterprise portal goes live
Markets Watchdog SEBI unveiled its First phase of its new wnterprise portal
to offer timely dissemination of information to all its stakeholders be it inter
nal or extrernal.
The new portal developed by IT major Tech Mahindra Went live on July 29 will
come in place of the existing one , also the first phase provides the SEBI-empl
oyees and some of its market intermediaries.
The portal provides an e-platform to registered and propective intermediarie
s to communicate in secure, simplified , transparent and paperless process that
is in line with the digital trends.
Bank of Baroda ties up with start-up Fisdom
Vadodara headquartered Public Sector lender Bank of Baroda has entered ino
partnership with a fintech start-up Fisdom for personal wealth management servic
es.
The lender also entered into pact with Six other fintech companies, proficie
nt in different areas, they are CreditMantri , Funds Tiger, Probe42, Power2SME,I
ndiaLends and Kredx.
ICICI teams up with APOLLO India for an Asset Reconstruction Company
India s largest private banking lender, ICICI banks teams up with US based Apo
llo India Credit Opportunity Management LLC to launch an asset reconstruction co
mpany (ARC).
This tie-up is mainly emphasizing on the establishment of the ARC, Which wil
l acquire debt from lenders as well as equity stakes in companies.
ICICI has also entered into a memorandum of understanding with AION Capital
Management LTD to launch an asset reconstruction company (ARC) as third partner.
RBI imposes penalty on 2 Chhattisgarh cooperative banks
i) Reserve Bank of India slapped penalty of five lakh each on two cooperative
banks based in Chhattisgarh under the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. The two ban
ks namely,
1. Zila Sahakari Kendriya Bank Maryadit, Raipur
2. Raipur Urban Mercantile Cooperative Bank Limited
ii) These cooperative banks penalized for violation of the directives / guidel
ines of the Central Bank on Know Your Customers norms.
RBI launches portal to curb illegal money pooling by firms
The Reserve Bank of India has launched a website sachet.rbi.org.in in a bid
to curb illegal and unauthorized pooling of funds by unscrupulous firms. It was
launched by RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan.
The move will help people obtain information about entities allowed to colle
ct deposits and also would help in arriving logical conclusion by punishing the
guilty is paramount to deter entities.
The sachet portal (Hindi for alert) will provide filling, tracking of compla
ints in addition it will also offer information about whether any particular uni
t is registered with any regulator.
RBI panel to benchmark India s household finance
Reserve Bank has constituted a panel to study the various facets of househol
d finance in India and to benchmark India s position visav is both in other major
world markets and advanced economies.
The panel headed by Financial Economics Professor Tarun Ramadorai at Oxford
University.
Corporation Bank unveils its Group Credit Life Insurance Scheme in Mangalore
In a pilot basis, Corporation bank has launched group credit life insurance sche
me in Mangalore on August 4. This move attributes to increase the insurance cove
r of growing population and also strengthen its a borrowing community
Life based contracts tend to fall into two major categories:
1. Protection policies designed to provide a benefit, typically a lump sum payme
nt, in the event of specified event. A common form of a protection policy design
is term insurance.
2. Investment policies where the main objective is to facilitate the growth of c
apital by regular or single premiums. Common forms (in the US) are whole life, u
niversal life, and variable life policies.
Corporation Bank Group Insurance:
1. The scheme is exclusively to cover the customers in the age group of 18 60 ye
ars who have taken term loans from the bank.
2. It will be payable to the person, in the event of death of the borrower and i
t is a single premium group term insurance plan offering insurance cover to the
loan taken by the customer.
Government fixes an inflation target of 4 percent for five years
The Union government have come with the notification that tabled in the Lok
Sabha intends 4 percent inflation with the tolerance of 2 percent () for the nex
t five years till March 31, 2021
The move is directed to the mandatory policy framework agreement with the Re
serve Bank of India.
The center s notification comes upon the section 45ZA of RBI Act 1934, in cons
ultation with the Bank Central Bank.
