Banking Awareness Weekly Dose (4th Week) May 2015

1) India’s largest commercial bank SBI on 21 May 2015 signed an MoU with which leading international digital payments company to facilitate cross-border transactions? – PayPal

2) Country’s largest private bank – ICICI Bank on 25 May 2015 launched which new password service for its customers? – Voice Password Service

3) Which private-sector bank on 31 May 2015 announced that it will discontinue issuing slips after cash withdrawals at ATMs and will alert the customer through SMSes? – HDFC Bank

4) The US Department of Justice on 20 May 2015 imposed record $5.7bn fine on 5 banks for rigging foreign exchange markets. Which five banks are involved in this case? – Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), UBS, Citigroup and JP Morgan

5) Bank unions and the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) on 25 May 2015 signed a wage revision agreement, which will benefit 1 million bank employees, including some from foreign and private banks. How much increase in bank employees’ salary and allowances has been agreed to in this agreement? – 15%

6) Which major European country slipped into deflation recently as disclosed by the government on 19 May 2015? – Britain

7) On 26 May 2015 who was appointed as the head of the newly constituted committee that will give recommendations to recast the model of the so-called public-private-partnership (PPP) model in India? – Vijay Kelkar

8) The State Bank of India (SBI) on 20 May 2015 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with which e-commerce entity to develop payment and commerce solutions for customers and small businesses? – Amazon

9) State Bank of India (SBI), on 22 May 2015 reported a better-than-expected 23% increase in quarterly profit for fourth quarter ended March 2015. What was the total net profit during the quarter? – Rs. 3742 crore ($589.11 million)

10) Which Indian stock exchange on 18 May 2015 announced the introduction of the first-of-its-kind Overnight Liquid Fund product which will provide the facility to invest even for a single night in liquid funds? – BSE

Read more »

Banking Awareness - April 2015

1) Anjan Lahiri named new CEO of Birlasoft:  Former Sasken chief executive and Mindtree co-founder Anjan Lahiri has been appointed chief executive of BirlaSoft, the information-technology arm of the CK Birla Group.

2) Tata Teleservices to drop DoCoMo from its telecom brand Tata Docomo: Tata Teleservices has decided to drop the brand DoCoMo from its telecom brand Tata Docomo months before its agreement with Japanese mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo to use the brand ends. In June 2014, Tata and NTT DoCo-Mo reached an understanding under which Tata Teleservices was allowed to use the Tata Docomo brand name for at least a year. As part of the understanding, NTT DoCoMo agreed to let Tata use the brand name in lieu of a "marginal royalty".

3) New income tax forms put on hold: The new income tax return forms, requiring stringent disclosures, are on the hold for now. The tax authorities have made several additions to the income tax return forms for the assessment year 2015-16 seeking details about foreign assets and income from any source outside the country, and details of all bank accounts held in India at any time during the previous year.

4) IAS, IPS officers need government approval before accepting gifts of over Rs 5,000: IAS and IPS officers will now need to take prior permission from the Union government before accepting gifts, including free transportation, boarding and lodging, worth more than Rs 5,000.

5) Elector's Photo Identity Card(EPIC) or  Aadhaar enough to get PAN card: An EPIC or Aadhaar document will now be enough for any individual to obtain PAN card as the Income Tax Department has relaxed the cumbersome procedure of having multiple documents to prove one's own identity. 

6) ICICI launched near-field communications-enabled payment service 'Tap-n-Pay': Largest private sector lender ICICI Bank in collaboration with Tech Mahindra launched a payment service 'Tap-n-Pay' based on the near-field communications (NFC) technology, enabling customers make over-the-counter payments without using cash. It can be used for merchant payments by merely tapping a NFC-enabled mobile phone or a tag on the counter.

7) Federal Bank offers health insurance of Rs 1 lakh for new accounts:  South-based lender Federal Bank announced it will be offering a health insurance of Rs 1 lakh for all new savings accounts under a tie-up with Max Bupa.

8) BHEL commissioned 250-mw thermal power plant in Gujarat: State-owned power equipment maker BHEL has commissioned a 250-mw coal-based thermal power plant in Gujarat.

9) Government introduced bill to raise investment limits for MSME units: Government on 20 April 2015 introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha to enhance the investment limits for micro, small and medium enterprises and also made a provision for enhancing it further through a notification. The investment limits in plant and machinery for the micro enterprises is proposed to be raised to Rs 50 lakh, of small enterprise to Rs 10 crore and medium enterprise to Rs 30 crore. The existing limit are Rs 25 lakh, Rs 5 and Rs 10 crore respectively.

10) Airtel-Vodafone JV deployed Wi-Fi network in Supreme Court premises: FireFly Networks, an equal joint venture between Vodafone India and Bharti Airtel, has equipped the Supreme Court of India with a 24x7 Wi-Fi network with services currently being provided by the local unit of the British telecom major.

Read more »

Banking Awareness Weekly Dose

1. According to information disclosed on 2 March 2015, an agreement was signed between the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) during February 2015 that sets inflation target for the RBI. What is this target? – To bring inflation down to 6% by January 2016

2. The National Payments Corporation of India on Friday announced linking of 15 crore Aadhar cards with various bank accounts in India. With this achievement NPCI has moved a step closer to map its target of linking all 17 crore DBT accounts with Aadhaar numbers by 30 June 2015. 

3. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 4 March 2015 lowered its policy repo rate by 25 basis points. This was the second cut this year on the back of easing inflation and a government commitment to fiscal discipline. What is the new Repo rate after this cut? – 7.5%

4. What important recommendation pertaining to domestic financial institutions (DFIs) was given by the 14th Finance Commission that was tabled in the Parliament on 24 February 2015? – A dedicated panel should be constituted for DFIs

5. One-rupee notes are all set to come back into circulation as the government has decided to restart printing the currency after more than two decades. “The Reserve Bank of India will soon put in circulation currency notes in one rupee denomination. The notes will be printed by the Government of India,” Reserve Bank said .

6. Which state-owned bank of Britain has decided to close its banking operations in India as disclosed recently? – Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS)

7. International rating agency Moody’s on 3 March 2015 downgraded the ratings of some securities of which two public-sector banks? – Central Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank

8.  Inflation targeting was in news recently as Union Government and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 20 February 2015 signed an agreement on Monetary Policy Framework. As per the agreement, RBI accepted to focus on flexible inflation targeting. Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation targets below six per cent by January 2016 and four per cent from 2016-17, with a band of plus/minus two per cent. 

9. The proposed merger of Forwards Markets Commission (FMC) with SEBI as announced in the Union Budget on 28 February 2015 is expected to sound a death knell for the so-called ‘dabba trading’. What is meant by ‘dabba trading’? – Illegal trading in commodities market

10. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cut down repo rate by 25 basis points to 7.5 percent from 7.75 percent, with immediate effect citing that the fiscal consolidation was better than what numbers show and that the combined fiscal deficit is much lower due to the government transferring more funds to the states. However, RBI has kept the cash reserve ratio (CRR) unchanged at 4 percent. 

11. The report of the 14th Finance Commission was tabled in the Parliament by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on 24 February 2015. How much raise in share of states in central taxes has been suggested in this report that has been accepted by the Union Govt.? – 10%

12. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Economic Survey for 2015-16 in the Parliament on 27 February 2015. What the growth forecast is for fiscal year 2015-16 as disclosed in the Survey? – 8.1 to 8.5%

13. Giving a boost to affordable housing, the RBI eased the norms for home loans for up to Rs 10 lakh by allowing banks to include stamp duty and registration charges to the cost of a unit. These charges used to form around 15 per cent of the cost of the house and place a burden on borrowers.

14. Indian capital market regulator SEBI has recently asked individual investment advisers providing opinion on securities or public offers through TV channels or other media platforms to get them registered with it. This is being done with an aim to safeguard Indian markets from any manipulative research reports. These individuals would be registered in which capacity by SEBI for the same? – “Research Analysts”

15. According to the data pertaining to mutual fund industry released on 5 March 2015 the assets under management for the mutual fund industry crossed a milestone figure for the first time during February 2015. What is this milestone figure? – Rs. 12 lakh crore.

Read more »

Banking Awareness Weekly Dose

1) The Finance Ministry on 7 February 2015 announced that it will soon provide capital infusion worth Rs. 6,990 crore to nine public sector banks. This infusion will be made from the Rs. 11,200-crore provided for in this year’s budget for capitalisation of banks. Which bank would get highest capital infusion? – State Bank of India (SBI)

2) The Reserve Bank of India on 3 February 2015 constituted a committee to evaluate applications received for the proposed small finance banks. Who is heading this committee? – Usha Thorat, former Deputy Governor of RBI

3) The Reserve Bank of India on 3 February 2015 constituted a committee to evaluate applications received for payments banks. Who is heading this committee? – Dr. Nachiket Mor, Director, Central Board, RBI

4) Finance Ministry released latest data for the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) on 11 February 2015. According to it, a little more than 127 million new bank accounts have been opened since launch of the scheme on 28 August 2014. What is an important achievement associated with this figure? – The number of people added to the country’s banking system in the past five months is higher than that in the period from 2001 to 2011

5) The RBI on 2 February 2015 directed banks to prominently display the name of unclaimed bank account holders on the websites and provide them with a “Find” option to locate the information easily. What are the present provisions for such unclaimed and inoperative bank accounts? – Banks are required to pay back the amounts laying in inoperative accounts for ten years or more, along with interest

6) Which private bank on 10 February 2015 launched first-of-its-kind digital banking service called “Pockets”, which enables users to instantly send money to any e-mail id, mobile number, friends on Facebook and bank account? – ICICI Bank

7) The largest share sale by a private sector entity and the second largest fund-raising by selling shares in the secondary market in India took place on 5 February 2015 when a leading private bank raised Rs. 9,880 crore. Which bank is this? – HDFC Bank

8) State Bank of India (SBI)’s net profit for the October to December quarter for 2014-15 stood at Rs. 2,910 crore as announced by the bank on 13 February 2015. These results were cheered by the stock and financial markets of the country. Why? – SBI’s bad loans rose only slightly and its asset quality made an improvement

9) Union Govt. on 9 February 2015 came up with a new forecast of annual economic growth that makes India the fastest growing major economy in the world. This became possible as the system of measuring economic activities was changed recently. What is the new growth forecast for year ending 2014-15 according to this? – 7.4%

10) Which country became the world’s top FDI destination during 2014 and thus replaced the United States from top place as disclosed by a latest report by United Nations Conference of Trade and Development (UNCTAD)? – China

Read more »