RBI Issues Revised PCA framework for Banks
On November 02, 2021, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reviewed and revised the existing PCA framework for all Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) excluding Small Finance Banks, Payment Banks and Regional Rural Banks.
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SBI will buy Yes Bank shares worth Rs 7250 crore
The State Bank of India has agreed to buy shares worth Rs 7250 crore of the cash-strapped Yes Bank. The purchase of the shares will be in accordance with the draft reconstruction scheme put forward by the Reserve Bank of India. SBI will purchase the 725 shares of Yes Bank at a price of Rs 10 per share. After the purchase, the shareholding of the State Bank of India (SBI) in Yes Bank will remain under 49% of the paid-up capital.
According to the reconstruction scheme put forwarded by RBI, the shareholding of the strategic investor would be not more than 49% and should not fall below 26% for a minimum period of 3 years from the date of capital infusion.
SBI removes minimum balance charges from all savings bank accounts
The State Bank of India has waived off the minimum balance charges on all savings bank accounts. SBI has waive charges for non-maintenance of Average Monthly Balance (AMB) for all 44.51 crore savings bank accounts. Earlier, SBI was levying a penalty of Rs 5 to Rs 15 along with taxes on non-maintenance of average monthly balance of Rs 3000, Rs 2000 and Rs 1000 in metro, semi urban and rural areas respectively. Along with the charges for non-maintenance of Average Monthly Balance, the public sector bank has also waived of SMS charges.
Aadhaar-enabled Payment System rolled out by Airtel Payments Bank
The Airtel Payments Bank has launched the Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS). The facility has been launched by the payment bank at over 2,50,000 banking points across India. After the launch of AePS, the customers of any bank with Aadhaar-linked bank accounts will be able to do financial transactions at the designated banking points of Airtel Payments Bank. It will also allow the Airtel Payments Bank’s customers to do financial transactions at any AePS enabled bank. With the launch of the system, the Airtel Payments Bank will be able to service customers of any bank who have an Aadhaar-enabled bank account and hence, head towards the Government of India’s vision of financial inclusion.
External Benchmark Based Lending to Medium Enterprises
The Reserve Bank of India has directed all Scheduled Commercial Banks (excluding RRBs), all Small Finance Banks and all Local Area Banks to link all the new floating rate loans to medium enterprises with external benchmarks. The decision has been taken by the RBI to further strengthen the monetary policy transmission.
RBI has directed the banks that all the all new floating rate loans to the Medium Enterprises extended by banks shall be linked to the external benchmarks. The above directions will be effective from April 01, 2020.
Finance Secretary launches Baroda Startup Banking in 15 cities
Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar inaugurated “Baroda Startup Banking”. It is an initiative aimed at making the Bank of Baroda (BoB) a preferred banking partner for the start-up community and establishing connect with at least 2,000 start-ups over the next two years. The initiative was launched simultaneously across 15 cities in the country.
It will include 15 Baroda Startup branches that will offer a bouquet of tailor-made banking products and services that have been designed keeping in mind the unique and specialized banking requirements of start-ups.
The products include customised current accounts, state-of-the-art payments gateways, corporate credit cards, corporate salary accounts and credit facilities apart from other existing products of the bank. In addition to end-to-end banking solutions for start-ups, the bank will also ensure that it meets the ancillary needs of start-ups by partnering with marquee service providers to assist start-ups by way of cloud credits, mentorship, co-working space, legal/accounting services and other support services.
RBI allows Bandhan Bank to open new branches without prior permission
The Reserve bank of India removes the restrictions placed on Bandhan Bank, allowing it to open new branches without prior permission. The RBI came up with some regulatory conditions & directed the bank to order about 25% of the total banking outlets to be opened in rural areas where banking facilities are not available.
Bandhan Bank was banned from opening a new branch on September 28, 2018, on behalf of the Supreme Court (SC) and the court ordered to freeze the salary of Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, the founder-cum managing director (MD) of the bank, after not fulfilling the shareholding rules. As per the RBI Licensing Guideline, Bandhan Financial Holdings Ltd, the bank promoter was to reduce the company’s share from 82 % to 40 % in 3 years. The deadline for the Bank was August 23, 2019, which it failed to meet.
“EASE 3.0” launched for tech-enabled banking for aspiring India
“Enhanced Access and Service Excellence (EASE) 3.0” has been launched by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman along with the EASE 2.0 Annual Report at Indian Banks’ Association function. This has been launched for smart, tech-enabled banking for aspiring India.
EASE 3.0 is expected to provide advanced solutions to make the public sector banking smart and technology-enabled. Some key facilities like Palm Banking for “End-to-end digital delivery of financial service”, “Banking on Go” via EASE banking outlets at frequently visited spots like campuses, stations, complexes and malls will be provided by the EASE 3.0 reforms agenda. It also aims to digitize the customer’s experience at public sector bank branches.
NPCI launches UPI awareness campaign “UPI Chalega”
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has launched an industry campaign named “UPI Chalega” to promote UPI as Easy, Safe, and Instant mode of payment. The “UPI Chalega” campaign is aimed to guide users towards the right usage of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and help create a habitual change, use of UPI in their daily life. NPCI has launched the campaign in association with the payment ecosystem players.
The UPI, which is a real time fund transfer interface, has significantly scaled since its launch in August 2016 when 92,000 transactions worth Rs 3.1 crore were processed on the NPCI operated platform to over 1.3 billion transactions worth Rs 2.16 trillion in January 2020.