Axis Bank ready with UPI app, to tie up with Freecharge
Mumbai based Private sector lender Axis Bank has announced tie up with Mobil
e recharging platform Freecharge and also said the bank is ready with Unified Pa
yment Interface(UPI) app.
The application powered by UPI architecture called Axis Pay App can be used
by any other banks customer also would make the transactions easier.
Japan records biggest current account surplus since 2007
Japan has recorded the largest current account surplus in the first half of
2016 that quantify the international trade of goods, services and investments in
and out marked a surplus of 10.63 trillion yen ($104 billion) in the duration w
hich is up 31.3 percent from a year earlier.
Japan has been showing good result in tourism also in Goods trade, a key com
ponent of the current account balance , registered a surplus of 2.35 trillion ye
n compared with a deficit of 375.4 billion last year same duration.
RBI makes no changes in Repo rate and CRR in its third Bi-Monthly Monetary Polic
y Review
As expected The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its third bi-monthly monetary pol
icy review kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.50 percent citing upside risk to Ma
rch 2017 inflation target.
Repo Rate and Reverse Repo Rate:
As the rates are high the availability of credit and demand decreases result
ing to decrease in inflation. This increase in Repo Rate and Reverse Repo rate i
s a symbol of tightening of the policy.
In this latest Monitory Policy Review, the repo rate was left unchanged at 6
.50 percent.
With retail inflation ruling above its projection of around 5 per cent for F
Y2017, the RBI held the rate steady and in the current financial year, the RBI l
ast cut the repo rate in its first bi-monthly monetary policy review , in Apirl
by 25 basis points to 6.50 per cent.
The RBI kept the cash reserve ratio of scheduled banks unchanged at 4.0 perc
ent of net demand and time liabilities.
HDFC, Max group merge life insurance businesses to create company worth Rs. 67,0
00 crore
 The board of HDFC and Max Financial s groups have given their nod to merge the
ir respective life insurance entities. This will pave the way for more consolida
tion in the life insurance space.
The boards of HDFC Life, Max life, Max Financial Services and Max India deci
ded to amalgamate their businesses to create a Rs.25,500 crore entity under the
label of HDFC Life through a 3:7 share swap under which a Max shareholder will g
et three HDFC Life shares for even seven in an old share deal.
RGIC ties up with SVCB to foster the spread of the Insurance Policies on a Pan I
ndia Basis
Reliance General Insurance Company Ltd, Non life insurer declare a banc assu
rance tie-up with Shamrao Vithal Co operative Bank (SVCB) on August 9.
Reliance General will distribute its insurance products to the customers of
SVCB. SVCB is having a network of 194 branches.
This is the fourth big partnership by Reliance in banc assurance, apart from
the tie-up with Indus -Ind Bank, Bank of India and Andhra Bank and expects to b
oost our top line by up to 10 percent through these tie-ups and alliances.
Ponzi scheme not under our purview: SEBI
Market Regulator SEBI has clarified that any regulatory purview over Ponzi s
cheme will come under purview of state governments. The state government is the
responsible to protect investors.
SEBI has stated that Ponzi schemes do not fall under the regulatory purview
of SEBI, such schemes were banned under the Prize Chit and Money Circulation (Ba
nning) Act, 1978 and the State government concerned is the enforcement agency.
Non-Performing Assets (NPA) of commercial banks increased around 4%
The Union Government has declared that the Non-Performing Assets (NPA) of co
mmercial banks have increased by around 4% from March 2015 to March 2016.
This as a credit facility in respect of which the interest and/or installmen
t of Bond finance principal has remained past due for a specified period of time.
NPA is used by financial institutions that refer to loans that are in jeopardy o
f default. Once the borrower has failed to make interest or principle payments f
or 90 days the loan is considered to be a non-performing asset.
It is noted that the NPA of banks was 5.43 percent in March 2015 which has r
isen to 9.32 percent in March this year.
NABARD sanctions Rs.26.06crore to Punjab
The National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has sanction
ed Rural Infrastructure Development fund of Rs 26.06 crore to the state of Punja
b also upon this the total grand stood at Rs.7,826.17crore so far.
