13.10.2020: Today's Banking / Financial News

13.10.2020: Today's Banking / Financial News at a Glance

🍒 Central Bank of India too Writes Off Rs17,239 Crore Bad Loans of Big Defaulters and Recovers Just 7% in 8 Years : Following the footsteps of other large banks from the public sector, Central Bank of India too wrote off Rs17239.74 crore and recovered a paltry 7% or Rs1205.92 crore over the past eight financial years from big defaulters. As it has become a norm with public sector banks (PSBs), Central Bank too denied sharing names of big defaulters under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Information shared by the bank to Pune-based RTI activist Vivek Velankar shows that the Central Bank has written off Rs17,239.74 crore as technical write-offs in the eight-year period from FY12-13 to FY19-20. As against these write-offs, the recovery was just 7% or Rs1205.92 crore. This applies only to loan defaults of Rs100 crore and more. In its reply, the bank says, "Year-wise recovery in particular accounts of Rs100 crore and above is not available with us. However, total recovery in those accounts till FY2019-20 is Rs1,205.92 crore." - moneylife.

🍒 New Deputy Governor to oversee 6 departments at RBI : Newly-appointed Deputy Governor M Rajeshwar Rao will oversee six departments at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The six departments that Rao will manage are: Regulation; Communication; Enforcement Department; Inspection; Legal ; and Risk Monitoring.The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet had approved the appointment of Rao, Executive Director, RBI, to the post of Deputy Governor on October 7.The fourth Deputy Governor’s position was vacant since NS Vishwanathan quit his position in March, about three months ahead of the completion of his term. Following the elevation of Rao, the RBI now has four Deputy Governors. The other three Deputy Governors are – BP Kanungo, MK Jain and MD Patra. - Business Line

🍒 Lakshmi Vilas Bank board meeting on Oct 15 to consider rights issue : A meeting of the Board of directors of Lakshmi Vilas Bank Limited will be held on Thursday, October 15, to consider and approve the issue of Securities of the bank to existing shareholders on a rights basis. The issue will be subject to necessary regulatory and statutory approvals, LVB informed the exchange. It may be recalled that the Board and shareholder meetings of LVB held on August 26 and September 25, respectively, approved the raising of funds by way of issuance of equity shares or other eligible security. These included global depository receipts, American depository receipts, foreign currency convertible bonds, fully/partly convertible debentures and other instruments, aggregating to not more than Rs l,000 crore. Sources said the lender plans to raise Rs 500-700 crore via rights issue. Many of the existing institutional investors are expected to participate and subscribe to it in order to protect the investments they have already made. - Business Standard

🍒 Exim Bank extends $400 mn soft loan to Maldives for connectivity project : India has extended a USD 400 million (about Rs 2,932 crore) soft loan to Maldives through the Exim Bank to finance a connectivity project in the nation of islands, a statement said on Monday. The Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) on behalf of the Government of India has extended a Line of Credit (LoC) of USD 400 million for undertaking Greater Male's connectivity project in Maldives, the bank said. The loan agreement was inked in Male on Monday between Exim Bank General Manager Nirmit Ved and Maldives' Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer. With the signing of the above agreement, Exim Bank has till date extended three LoCs worth a cumulative USD 1.2 billion to Maldives, on behalf of India. Exim Bank said the soft loans to Maldives have funded connectivity, water, sewerage projects, Addu Development Project, an international cricket stadium, Gulhifalhu port, Hanimaadhoo airport and road construction work. - Business Standard

🍒 Kotak Sec less optimistic on linkages between changes to risk weight and loan growth : Kotak Securities Ltd (KSL) said it is less optimistic on the linkages between changes to risk weight and loan growth, interest rates or credit flow. “It is most likely that there is lack of confidence between lenders to take risk, while borrowers may be less certain of the near-term outlook on their financials leading to a lower off take,” said the wholly-owned subsidiary of Kotak Mahindra Bank in a report. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in its bi-monthly monetary policy on October 9, had announced two primary measures for the banking system to provide liquidity and improve credit flow by modifying the definition pertaining to retail/SME loans. - Business Line

