Banking and Financial Awareness April 2018-Week I

SBI Signed MoU with IMGC

India’s largest Public sector bank SBI and India Mortgage Guarantee Corporation (IMGC) has signed an agreement to offer mortgage guarantee scheme for planned non-salaried and self-employed home loan clients.
The offering will further increase home loan eligibility up to 15 percent within the administrative criteria.
India Mortgage Guarantee Corporation (IMGC) is India’s first Mortgage Guarantee Company which facilitates Mortgage Guarantee.

Axis Bank, India’s private sector bank, has opened a new representative branch in Sharjah, UAE.
It is to offer better in the emirate world and to increase its retail facilities to clients in the neighbouring northern emirates country.
This is the third Axis Bank branch in the UAE after Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

All the public sector banks will be going to link their SWIFT based systems with their own Core Banking Solution (CBS) systems by the end of April 30 as a standard to deter fraud.
The state-run banks also determined to speed up the process of taking out “cyber insurance”.
Government Signs Guarantee Of Rs 5,000cr for IRFC Bonds
The Ministry of Finance has confirmed the Government guarantee of Rs 5,000 crore in the current fiscal year for the IRFC bonds to be contributed by the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC).
The movement will moreover ease the flow of borrowed funds for the Railways Ministry to undertake the project.

The RBI is set to launch a new denomination coin of Rs 350 to denote the 350th Birth Anniversary of Shri Guru Gobind Singh Ji.
The front surface of the coin will have ‘Ashoka Pillar’ carved on it, with the legend “Satyamev Jayate” written below.
The reverse surface of the coin will have a picture of ‘Takht Shri Harimandir Ji Patna Sahib’.

SWIFT announces the expansion of its GPI Tracker to recount all payment instructions sent across the network, which enables GPI banks to track all their SWIFT payment instructions at all the times, and giving them full clarity over all their payments activity.
The Tracker automatically presents status updates to all GPI banks involved in any GPI payment chain and allows linked banks to verify when a payment has been completed.

The Export-Import Bank will give a USD 500 million credit service to Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to fund various expansion projects in the western-south African country.
By signing of line of credit (LoC) pact, the Exim Bank till the date has continued four Letter of Credit to the Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) of West African States, considering the cumulative value of LOCs to USD 1,000 million.

India's Private sector lender HDFC Bank has signed an agreement with the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) under which the HDFC bank will promote a host of services to the general public procurement portal for Central and state government organisations.
The MoU is important as Government e-marketplace will convey transparency and efficiency in the procurement process with guaranteed and convenient payment to the sellers.

Equitas Small Finance Bank has started a new ‘Yellow Army Savings Account’ to expand its customer base through its alliance with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), a franchise of the Indian Premium League (IPL).
The yellow army savings account will give an interest rate of 6% per annum for balance below Rs10 lakh and 6.5% yearly for the balance above Rs10 lakh.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of India have confirmed $80 million loan agreement to support modernize technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions and enhance the skills ecosystem in the Himachal Pradesh.
The project will promote the skill initiatives taken by the Government of Himachal Pradesh and assist the State step-up the reform and scale-up its skill improvement efforts.

The Reserve Bank of India has imposed a penalty of Rs. 58.9 crore on ICICI Bank Limited, India's private sector bank, for non-compliance with the regulations issued by the RBI on direct sale of securities from bank's Held to Maturity (HTM) portfolio and defined disclosure in this regard.
The Central Bank has put this penalty on the basis of the exercise of powers vested with the RBI under the provisions of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, taking into account failure of the bank to adhere to central bank's directions or guidelines.

The stock market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has approved the physical settlement of both stock options and stock futures. Currently, only cash settlement of derivatives is allowed to settle physically.
SEBI declared stock exchanges will also have the flexibility to offer a blending of cash settlement for stock options and physical settlement for stock or vice a versa.