The financial grand will be used for tackling water logging by building lift
schemes in low-lying areas, village ponds and other allied works in the state.
The project will benefit 5,913 hectares of land in 87 villages of Mukstar an
d Fazilka districts. The project will pave the way for farmers to cultivate crop
s in the previously waterlogged areas after a long gap.
Union finance Minister Arun Jaitley launches MSME Data Bank Portal and Online Fi
nance Facilitation Web portal.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley launched an online finance facilitation portal for
the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to facilitate ease of doing bus
iness at New Delhi on August 11.
He launched two important initiatives of the Ministry of MSME MSME Data Bank
Portal and Online Finance Facilitation Web Portal.
The online finance facilitation centre will allow the MSMEs to apply for loa
ns from the various banks on the NSIC National Small Industries Corporation porta
l.
The online finance facilitation centre will allow the MSMEs to apply for loa
ns from the various banks on the NSIC (National Small Industries Corporation) po
rtal and NSIC has also signed a MoUs (Memorandum of Understanding) with 33 banks
, 14 of whom have agreed to associate with the online finance facilitation porta
l.
RBI s Draft for Limiting Liability Customers in Unauthorized Electronic Banking Tr
ansactions
RBI has come up with a draft circular for public comments on Limited Liability fo
r customers in case of frauds in Internet Banking and Card transactions.
RBI has also proposed zero liability on the customer if the loss is reported
within three working days even if the cause is not directly linked to deficienc
y on the part of the lender and the fault lies elsewhere in the system.
Limited Liability of a Customer- A customer shall be liable for the loss occurri
ng due to fraudulent transactions in the following cases:
In cases involving negligence by a customer, such as where he has shared the
payment credentials, the customer will bear the entire loss until he reports th
e unauthorized transaction to the bank. Any loss occurring after the reporting t
he unauthorized transaction shall be borne by the bank.
In cases where the responsibility for the unauthorized electronic banking tr
ansaction lies neither with the bank nor with the customer but lies elsewhere in
the system and when there is a delay on the part of the customer in notifying t
he bank of such a transaction, the customer liability shall be limited to the tr
ansaction value or Rs.5000/-, whichever is lower. Further, if the delay in repor
ting is beyond seven working days, the customer liability shall be determined as
per bank s Board approved policy.
Time taken to report the fraudulent transaction from the date of receiving the c
ommunication

Customer s liability
Within 3 working days

Zero liability
Within 4-7 working days of receiving the communication

The transactions value or Rs.5000/- whichever is lower

Beyond 7 working days of receiving the communication

As per bank s board approved policy

SBI and Korea Development Bank ties up for Business Development
India s largest public sector bank, State bank of India (SBI) and Korea Develo
pment Bank (KDB) have signed an MOU to develop business synergies in the domains
 of corporate finance, project finance and asset finance.
The MoU was signed between SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya, and chairman
and CEO of Korea Development Bank, Lee Dong Geol.
Syndicate Bank launches Project Ananya to improve Digital Banking Services
Syndicate Bank has adopted a large scale transformation program called Proje
ct Ananya that focuses on improved customer service and offering latest in digita
l banking services.
The bank plans to transform 10% of its branches to a new format in next 6-1
2 months and the bank has opened one such branch.
The bank will offer completely operational account available in less than on
e day with no additional visits to the branch and making this one of the fastest
account opening processes in the industry.
BSE gets approval to establish International exchange at GIFT
Mumbai based Bombay Stock Exchange has got approval from the Corporate Affai
rs Ministry to establish BSE International Finance Tec-City (GIFT).
In this regard BSE had signed a MoU with GIFT SEZ to set up the two entities
at the GIFT city India s first International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in
January last year.
Kotak Mahindra Bank intedrates with Filpkart
Mumbai based Private sector lender Kodak Mahindra Bank has tied up with the
E-Commerce Market Place Flipkart by expanding the Bank s in-app shop, M Store whi
ch was used to book air tickets,hotels and bus tickets.