🍒 Axis Bank collaborates with Google Pay, Visa to launch a new ACE Credit card : Axis Bank on Monday announced the launch of its ACE Credit Card in India in collaboration with Google Pay and Visa. The card meant to help with digital payments. From application to issuance, with the entire user journey for the credit card application will be done digitally. For essential use cases, including mobile recharges and bill payments made via Google Pay, users can earn a cashback.of 5 per cent. The company is also offering 4 per cent-5 per cent cashback for expenses on food ordering, online grocery delivery, cab rides for transactions made on partner merchant platforms such as Swiggy, Zomato, BigBasket, Grofers and Ola. There is also an unlimited 2 per cent cashback on other transactions (terms and conditions applied). - Business Line

🍒 FDI routed through Mauritius: RBI move will create transparency and accountability on the source of funding : The Reserve Bank of India’s stance that financial firms can not be set up with funds from Mauritius or other non-FATF-compliant jurisdictions is likely to bring more transparency and accountability into funding in the sector, according to players. But experts have also said the government must clarify on foreign direct investments from Mauritius into the sector. Industry watchers point out that the last few months have seen a surge in investments from China, which is routed from countries such as Mauritius and Cayman Islands. - Business Line

🍒 Rs 11.1 trillion: Amount RBI pumped into banking system to boost liquidity : Measures taken by the Reserve Bank of India during the Covid crisis were driven by the need to expand liquidity in the system sizeably, in order to ensure that financial markets and institutions function normally in the face of Covid-related dislocations, consistent with the monetary policy stance. The liquidity measures were taken as per the revised liquidity management framework introduced on February 14, this year. The central bank reduced the policy repo rate by 40 bps on May 22, on top of a 75 bps reduction on March 27, and introduced a number of liquidity enhancing initiatives that stabilised the bond yields even on the face of a Rs 12 trillion borrowing programme. “In order to make it relatively unattractive for banks to passively park funds with the Reserve Bank and to encourage their deployment for on-lending to productive sectors of the economy, the policy interest rate corridor was widened to 90 bps through a reduction of 25 bps in the reverse repo rate on April 17, 2020,” said the RBI’s monetary policy report. - Business Standard

🍒 ₹10,000 festive advance scheme: Govt to give pre-loaded RuPay cards : In a move to boot consumer demand in the economy during the festive season, the government on Monday announced a slew of schemes such as payment of cash in lieu of LTC and ₹10,000 festival advance to government employees. Festival advance along with similar advances were abolished on the recommendation of the 7th pay commission. But to spur consumer demand in an economy hit by coronavirus pandemic, the government decided to restore it as a one-time measure. "All Central Government employees can now get an interest-free advance of Rs. 10,000, to be spent by 31st March, 2021 on the choice of festival of the employee. The interest-free advance is recoverable from the employee in maximum 10 instalments," the Finance Ministry said in a statement. - Live Mint

12.10.2020: Today's Banking / Financial News

12.10.2020: Today's Banking / Financial News at a Glance

🍒 Five of 12 PSU bank stocks trade near face value : Five out of 12 public sector banks are trading near the face value of their equity shares on bourses regardless of a rally in stock benchmark indices, according to an analysis. Shares of state-run Indian Overseas Bank are even trading below the face value of Rs 10 per share. On the BSE, the stock closed at Rs 9.27 on Friday when the benchmark index Sensex closed at 40,509. The Chennai-based bank tapped the market first in September 2000 offloading part of the government’s stake at par or at the face value of Rs 10 per share. Remaining four public sector banks of Bank of Maharashtra, UCO Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank and Central Bank of India are trading near the face value of Rs 10 per share. Shares of Punjab & Sind Bank closed at Rs 10.81 per unit, Bank of Maharashtra’s at 11.29 per unit on Friday. Mumbai-based Central Bank of India is slightly better positioned with closing price of Rs 12.45 per share followed by Kolkata-based UCO Bank at 12.14 per unit. Religare Broking Ltd Chief Operating Officer Gurpreet Sidana said, “We’ve witnessed a remarkable recovery in the benchmark in the last few months but the PSU banking pack is still struggling. After the initial rebound, mostly PSU banking stocks are again hovering closer to their 52-week lows.” There are multiple overhangs on the sectors including asset quality concerns, subdued business environment and low credit offtake causing deterioration in stock prices, he said. Central Bank of India plans to mop up Rs 5,000 crore of equity capital through various modes, including follow on public offer and rights issue, to maintain its capital adequacy ratio. As per Basel III regulations, banks are required to maintain minimum common equity tier-1 (CET 1) ratio of 5.50 per cent plus capital conservation buffer (CCB) of 2.50 per cent in the form of equity capital, tier-1 ratio of 9.50 per cent and overall CRAR of 11.50 per cent. - financial express

