RBI IN NEWS by March 31, 2017, provisioning reached the 15% level Reserve Bank said the aggregate ceiling for foreign investors — in line with sub-standard accounts. to invest in Ujjivan Financial Services will remain at 49%. RBI has extended the $2 billion currency swap RBI has authorised 29 agency banks to accept payments arrangement to SAARC nations till mid-November of Income Tax dues. Some of the agency banks authorized 2017. Under the arrangement, RBI is to offer swap by RBI to collect tax include Allahabad Bank, UCO Bank, BOI, arrangement up to an overall amount of $2 billion both in Canara Bank, SBI and its five associate banks, CBI, Dena Bank, foreign currency and Indian rupee. HDFC Bank Ltd, OBC, Axis Bank Ltd, ICICI Bank and PNB. RBI has signed a pact with Bank of Israel for Information It has stated that entities from Pakistan, China, Exchange and Banking supervision. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran and Hong Kong RBI has decided to share FDI-related data with the or Macau will require its prior approval to establish country's intelligence agencies, Intelligence Bureau (IB) branch office or project office or liaison office in India. and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), to check the black The Cabinet has given approval to the MoU between the money entering India. Reserve Bank and the Central Bank of United Arab Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) CEO and MD Natarajan Emirates (UAE) on co-operation on currency swap Chandrasekaran, former Chief Secretary of Gujarat Sudhir agreement. Mankad and Bharat Narotam Doshi appointed as Non As per RBI it will shortly issue Rs. 1,000 denomination Officials Directors to the board of RBI for a tenure of 4 year. bank notes in the Mahatma Gandhi Series of 2005 with the insert letter of 'R' in both the number panels. SBI IN NEWS RBI released Non-Banking Financial Company -Account Nepal SBI Bank has launched payment gateway to Aggregator Directions, 2016. This will put in place the facilitate online trade and non-trade transactions regulatory framework to allow a new kind of Non-Banking between the Himalayan nation 'Nepal' and India. Financial Company (NBFC), which could act as an account SBI's point of sales terminal (PoS) network is now the aggregator. The Net Owned Fund of such companies should largest in the country. not be less than 2 cr. Rs.. Announced the launch of mVisa, a mobile based payment RBI issued revised Framework for Revival and solution. Will help customers make payments through by Rehabilitation of Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises simply scanning the unique merchant Quick Response code. (MSMEs). The Framework has to be put in place by the banks SBI has been asked by RBI to provide for losses on food not later than 30 June 2016. grain related loans issued to Punjab Govt.. Meghalaya CM Mukul M Sangma inaugurated the first Key Guidelines Digital Branch of State Bank of India in North East. • It shall be applicable to MSMEs having loan limits up to 25 cr. Rs. SBI has launched a facility under 'SBI Quick: SMS and including accounts under consortium or multiple banking Missed Call Banking' service whereby the customer can arrangement (MBA). choose to activate or deactivate their cards. • It classifies three categories in Special Mention Account (SMA) SBI launched e-Smart SME, a working capital loan offering to identify incipient stress in the accounts of MSMEs in case of for sellers on ecommerce platforms. Non-Performing Assets (NPAs): Myanmar has granted operating licenses to four Asian a) SMA-0: Principal or interest payment not overdue for more banks. Out if the 4, one is SBI. than 30 days but account showing signs of incipient stress SBI has launched ‘Japan Desk’, a single window for b) SMA-1: Principal or interest payment overdue between 31-60 inbound Japanese investments in India and vice-versa. days This is a first-of-its-kind initiative that seeks to facilitate c) SMA-2: Principal or interest payment overdue between 61-90 Japanese corporate looking to invest in India with banking days and advisory services. RBI signed a Special Currency Swap Agreement with the SBI ties up with Taxi Aggregator, Uber to provide instant Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Under the arrangement, the vehicle finance to “driver partners’ on the latter’s platform. Central Bank of Sri Lanka can draw up to 700 million US dollars. ICICI BANK IN NEWS To streamline monitoring of fraud cases in Urban Launched the country’s first contactless business credit Cooperative Banks, RBI said those involving Rs 1 cr. and card in association with Jet Airways. above will have to be reported to its Central Fraud Become the first financial institution in the country to tie Monitoring Cell (CFMC) at Bengaluru within three weeks up with the New Development Bank to explore