APRIL

  BANKING AWARENESS

Ø  SBI India’s most trusted bank, ICICI tops in private sector: Brand Trust Report 2018

Ø  TRA Brand Trust Report 2018 on Wednesday said the State Bank of India was the most-trusted bank (both public and private sector) in the country and ICICI topped the chart among the private ones.

Ø  Bandhan Bank among top 50 Most Valuable Brand in India

Ø  Kolkata-based Bandhan Bank Ltd became one of the top 50 most valuable publicly traded firms in India. The market capitalization of Bandhan Bank was at Rs 64,000 crore, claiming 50th rank, according to BSE data. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd is the most valuable company in India, followed by Reliance Industries Ltd and HDFC Bank Ltd.

Ø  Kotak Mahindra becomes second-most-valued bank; Top- HDFC

Ø  Kotak Mahindra Bank pipped SBI to become India’s second-most-valued lender after HDFC Bank in terms of market capitalisation. HDFC Bank remained the country’s most-valuable bank with a market capitalisation of Rs. 5.04 lakh crore.

Ø  RBI imposes Rs 30 million fine on IDBI Bank

Ø  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed a Rs 3 crore penalty on IDBI Bank for not following the central bank’s rules on classification of loans. IDBI bank did not adhere to RBI’s norms on Income Recognition and Asset Classification. RBI said that this action is based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance.

Ø  Deutsche Bank names Christian Sewing new CEO

Ø  Deutsche Bank AG named Christian Sewing as the Chief Executive officer of the Bank. He has replaced John Cryan. Sewing will take over with immediate effect. Garth Ritchie was promoted to sole head of the securities unit and will become a deputy CEO, along with chief administrative officer Karl von Rohr.

Ø  ICICI Bank gets Swift’s new payment service

Ø  ICICI Bank has become first Indian bank to go live on SWIFT’s Global Payment Innovation, an improved cross-border payments service. The service enables real-time payments tracking across correspondent banks & has a facility to track payments instructions across correspondent banks globally.

Ø  RBI bars banks from crypto services

Ø  RBI directed all regulated entities including banks not to provide services to businesses dealing in virtual currencies like bitcoins, so as to protect consumers and check money laundering. The RBI asked entities, which are already into such services to stop providing this kind of services within three months. The RBI has directed all payment system operators to store all data within India.

Ø  RBI constitutes inter-departmental group to study launching of fiat digital currency

Ø  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has constituted an inter-departmental group to study and provide guidance on feasibility to introduce fiat digital currency backed by it. It will be submitted by end-June 2018. Fiat currency is currency that a government has declared to be legal tender.

Ø   

Ø  RBI releases first Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement 2018-19

Ø  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released its First Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement 2018-19. After assessing the current and evolving macroeconomic situation in the economy, the six member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to keep the Repo Rate under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) unchanged at 6.0 percent.

Ø  Axis Bank removed from bullion importers list

Ø  The Reserve Bank of India dropped Axis Bank from a list of banks it has cleared to import gold and silver in the current financial year that began April 1. Bank of Baroda, HDFC Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia were among the 16 banks allowed to import bullion. Two other small banks Karur Vyasa and South Indian Bank were also dropped from the RBI list.

Ø  Allahabad Bank cuts lending rates

Ø  Allahabad Bank has reduced the base rate and benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) by 45 basis points each. The Bank has slashed base rate to 9.15% from 9.60%. BPLR has been brought down to 13.40% from 13.85%.

Ø  Kotak becomes first bank to roll out AI-run voicebot

Ø  Kotak Mahindra Bank has launched the country’s first artificial intelligence-powered voicebot in the banking sector. Keya uses automatic speech recognition, natural language understanding and text-to-speech technology.

Ø  RBI imposes Rs 59 CR fine on ICICI Bank

Ø  The penalty was for violating central bank’s directions pertaining to direct sale of securities. The penalty was imposed in exercise of powers vested in RBI under the Banking Regulation Act, 1949