🍒 Rajan, Acharya may be off mark: PSU banks need strategy and focus to survive, not privatisation as remedy : It is interesting that two of India's biggest brand-name economists, former Reserve Bank governor Raghuram Rajan and former deputy governor Viral Acharya, have spoken for the "re-privatisation" of public sector banks even as the nation debates a controversial couple of agriculture reform bills splitting the political class. As we shall see, the twain may well be inter-linked. As it happens, the rockstar economists (Acharya literally wields the guitar as well as an amateur musician) are officially ensconced back in their chairs in US academia. They may well be far removed from both India and its political economy though they do have their logic. They are speaking more from the orthodoxy of market economics in full-employment economies and its implicit ideological baggage in saying what they did. No doubt, in a globally integrated economy such as India with a substantial market to maintain, their words ought to carry weight. Reports on the paper the two economists have authored says a "select" few PSU banks may be privatised. It is not clear if they intend this only as part of a structured solution with a focus on ownership — which is not a bad idea — or whether they want a situation where all state-run banks are intended to be privatised. - first post

🍒 Digital payments soar manifold in 5 years to FY20: RBI : Concerted efforts by the Reserve Bank to move to a non/less-cash economy by pushing digital payments have begun to pay rich dividends as the volume of such payments has jumped manifold in the past five years, the latest data from the central bank showed. Between 2015-16 and 2019-20, digital payments have grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 55.1 per cent - from 593.61 crore in the year to March 2016 to 3,434.56 crore in the year to March 2020. In absolute terms, value has grown from Rs 920.38 lakh crore to Rs 1,623.05 lakh crore during this period, clipping at an annual compounded rate of 15.2 per cent. Giving a year-wise data, in 2016-17 digital payments jumped to 969.12 crore from 593.61 crore in the previous year in volume terms, while in value the same rose to Rs 1,120.99 lakh crore. - economic times

🍒 Govt may consider allowing GST deposit on cash basis: PwC report : The government may consider allowing India Inc to deposit GST on cash basis to help them tide over the liquidity woes during the COVID-19 pandemic, a PwC report said. It said while formalising its support strategy for the industry in the next phase, the government could also consider suspending GST payments for select sectors during the COVID-19 period. In its report titled 'Reimagining GST@3', PwC said cash liquidity support schemes that advance business continuity are the need of the hour. "The government has announced a timely budgetary support scheme in line with the relief packages of various developed nations. Despite these steps, much ground remains to be covered," it said. - economic times

🍒 RBI to move to next generation treasury application for managing forex, gold reserves : In a bid to improve its functioning, the Reserve Bank has decided to move to the Next Generation Treasury Application (NGTA) for managing the country's foreign exchange and gold reserves. The NGTA, according to the RBI, would be a web-based application providing scalability, maneuverability and flexibility to introduce new products and securities, besides supporting multi-currency transactions and settlements. The NGTA, for which the RBI has invited bids from eligible vendors, would be supporting various transactions in asset classes like Fixed Income (FI), Forex (FX), Money Market (MM) and Gold. "RBI proposes to implement the NGTA which would be used for managing the foreign exchange reserves in a more efficient way, mitigate risk, achieve operational efficiencies, dealing in various asset classes and reporting," the bid document said.- economic times

