- Current Affairs March 2019
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Banking, Finance, & Business
1 - Bank of Baroda Set To Develop Digital Agri Platform 'Baroda Kisan'
Bank of Baroda has signed an MoU with agriculture services companies to develop an agriculture digital platform, Baroda Kisan, which will provide solutions for agricultural requirements.
BoB has signed the agreement with Skymet Weather Services, Weather Risk Management Services, BigHaat, Agrostar India, EM3 Agri Services, and Poorti Agri Services.
Mr. P. S. Jayakumar is the MD and CEO of Bank of Baroda. Its headquarters is in Vadodara, Gujarat.
2 - Ministry of Finance Decides To Infuse Rs 5,042 crore Into Bank of Baroda
The Finance Ministry decided to infuse Rs 5,042 crore into state-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB) ahead of the merger of two other public sector lenders Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with BoB.
The merger of Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with BoB would be effective from April 1, 2019.
3 - RBI Slaps Rs 2 Crore Penalty On PNB
The Reserve Bank of India has slapped a penalty of Rs 2 crore on Punjab National Bank for non-compliance of regulatory directions with regard to SWIFT operations.
SWIFT is a global messaging software used for sharing information on inter-bank transactions by financial entities.
SWIFT is an acronym for Society For Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications.
4 - Government Leaves Interest Rate On Small-Saving Schemes Unchanged
The Finance Ministry decided to keep the interest rate unchanged on small savings schemes for the three-month period beginning April 1.
The announcement covers small-saving schemes such as the Post Office Saving Accounts, Post Office Time Deposits, the National Saving Certificates (NSC), the Public Provident Fund (PPF), the Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) and Sukanya Samriddhi.
The unchanged interest rate means the NSC (5 years) and the PPF (15 years) will fetch 8% interest, while money deposited in KVP will double in little over nine years. At the same time, if one is parking money in a fixed deposit with a maturity of five years with the State Bank of India, he/she will get 6.85%. Senior citizens will get half a percent more, i.e., 7.35%.
Based on the recommendations of the Shyamala Gopinath panel, interest rates on these schemes are reviewed before the end of every quarter, and accordingly, new rates are announced for the next quarter.
5 - SBI inks pact with Bank of China
The country’s largest lender SBI has signed a pact with the Bank of China to boost business opportunities. SBI has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bank of China (BoC), the third-largest bank in the world by capital size and one of the major players in the Chinese banking sector, to enhance business synergies between both the banks, State Bank of India (SBI) said in a release.
Through this pact, both SBI and BoC will gain direct access to their respective markets of operation. Both banks’ clients will be able to use the vast combined network to expand their businesses abroad. SBI said it has a branch in Shanghai and BOC is opening its branch in Mumbai.
SBI was founded on July 1 1955. It has headquarters is in Mumbai. The current Chairperson of SBI is Rajnish Kumar.
Bank of China (BoC) is the third-largest bank in the world by capital size.
6 - RBI Names SBI, ICICI and HDFC As Systemically Important Banks
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) named State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank as Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs), which in other words mean banks that are too big to fail.
As per the norms, these banks will have to set aside more capital for their continued operation. RBI comes with the list every year since 2015.
Inclusion in D-SIB indicates that failure of any of these banks would have a cascading effect on Indian financial system.
Inclusion in the list gives additional comfort to investors that these banks won’t be allowed to fail and therefore, borrowing costs of these banks from the markets are cheaper than their peers.
7 - SBI launches card less ATM withdrawals
State Bank of India launched ‘YONO Cash’ for card less withdrawal of cash at over 16,500 SBI ATMs across the country.
With this facility, customers can initiate the cash withdrawal process on the YONO app and set a six-digit YONO Cash pin for the transaction. They will also get a six-digit reference number for the transaction on their registered mobile number via SMS. The cash withdrawal has to be completed within the next 30 minutes at the nearest ATMs using both PIN and the reference number received.
8 - Bandhan Bank gets RBI nod for acquiring Gruh Finance
Bandhan Bank has received no objection from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the proposed acquisition of Gruh Finance.
Gruh Finance, the affordable housing finance arm of HDFC Ltd, was taken over in January by Kolkata-based Bandhan Bank in a share-swap deal.
As part of the deal, Bandhan Bank has to transfer 14.9 per cent stake to HDFC for merging Gruh with itself.
The deal will allow Bandhan Bank's promoter Bandhan Financial Holdings to come down to about 61 per cent from about 82 per cent, and HDFC to hold around 15 per cent in the merged entity from about 57 per cent in Gruh.
Bandhan bank has its headquarters in Kolkata.
9 - ICICI Lombard, MobiKwik to offer online fraud protection policy
ICICI Lombard and MobiKwik announced a strategic partnership to provide cyber-insurance cover.
The relationship aims to provide protection against unauthorized and fraudulent transactions online, across bank accounts, debit and credit cards. and mobile wallets.
MobiKwik users can avail the commercial cyber-insurance policy underwritten by ICICI Lombard and enjoy the benefit of stress-free and secured transactions. It can be availed at Rs 99 per month and with a sum insured of Rs 50,000.
MobiKwik users can avail the commercial cyber-insurance policy underwritten by ICICI Lombard and enjoy the benefit of stress-free and secured transactions.
10 - RBI Categorises IDBI Bank as Private Sector Lender
As per RBI notification, IDBI Bank has been categorised as a private sector lender following acquisition of majority stake by Life Insurance Corporation.
After 1 Apr 2019 merger of 2 more Government Banks Dena and Vijaya Bank in Government-owned bank of Baroda, the number of Government Sector Banks will be reduced to 18, while currently, the number is 20.
11 - In a 1st, SBI Links Interest On Most Savings Account Deposits To RBI Repo Rate
State Bank of India has become the first domestic bank to link the interest rate it offers on savings account deposits to an external benchmark - the Reserve Bank of India’s repo rate.
Savings accounts with deposits above Rs 1 lakh would be priced at 2.75% below the prevailing repo rate of 6.25%. The effective rate works out to be 3.5%.
Cash credit accounts and overdraft facilities over Rs 1 lakh would be priced at 2.25% over the repo rate.
For all other floating rate products, including retail and corporate loans, the impact of SBI’s decision to link savings account deposit rates to the repo rate will be felt indirectly. These loans will continue to be linked to the 1-year MCLR (marginal cost lending rate).
For savings account holders with balances up to Rs 1 lakh and borrowers with cash credit and overdraft limits up to Rs 1 lakh, interest rates will remain fixed.
12 - National Housing Bank proposes stricter regulations for Housing Finance Companies
National Housing Bank (NHB), a mortgage sector regulator and a fully owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to impose stricter regulations on the Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) to prevent them from falling prey to liquidity and credit risks. One of the regulations is increasing the capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of these companies from 12%to 15%, in a phased manner by 31st March 2022.