Now the Flipkart has been intergrated with the M store which will pave the B
ank customers to buy a wider range of things via the application.
South Indian Bank, SBI Card to launch co-branded credit card
Kochi Based leading private sector Lender South Indian Bank and India s Larges
t lender State Bank of India has joined hands for their co-branded credit card f
or the South Indian Bank customers.
Upon this tie-up it is set to launch two variants of credit card on VISA Pla
tform,namely South Indian Bank Platinu SBI Card and South Indian Bank Simply Sav
e SBI card.
The Platinum Variant has been designed focused on premium customers and offe
rs features in line with their lifestyle habits that comes at a joining fee of R
s 2,999.
While the Simply Save Variant is aimed at the Value conscious consumers.It o
ffers rewards and features that take into account the spending requirements of c
ustomers which will sek a joining fee of Rs.499.
Union Bank of India launches USSD based mobile app for basic banking needs with
NPCI
National Payments Corporation of India(NPCI) ties up with Union Bank Of Indi
a to launch an USSD based *99# mobile application for their customers.
USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) is a GSM based technology tha
t is used to send text between a mobile phone and an application program in the
network.
IRDAI Slaps Rs 35 Lakh Fine On Bharti AXA General Insurance
Hyderabad based Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority(IRDAI) has impose
d Rs 35 lakh fine on Bharti Axa General Insurance Co Ltd for violation related w
ith an inspection finding during December 20-12 to March 2013.
 In addition to that penalty of Rs 5 lakh each was imposed for violating file
& use policy and protection of policy holders interest.
NASSCOM launches startup warehouse in Vishakapatanam
The first National Association of Software and Services (Nasscom) warehouse has
launched at Rushikonda, Vishakhapatnam. It is the 9th Warehouse of NASSCOM>
It will provide affordable co-working space with incubation for 6 months.
It will create wonderful opportunities in emerging markets and boost entrepr
eneurship
Times Internet partners HDFC Bank to launch co-branded Debit Card
Times of India Group s Times Internet in cooperation with Mortgage lender HDFC lau
nched co-branded debit cards. It will have a daily shopping limit of Rs 2.75 lak
h and an ATM withdrawal limit of Rs 1 lakh.
CO-Branded Debit Card:
The Times Points HDFC Bank Debit Card will offer at least 10 per cent discou
nt on online shopping on retail, groceries and dining space and also offers rewa
rds them for engaging with the Times Internet sites.
NPS: PFRDA lowers minimum contribution to Rs 1,000 per year
Insurance regulator PFRDA has substantially lowered the minimum annual contr
ibution to Rs 1,000 to keep the account active in order to encourage more people
to join the National Pension System.
Priorly instead of 1000, a subscriber had to contribute at least Rs 6,000 in
a financial year to keep the Tier-1 account running.
NPS comprises of two tires of accounts.
Tier-I is the non-withdraw able perment retirement account into which the ac
cumulations are deposited and invested as per the option of the subscriber.
Tier-II is a savings account; the regulator has decided to waive the require
ment of annual minimum contribution of Rs 250 and minimum balance of Rs 2,000 at
the end of a fiscal year.
Asia Index launches index to track performance of CBLO rate
A joint-venture between S&P Dow Jones Indices and BSE, Asia Index launched a
new index to measure the performance of Collateralized Borrowing and Lending Ob
ligation (CBLO) rate-one of most liquid rates in India.
This new index would be calculated using the CBLO rate for transactions matu
ring on the following business day and with settlement T+0.
The launch of S&P BSE Liquid Rate Index,It helps in expending fixed income i
ndices offering in the most actively traded instrument in the money market. The
CBLO rate is considered one of most liquid rates in India, in the overnight segm
ent.
The index is designed to measure the returns from a daily rolling deposit at
the CBLO rate.