🍒 Registered Valuers Organisations: IBBI standardises meeting norms of Disciplinary Committee and Appellate Panel : Insolvency regulator IBBI has clamped down on varying practices in the conduct of meetings of the Disciplinary Committee (DC) and the Appellate Panel (AP) of the Registered Valuers Organisations (RVO), which are the frontline organisations for the development and regulation of valuation profession. It has come up with series of directions to be followed by the DC and AP of the RVO while conducting their meetings including stipulation that meetings be held only if there is an agenda and preferably through a video conferencing facility, keeping in view the current pandemic. Accordingly, the meeting of the DC will be held for considering the issue or disposal of a show cause notice to a member, said an IBBI circular. The meeting of an AP would be held to consider the issues raised in the appeal filed by the aggrieved against the order passed by the DC, the circular added. - Business Line

🍒 'Banks, NBFCs to witness increased polarisation,' says HDFC Securities. Here are the top picks : Despite an uptick in real economic activity and fresh disbursals, there has been a slower year-on-year credit growth. "Disclosures by select lenders and trends in non-food credit growth suggest this too. We expect banks/NBFCs with our coverage to report credit growth of 7.3/5.8% YoY vs. 8.2/7.1% in 1QFY21," says a report by HDFC Securities. The broker's report on banks and NBFCs state that the deposit growth is likely to have exceeded credit growth for their coverage banks, and they expect large private banks to have fared particularly well on this front. HDFC Securities expect the space to witness increased polarisation in the space. "Consequently, larger banks with sufficient capital, strong granular liability franchises, and a good asset quality track record are expected to emerge stronger," says the report by HDFC Securities. ICICI Bank (SoTP of ₹496), Axis Bank (SoTP of ₹619), and City Union Bank (TP of ₹196) are HDFC Securities top picks among the banks. CIFC (TP of ₹289) is their top pick in the NBFC space. - Live Mint

🍒 Irdai panel for lower entry-level capital for micro-insurance companies : An Irdai committee has suggested reduction in entry-level capital requirement for standalone micro-insurance companies to Rs 20 crore from the current Rs 100 crore with a view to accelerate expansion of this segment of insurance market in the country. The committee set up by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) to suggest steps to promote micro-insurance said that like other nations India too will need to attract multiple players if it wants to substantially increase insurance penetration. “This is all the more urgent in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic when millions of Indians, especially in the informal sector, have lost their livelihoods, are now leading more insecure lives and are falling back into poverty,” the report of the committee said. It noted that for low-income families, calamities such as illnesses, accidents, death or the loss of assets often have very grave financial consequences. Such events can push these families deeper into poverty as their meagre resources get depleted. Many get drawn into debt traps as they borrow beyond their means, sell productive assets, take children out of school or put them to work, compromise on food, or leave sickness untreated, it said. - financial express

🍒 FPIs pump in net Rs 1,086 crore so far in October : Foreign portfolio investors (FPI) have invested Rs 1,086 crore on a net basis so far in October in Indian markets, tracking encouraging factors including improved GST collection, acceleration in economic activity and positive global cues. According to the depositories data, overseas investors pumped in a net Rs 5,245 crore into equities and withdrew Rs 4,159 crore from the debt market during October 1-9. This translated into a total net inflow of Rs 1,086 crore. In September, FPIs were net sellers at Rs 3,419 crore. - moneycontrol.com

🍒 Sensex, Nifty jump 4% last week; will the rally sustain? Here's what 10 top analysts say ; Market benchmarks logged gains for the seventh consecutive day in a row on October 9, the longest winning streak seen so far in 2020. The S&P BSE Sensex reclaimed mount 40K, while Nifty50 closed above 11900 levels and is on track to retest record highs by December 2020.For the week, the action was limited to benchmark indices as broader markets saw profit booking. The S&P BSE Sensex rose 4.6 percent while the Nifty50 was up 4.3 percent for the week ended October 9 compared to a 0.3 percent fall seen in the S&P BSE Midcap index, and a flat closing seen in the S&P BSE Small-cap index for the same period. The market is teeming with positivity. However, in-between profit-booking cannot be ruled out, experts believe. - moneycontrol.com

