He said the transformation brought about by the fintech sector in India is not just limited to technology, but its social impact is far-reaching. He also stressed that fintech has dented the parallel economy and is bridging the gap between villages and cities on the financial services front. The prime minister also said that in the last 10 years, the fintech space has attracted investments of more than $31 billion and fintech startups have grown by 500 per cent.
Several banks and housing finance companies have come under the scanner of the competition watchdog for imposing penalty on pre-payment of loans.
State Bank of India (SBI) is willing to work with Russian banks not facing sanctions and remain on the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) network to open a special rupee vostro account (SRVA) for invoicing in Indian currency. The country's largest lender in a statement said it has not been identified as the nodal bank for handling Russia-related transactions. In July, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed banks in India, including SBI, to open an SRVA to promote invoicing in Indian rupee, subject to certain safeguards. Accordingly, the bank in a statement said it is "making necessary arrangements and processing requests received from various banks, including Russian banks", following guidelines laid out by the RBI.
'I am shocked that the BJP makes so many commitments. What did they deliver as the NDA?'
The most common complaint of financial consumers is cumbersome processes, complicated products, usurious charges, and mis-selling of products, which finally don't deliver what is promised or as expect, notes Debashis Basu.
It's mid-morning and the two-kilometre stretch from Rashbehari Avenue to Gariahat Market is bustling with activity. Dotted with saree shops and hawker stalls that sell everything, from hairpins, hangers and towels to hosiery, mobile phone covers and kurtas, this is one of South Kolkata's busiest shopping areas. And it is beginning to wake up to the Paytm crisis.
A merchant using the bank's merchant App, QR code, PoS or Payment gateways, across all segments, including electronics, apparel, grocery, stand to win assured cashback and prizes on volume build-up, EMI or digital transactions.
India SME Forum, an organisation for small and medium businesses, has called for creating a dedicated fund of Rs 5000 crore for the export capacity development, promotion, and marketing of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in its Budget recommendation. The forum for MSMEs with over 98,000 members said that to enhance India's global competitiveness and increase its market share in global exports, it was "crucial to increase the number of active exporters and enable at least 3-4 lakh first-time micro, small, and medium exporters while supporting them in promoting Indian products globally."
India recorded a current account surplus of $5.7 billion or 0.6 per cent of GDP in the March quarter, the Reserve Bank of India said on Monday. This is the first time in ten quarters that the crucial metric of the country's external strength has turned into surplus mode. In the year-ago period, the current account deficit stood at $1.3 billion or 0.2 per cent of GDP, and the same was $8.7 billion or 1 per cent of GDP in the preceding quarter ending December 2023.
The banks are not ready to open accounts of the beneficiaries through the IT-enabled financial inclusion programme, which is running on a pilot basis in various districts of the state. "The panchayat staff do not co-operate with our business correspondents. They do not come forward to endorse the identity of the beneficiaries. How can we open accounts," asked an official from State Bank of Indore.
In a major decision, the RBI on Friday announced that UPI payment limit to hospitals and educational institutions will be raised to Rs 5 lakh from Rs 1 lakh at present and hiked the cap for e-mandates for recurring payments to Rs 1 lakh. Unveiling the December bi-monthly monetary policy, Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das said the limit for various categories of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions has been reviewed from time to time. "It is now proposed to enhance the UPI transaction limit for payment to hospitals and educational institutions from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh per transaction," he said.
Public sector banks (PSBs) posted 16.1 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth in net profit at Rs 39,974 crore during the June 2024 quarter. While net interest income (NII) showed subdued growth of 7.1 per cent, provisions and contingencies declined by 10.5 per cent Y-o-Y. This aided the bottom line to show steady growth.
Several Indian banks have alerted their customers not to download apps from any source other than official app stores. Banking customers are being targeted by a new type of mobile banking malware campaign using SOVA Android Trojan. This malware captures the credentials when users log onto their net-banking apps and access bank accounts. The new version of SOVA appears to be targeting more than 200 mobile applications, including banking apps and crypto wallets.
Gold imports more than doubled in August to a record high of $10.06 billion, mainly on account of a drastic cut in customs duty and ongoing festive demand, according to the Commerce Ministry data. Gold imports stood at $4.93 billion in August 2023. On record high imports, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said that the tariff rates on gold have been reduced drastically so that smuggling and other activities can come down.
What is digital house arrest? It is a tactic cybercriminals use to confine victims to their homes and scam them, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Payment aggregators should have a minimum net worth of Rs 100 crore and if they don't manage to arrange that money within one year of putting out final guidelines, they should stop doing their business, says central bank's draft paper.
As on April 1, income tax arrears have increased to Rs 43 trillion from Rs 24 trillion on April 1, 2023.
India Post Payments Bank and Unique Identification Authority of India under an arrangement will allow postmen to update mobile numbers of Aadhaar cardholders. The service will be available through a network of 650 India Post Payments Bank, 1.46 lakh postmen and Gramin Dak Sevaks (GDS).