RBI imposes penalty on four cooperative banks
Mumbai based Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed penalties on four coope
rative banks for violation of various norms. This 4 cooperatives banks are
Cooperative City Bank, Guwahati-Rs 5 lakh
 Indapur Urban Cooperative Bank,Indapur-Rs 2 lakh
Shri Dadasaheb Gajmal Cooperative Bank, Pachora-Rs 1 lakh
Model Cooperative Urban Bank, Hyderabad- Rs 1 lakh
RBI also modified its directions regarding Mumbai based R.S. Co-op.Bank and
relaxed payments trms for deposits.
A sum not exceeding Rs 10,000 in every savings bank or current account or te
rm deposit account or any other deposit account may be allowed to be withdrawn b
y depositor.
Federal Bank joins hand with MMTC for the distribution of IGC-Indian Golden Coin
s
Federal Bank ties up with MMTC for distribution of IGC_Indian Gold Coins Nat
ional Gold offering by the Government, Which was launched by Prime Minister Nare
ndra Modi.
Kerala based private sector lender, Federal Bank has tied up with MMTC for d
istribution of Indian Gold Coins (IGC), the First-Ever national gold offering by
the government.
It is noted that Federal Bank has become the First Private sector to start d
istributing gold coins made by government-controlled Metals and Minerals Trading
Corporation of India.
Federal Bank ties up with Chillr for cashless transactions
Federal Bank announced its partnership with Chillr, a mobile banking applica
tion, to provide cashless transactions.
The facility is already available to al Customers of Federal Bank and the ba
nk always belived that digital services will herald a paradigm shift in Banking
services. The bank has always striven to be ahead of the curve by launching a bo
uquet of on line services.
India Post Payments Bank Incorporated Sets to being in 2017.
India Post Payments Bank has come into existence after it received certifica
te of incorporation from the Registrar of Companies, setting the stage for the n
ew bank to being operations in 2017.
The India Post Payments Bank has received the Certificates of Incorporation
from the Registrar of Companies, Ministry of Corporate Affairs Yesterday under t
he Companies Act 2013.
With the incorporation, the Board of the India Post Payments Bank Limited is
likely to be constituted soon. The incorporation of the IPPB Ltd is a significa
nt forword as this also paves the way for the bank to being hiring of banking pr
ofessionals to set up the bank and being its operations in 2017.
SBI bank board approves the significant merger of Five associate banks and BMB w
ith itself
In an attempt to create global size bank, the board of State Bank of India a
pproved cheme of merger of five associate banks and Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB)
with itself while protecting the interest of the existing staff.
SBI also approved the share swap ratio for merging three associates-State Ba
nk of Bikaner and Jaipur(SBBJ),State Bank of Mysore(SBM) and State Bank of Trava
ncore(SBT)-and BMB. But the swap ratios for state Bank of Hyderabad and State Ba
nk of Patiala were not announced.
Indian Private Banks at the Top Spots among the Global Banks on Key Return Ratio
s
Leading Indian Private banks namely HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank along w
ith their Chinese peers China Construction Bank Corp (CCB), Industrial and Comme
rcial Bank of China (ICBC) and Agricultiral Bank of China (ABC) occupy the top s
ix slots among global banks on key return ratios, namely return on equity (RoE)
and return on assests(RoA).
Indian Banking Statistics:-
The most public sector banks have struggled on this front in recent years with t
he exception of SBI and Union Bank that have started seeing some increase in thi
s metric in both FY15 and FY16
For FY16,HDFC Bank and Axis Bank earned the higest return on assets of 1.91
per cent and 1.67 per cent, respectively, followed by CCB, which clocked return
on assets of 1.3 per cent
ICBC and ICICI Bank completed the top five lists with RoAs of 1.29 per cent
and 1.17 per cent , respectively.
The Chines banks follows December year-end and, hence , the data for them is
at the end of calander year 2015. HDFC Bank tops its global peers on RoE as wel
l , which stood at 18.63 per cent in FY16.