11.10.2020: Today's Banking / Financial News

11.10.2020: Today's Banking / Financial News at a Glance

🍒 ACC extends tenure of 3 Executive Directors of PSU banks : The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the extension of the term of three Executive Directors (EDs) in various Public Sector Banks (PSBs). The Department of Financial Services in the Finance Ministry had made these proposals based on the recommendations of the Banks Board Bureau (BBB). While Matam Venkata Rao, Executive Director of Canara Bank, has been given an extension of two years -- beyond his earlier term that expired on October 8, the term of Ajay Kumar Srivastava, Executive Director of Indian Overseas Bank, has also been extended by two years from the same date. The ACC has also approved the extension of the term of Debashish Mukherjee, Executive Director of Canara Bank for a period of two years from February 18, 2021 -- when his current term is due to expire, according to an executive order issued by the Department of Personal Training. - Business Line

🍒 'Interest on interest': Can’t go beyond relief already announced, Centre tells SC : Amid demands for succour from sectors such as real estate, the Centre on Friday said it would not be possible to add to the already announced financial relief packages and waive compound interest for the six-month loan repayment moratorium period. It also urged the Supreme Court against getting into sector-specific financial assistance, arguing that fiscal policy is the exclusive domain of the Union government. The Centre clearly indicated it would not be possible to revise the Rs 2 crore limit on loans that would benefit from its proposal. It said this had been arrived at after considerable deliberations. “Fiscal policy is the remit of the government,” the finance ministry said an affidavit. - economic times

🍒 Reserve Bank of India appeals to Supreme Court to allow NPA classification : India's central bank has appealed to the country's top court to let banks classify loans as nonperforming, saying a ban imposed to help borrowers in the COVID-19 pandemic could greatly harm the nation's financial system. The Reserve Bank of India, in a filing to the Supreme Court late on Friday, warned that failure to immediately lift an interim stay on banks classifying any loan as a non-performing asset (NPA) would also undermine the central bank's regulatory mandate. The court granted the stay last month, responding to a plea filed by an Indian optician, later joined by a wide range of borrowers whose income or revenue was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The court is set to rule on the matter on Tuesday. The ruling could have far-reaching consequences not only for millions of borrowers, but also for banks and the country, as state-run banks dominate the sector. - economic times

🍒 Government allows bulk transfer of provident fund from exempted establishments : In a move aimed at improving the ease of doing business, government has allowed bulk transfer of provident fund from exempted establishments to the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation in one go. The move is expected to benefit 1500 exempted establishments of EPFO. Till now exempted establishments had to approve and transfer the funds one-by-one for each member. Consequently, larger establishments requiring to transfer the funds of many employees each day, found the process very cumbersome and time taking. Under the new facility, exempted establishments can bulk upload data and transfer the funds for large number of members, through a single payment. "This will enhance ease of doing business by increasing the speed of funds transfer for exempted establishments," EPFO said in a statement.- economic times

🍒 Moratorium period exceeding six months may result in vitiating overall credit discipline: RBI to SC : A loan moratorium exceeding six months might result in “vitiating the overall credit discipline”, which will have a “debilitating impact” on the process of credit creation in the economy, the Reserve Bank of India has told the Supreme Court. In an af

fidavit filed in the apex court in the loan moratorium case, the RBI has said that a long moratorium period could impact credit behaviour of borrowers and increase the risks of delinquencies post resumption of scheduled payments. The banking regulator fled the affidavit in pursuance to the apex court's October 5 order asking the Centre and the RBI to place on record the K V Kamath committee recommendations on debt restructuring because of COVID-19 related stress on various sectors as well as the notifications and circulars issued so far on loan moratorium.- economic times

🍒 PSBs on-board 1.5 crore account holders on digital payment modes in 45 days : The Finance Ministry on Friday said that public sector banks (PSBs) have on-boarded about 1.5 crore customers on digital payment modes in just 45 days of launch of the ‘Digital Apnayen’ campaign. The campaign, aimed at encouraging customers to use digital banking channels, was launched on August 15 under the aegis of the government’s Digital India initiative. “Pushing digital payment adoption further with the #DigitalApnayen campaign! Started on 15th Aug’20, DFS’s campaign has already onboarded >1.58 Cr. Customers and has resulted in deployment of 50k PoS, >3L QR codes & 18k BHIM Aadhaar pay devices in just 45 days,” Department of Financial Services said in a tweet. Under the campaign, banks were asked to on-board a minimum 100 new customers including merchants and financial inclusion account holders by each branch on digital payment mode. - financial express