of detection. Fraud cases below Rs 1 cr. should be reported opportunities. to respective regional offices of the Department of Launched iWork@Home programme for its women Cooperative Bank Supervision (DCBS) of the RBI. employees to prevent them from dropping out of its Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan has joined a task workforce. force of the World Economic Forum (WEF) to study the Announced a new mobile payment solution Touch and future of global financial system. Pay. This is based on Near Field Communication (NFC) The central bank has directed commercial banks to technology. increase the provisioning by 2.5% every quarter so that Sold 9% stake in its general insurance venture ICICI is on rank 33 in the Forbes list of ‘Money Masters: The Lombard while 2% stake in life insurance subsidiary Most Powerful People in The Financial World. The list is ICICI Prudential for about Rs 2,200 cr. topped by the Blackstone Group’s CEO Stephen Schwarzman. K Ramkumar, executive director and member of the board at ICICI Bank has taken retirement. He will be replaced on AXIS BANK IN NEWS the bank's board by another ICICI veteran Vijay Chandok. Reserve Bank has allowed Axis Bank to raise foreign Tied up with marquee sports car maker Ferrari to launch shareholding to up to 62%, from the earlier limit of 49%. co-branded credit card. Sanjiv Misra will continue as non-Executive Chairman of Launched a credit-linked subsidy scheme for home loans Axis Bank for next three months. under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). Under this scheme, the ICICI will provide housing loans at subsidized OTHER PRIVATE SECTOR BANKS IN NEWS rates of 6.5 % annually for the loan amount of Rs. 6 lakh India's largest carrier Bharti Airtel received its payment (maximum). The maximum loan tenure to get the subsidy is bank license that is had applied for in partnership with 15 years. Kotak Mahindra Bank. RBL Bank is going to launch an Entrepreneur-in-Residence HDFC BANK IN NEWS (EIR) programme for fintech start-ups in the next 9-12 HDFC Ltd has been ranked among the world's ten biggest months. and most powerful companies in the consumer financial RBL Bank became the first private sector bank in India to services sector on a Forbes list topped by global major open dedicated branch for startups. The dedicated branch American Express. Ranked 7th, HDFC is the only Indian was inaugurated at Koramangala, Bengaluru. company in top ten in this category. Capital Local Area Bank became first to get Small Finance HDFC Bank plans to open about 500 new branches this Bank license from RBI. It operates from Jalandhar in financial year as part of its steps to Expand footprint. Punjab. IndusInd Bank which has been the settlement bank for e- YES BANK IN NEWS auction for tea industry, is set to lose the status. The Tea India's fifth largest Private sector lender Yes Bank has Board has selected Bank of India as the new settlement received a ‘Custodian of Securities’ licence from the bank. markets regulator SEBI to allows the entity to offer IDFC has just rolled out the first of its kind Twitter custodial services to financial market participants, including campaign, #IDFCTwitterResume, where you can sell FIIs and FPIs. yourself in 140 characters and land a job in the bargain. Signed a strategic MoU with India Brazil Chamber of DCB Bank Limited has acquired an equity stake of 5.81% Commerce (IBCC) to enable significant cooperation in for Rs 9.99 cr. in its long standing business partner terms of knowledge partnerships, project consultancy Annapurna Microfinance Private Limited. etc. Small sized lender DCB Bank has started an Aadhaar Partnered with Clickandpay, a mobilebased payment based ATM usage facility wherein a customer can transact solutions enterprise, to facilitate cashless, secure and using his biometric details instead of the PIN. flexible transactions for customers. Indusind Bank goes online for loan disbursals. Tied up with BankBazaar.com, to feature Yes Bank retail Kerala based private sector lender Federal Bank is loan products including personal loans, home loans and car opening incubation centres in Bangalore and Ernakulam loans on its website. exclusively for startups. Inked a tripartite agreement for on-lending $50 million Industry body Internet and Mobile Association of India, loan from World Bank arm IFC to women entrepreneurs. has appointed Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Launched an all women operated bank branch 'Yes Grace' chairman of its the newly formed payments banks group. on Cunningham Road aimed at offering customised banking Federal Bank has tied up with Chillar Payment Solutions solutions to women. Pvt. Ltd. to promote the start-up’s technology product Received the prestigious Green Bond Pioneer Award for 'Campus Wallet'. being the Pioneers in Emerging Markets-India .