Axis Bank stood fifth in this table with a RoE of 16.95 per cent, after CCB,
ICBC and ABC that reported RoEs of 17.18 per cent, 17.1 per cent and 17.03 per
cent.
ICICI Bank goes live with banking transaction product on mobiles & ICICI Bank un
veils new smart Keys mobile app
India s largest Private Sector lender ICICI Bank has launched a payment servic
e using a smartphone Keyboard named iMobile SmartKeys to make mobile payments ea
sier.
This solution was developed by one of the winners of the bank s app developing
competition ICICI Appathon which enables users to make quick and secure payments
on any mobile application.
Andhra Bank teams up with Geojit for 3-in-1 online platform
Andhra Bank government jointly with Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services ha
s launched a three-in-one online inversment and treading platform christened AB
eTrade which integrates savings and demat accounts with online trading.
With this secure customer- friendly product, customers can invest in equity,
mutual fund and other capital market products that paves way for easy tradingo
n the basis of net obligation.
Central Govt chooses four banks for the sale of share in HUDCO
The government has selected four invest,ment banks namely Nomura,SBI Caps,IC
ICI Securities and IDBI Capital for the proposed share sale in HUDCO-Housing & U
rban Development Corporation Limited.
Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM).the nodal agen
cy under the finance ministry that co-ordinated governments disinvestment progra
mme has selected these four investment banks for the proposed share sale in HUDC
O.
Forex reserve at record high of USD 365.82 billion
India s forign exchange reserves surged by USD73.2 million to touch a life-tim
e high of USD 365.82 billion in the week ended . It was surged by USD 253.6 mill
ion to touch USD 365.75 bilion last week.
The Gold reserves remained unchanged at USD 21.58 billion in the week . Whil
e special drawing rights held by India with the IMF gone down by USD 3.2 million
to USD 1.49 billion, While the country s reserve position plunged by USD 5.2 mill
ion to USD 2.39 billion.
Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust to sign agreement with bankers for External Commeric
al Borrowing
Mumbai based continer port, Jawaharlal Nehru Port has signed an agreement wi
th State Bank Of India and Development Bank of Singapore for External Commerical
Borrowing to the tune of USD 400 Million under External Commercial Borrowings.
It the first Major Port to finalize the terms of ECB.
The Credit seeks at a very competitive intrest rate to improve the infrastru
cture required for doubling its existing capacity to 9.85 Million TEUs annually
which is for Door-to-Door tenor of 7.5 Years.
JNPT signs pact with SBI,DBS for $400 million loan
India s premier container port, Jawaharlal Nehuru port Trust has signed a pact
with State Bank of India and Singapore s DBS for a loan of Rs 2,600 Crore, to dou
ble its annual capacity.
Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) in Navi Mumbai, has signed an agreement with St
ate Bank of India(SBI) and DBS for ECB to the tune of USD 400 million at a very
competitive interest rate to improve the infrastructure required for doubling it
s existing capacity to 9.85 million TEUs annually.
Mahindra AMC launches Mahindra Mutual Fund Kar Bachat Yojana
Mahindra Asset Management Company has announced the launch of open ended sch
eme Mahindra Mutual Fund Kar Bachat Yojana to generate long-term capital appreci
ation through a diversified portfolio of equity and equity related securities.
The Kar Bachat Yojana comes with a three Year lock-in Period. The New Fund O
ffer would close on October 7 and will reopen for continuous sale and repurchase
from SEBI, the Yojana will help people who not only want to save tax but also w
ish to create a tax-free corpus over long term investments.
Bajaj Finance ties up with India Post to Facilitate two-Wheeler Purchase
Pune based motorcycle finance firm Bajaj Finance Limited has joined hands wi
th India Post to Facilitate Purchase of Vehicles in Karnataka.
The Bajaj Finance inked a MoU with India Post and also announced special arr
angement that allows potential buyers to get information on various 2-wheeler lo
an schemes.
Theses post offices will also hold special loan offers to people including t
he installment collection set-up at the Post Offices. This arrangement shall ini
tially be available at 208 E-Payment Post Offices across the State.