🍒 RBI makes TLTROs on-tap, extends fund use to loans : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday expanded on its liquidity measures to make the targeted long term repo operations (TLTRO) available on tap and extend the use of money raised under this window to loans given by banks. Industry executives and analysts said while the expanded scheme is meant to enable smaller firms to access funds, details on eligibility will be key. The new format is also aimed at leaving banks with few excuses to not lend aggressively, NBFC chiefs said. RBI governor Shaktikanta Das said that the central bank will conduct on-tap TLTROs with tenors of up to three years for a total amount of up to Rs 1 lakh crore at a floating rate linked to the policy repo rate. The scheme will be available up to March 31, 2021, with flexibility with regard to enhancement of the amount and period after a review of the response to the scheme. Liquidity availed by banks under the scheme has to be deployed in corporate bonds, commercial papers, loans and non-convertible debentures issued by entities in specific sectors over and above the outstanding level of their investments in such instruments as on September 30, 2020. - financial express

🍒 Care Ratings downgrades Lakshmi Vilas Bank’s debt instruments : Care Ratings has downgraded a slew of unsecured redeemable non-convertible subordinated lower tier II bonds already issued by Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) and additional tier- I bonds that are yet to be issued by the troubled private sector lender. Majority of the ratings have been revised down to Care BB- negative (double BB minus, outlook negative) from Care BB+ negative (double B plus, outlook negative). The revision in ratings assigned to various debt instruments of LVB to the tune Rs 618.70 crore factors in the sharp decline in the net worth due to significant losses reported in FY20 and Q1FY21. The bank reported total CAR and tier I CAR of 0.17% and (-)1.83%, respectively, as on June 30, 2020, Care Ratings said. - financial express

🍒 RBI extends SLR holdings in HTM category till March 2022 : n order to provide certainty to banks, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday extended the time period for statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) holdings in held to maturity (HTM) category by one year till March, 2022. Earlier in September, the central bank had increased the limits of SLR holdings under HTM category to 22% from previous 19.5% of the net demand and time liabilities (NDTL) till March, 2021.This dispensation is available to banks for securities acquired between September 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021. Bankers feel that move by RBI will provide cushion in terms of planning for them. “The opening of HTM window upto March 31, 2022 is a much needed move, otherwise we were worried about planning after March, 2021, ” a senior bank official told FE. “In the absence of this order, we were supposed to shift these securities from HTM category to available for sale (AFS) category from first quarter of next financial year.” The investment portfolio of banks is classified under held to maturity (HTM), available for sale (AFS) and held for trading (HFT) category. The holding of securities under HTM provides cushion for banks from valuation changes. - financial express

🍒 RBI allows HFCs to lend with banks under co-origination model : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday allowed housing finance companies (HFCs) to collaborate with banks for priority sector lending under co-origination model. In 2018, RBI had put in place a framework for co-origination of loans by banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs). However, HFCs were not allowed to co-lend with banks under this model. Lenders believe that move from RBI may bring down interest rates for HFCs. Although, this model has not taken a broad shape since inception, bankers said that latest move from RBI may bring best of banks and NBFC together. Dinesh Kumar Khara, chairman, State Bank of India (SBI), said that the decision to operationalise the co-origination model is right as it brings the best of banks and NBFC together. This will surely increase the reach of the financial sector at such a critical point, he added. In an interaction with CNBC TV 18, S S Mallikarjuna Rao, MD and CEO, Punjab national Bank (PNB), said the interest rate may come down for loans given by housing finance companies as a result of co-lending. Although, co-lending has not taken a broad shape since 2018, but we expect it to go little further at least in housing segment, he further said. - financial express