The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday extended the timeline by six months to comply with its guidelines related to recurring online transactions with Additional Factor of Authentication (AFA), but reprimanded players that the non-compliance is a "serious concern". RBI had directed all banks including RRBs, NBFCs, and payment gateways to comply with AFA for automatic recurring payment by March 31, 2021, in order to make digital transaction safe and protect customers from fraudulent transactions. However, some of the players failed to meet the deadline and approached the RBI seeking extension of the deadline.
The service will be available through its 1,000-plus ATMs spread across the country. The bank has received an approval from the Central Board of Direct Taxes for this facility in the country.
The bank has over 1.15 crore registered mobile banking customers.
The Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) will pay the depositors of 21 stressed cooperative banks, including the Punjab & Maharashtra Co-Operative Bank (PMC Bank), up to Rs 5 lakh within 90 days. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had imposed restrictions on the withdrawal of deposits from these banks. Of the 21 banks, 11 are from Maharashtra, five from Karnataka, and one each from Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Punjab.
'Das is friendly, but he finally does what he does. The quality of engagement is very good.'
Markets regulator Sebi has ordered the attachment of bank accounts and shares and mutual fund holdings of fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi to recover dues totalling Rs 5.35 crore. The latest decision has been taken after Choksi failed to pay the fine imposed on him in October 2022 by Sebi in a case pertaining to indulging in fraudulent trading in the shares of Gitanjali Gems Ltd. Choksi, who was the chairman and managing director as well as part of the promoter group of Gitanjali Gems, is the maternal uncle of Nirav Modi, both of whom are facing charges of defrauding state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) of more than Rs 14,000 crore.
'We went from zero to about 10 million users in three months. Paytm came out with the wallet play and we came out with the UPI play.'
Benefiting from higher credit off-take and loan repricing, listed commercial banks are expected to post 43.9 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth in their net profit in the quarter ended June 30 (Q1FY24), analysts have said. Controlled credit costs due to a healthy asset quality profile and a steady treasury book will also support a strong bottom line for the lenders in the first quarter. However, net profit may shrink sequentially, according to analysts' estimates for 13 banks sourced from Bloomberg data.
From its lows this month, the stock of Bharti Airtel is up 14 per cent. The gains for the telco have come on the back of expectations that market share consolidation, tariff hike and lower capex should boost margins and profits. While the company is a key player in the Indian market, it also has a leadership position in major markets of Africa.
An article on 'State of the Economy' in the monthly Bulletin also said the improvement in the outlook for agriculture and the revival of rural spending have turned out to be the bright spots in the evolution of demand conditions. Consumer price inflation ticked up in June 2024 after three consecutive months of moderation as a broad flare-up in vegetable prices halted the overall disinflation that had been underway, it said.
The highest-ever goods and services tax (GST) evasion has been done by the online money gaming industry.
The size of Reserve Bank's balance sheet increased by 11.08 per cent to Rs 70.47 lakh crore as on March 2024, leading to the highest-ever dividend payout to the government, according to the central bank's annual report. In actual terms, the increase was Rs 7,02,946.97 crore over Rs 63.45 lakh crore as on March 2023.
Nobody is held accountable for lapses, no matter how badly it affects the person or business whose accounts are frozen. Nor is there compensation for losses. Most people get to know their accounts are blocked only when a cheque bounces, points out Debashis Basu.
To check digital frauds, the government has disconnected 70 lakh mobile numbers so far involved in cybercrime or financial frauds, Financial Services Secretary Vivek Joshi said on Tuesday. Emerging from a meeting to discuss issues related to financial cyber security and increasing digital payment fraud, Joshi, who chaired the meeting, said banks have been asked to strengthen the system and processes in this regard. More such meetings would take place, he said, adding the next meeting is scheduled in January.
Competition watchdog CCI has asked about two dozen banks and housing finance companies, including HDFC, ICICI Bank, and LICHF, to explain their imposing penalty on borrowers for pre-payment of home loans. The Competition Commission of India, according to official sources, has sent notices to major home loan players after examining a report of Director General (Investigations) which found evidences against banks for misusing their dominant position.
Bandhan Bank said on Monday that it has been empanelled by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to act as an agency bank to facilitate transactions related to government businesses. The RBI's decision will help Bandhan Bank in contributing to nation-building, its MD and CEO Chandra Sekhar Ghosh said. The announcement comes months after a RBI guideline that authorised scheduled private sector banks as agency banks of the regulator for the conduct of government business.
Total payments in the economy grew 24.08 per cent to Rs117.43 trillion in value terms in June, compared to Rs94.64 trillion in May.
'Compare the new slabs with the previous years to understand if your tax liability will increase or decrease after the Budget.'
After a gruelling 24 hours, the PhonePe team has fully restored UPI on the payment platform. The app is up and running again with ICICI Bank as its new partner with all payment instruments enabled.
The bank has said rent payments will not earn reward points, and redemption of reward points on various cards have been capped in certain segments.
The firm chooses UP for payments bank launch in February. Karan Choudhury reports.
The need for money among banks, especially for short-term funds, may turn more intense in the last month of the financial year to feed the demand for capital for tax payments and meet year-end targets. The mobilisation of funds via the certificate of deposits (CDs) has seen a threefold increase to over Rs 60,000 crore in the fortnight that ended February 23 from around Rs 20,000 crore in the fortnight of January 26, 2024, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data.
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