🍒 ‘Regulators have ignored handholding’ : Just like the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), which was set up to hear and dispose of appeals against orders passed by the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), it is time to create an appellate tribunal for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to make the banking regulator accountable and its decisions more transparent, said former Supreme Court Justice BN Srikrishna on Friday. He was speaking at the BusinessLine Knowledge Series webinar on ‘Is the long arm of the regulator hurting the markets?’. The webinar, powered by BSE, was moderated by Palak Shah, Senior Assistant Editor, BusinessLine.- Business Line

🍒 LIC to offer 24 cr shares at ₹320/per share for Vedanta delisting : Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) is likely to seek ₹320 per share from Vedanta promoters in the delisting issue of the company, sources told Business Line. Data from stock exchange website showed that around 40 crore shares were being offered at ₹320 and there were only 2 orders offering such huge number of shares. The confirmed quantity was around 4 crore shares and cumulative confirmed quantity stood at around 40 crore shares. LIC holds about 24 crore shares in the company and is its largest non-promoter shareholder. -

Deputy Governor of RBI

The appointments committee of the Cabinet has cleared the name of M Rajeswar Rao for the post of Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the government said in a release on October 7.

Rao is presently Executive Director at RBI.

An economics graduate and a MBA, he is also a CAIIB. He joined RBI in 1984 and as career central banker has exposure in various aspects of central bank functioning. He was earlier in charge of risk monitoring department and has also worked as the Banking Ombudsman, New Delhi and in RBI’s regional offices at Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chennai and New Delhi.

PRADHANMANTRI JAN DHAN YOJANA

➡"PRADHANMANTRI JAN DHAN YOJANA"

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 28 launched his government's mega scheme 'Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana', an ambitious scheme for comprehensive financial inclusion. According to Prime Minister, in a country where 40 per cent of the population does not have access to banking services, this programme would mark the beginning of the end of "financial untouchability" and rid the country of poverty. The scheme has been started with a target to provide 'universal access to banking facilities'. On the inaugural day, a record 1.5 crore bank accounts were opened across the country, the largest such exercise on a single day possibly anywhere in the world. Currently, around 41% of the population is unbanked, of which 33% are in urban areas and 46% in rural.

Salient points of Prime Minister’s ambitious Jan Dhan Yojana are given below:

✅1. About 15 million accident insurance policies done on a single day and same number of bank accounts opened.

✅2. Programme held at around 77,000 locations.

✅3. Target to cover 7.5 crore households with at least one account will be achieved by Jan 26, 2015.

✅4. Coverage of all households with at least one basic banking account.

✅5. Account holders will be provided zero-balance bank account with RuPay debit card, in addition to inbuilt accidental insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh.

✅6. Additional Rs.30,000 free life assurance cover for those opening bank accounts before Jan 26, 2015.

✅7. Holders can avail overdraft of Rs 5,000 subject to satisfactory operations of the account for six months.

✅8. Universal access to banking facilities for all households through a bank branch or a fixed point business correspondent called "Ba".

✅9. Financial literacy to be imparted up to village level.

✅10. Under the Jan Dhan Yojana, all benefits from the Centre/states/local bodies are proposed to be transferred to the accounts of beneficiaries.

✅11. Platform has been built by the National Payment Corporation of India that connects all banks and all telephone networks in the country. With the introduction of new technology introduced by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), a person can transfer funds, check balance through a normal phone.

✅12. Mobile banking for the poor would be available through National Unified USSD Platform (NUUP) for which all banks and mobile companies have come together.

✅13. The second phase of rollout will involve providing micro-insurance to people and schemes like 'Swavalamban'.

✅14. Households being targeted instead of only being villages targeted earlier.

✅15. For the entire exercise, the existing banking network will be strengthened - it will rope in an additional 50,000 business correspondents and set up about 7,000 branches and 20,000 new automated teller machines, in the first phase.

✅16. PMJDY also aimed at eliminating corruption as it would facilitate routing of subsidies directly into the accounts of intended beneficiaries.

✅17. Presently, one account is being opened for one adult of each household and by 2018, the mandate is to make it two per household, with the compulsory inclusion of the lady of the house.

✅18. The government would institute a credit guarantee fund post-August 2015.