State Bank of India (SBI) wants to extend its footprint to 11,943 unbanked villages, with a population of at least 2,000, this financial year. The country's largest lender recently submitted its plan to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Walmart-owned digital payments app Phonepe on Thursday said it has raised $350 million at a valuation of $12 billion in a funding round led by private equity firm General Atlantic. "Marquee Global and Indian investors are also participating in the round," PhonePe said in a statement adding the investment marks the first tranche of an up to $1 billion total fundraise that commenced in January 2023. The fundraise follows PhonePe's recently announced change of domicile to India and full separation from Flipkart.
Against National Democratic Alliance's 75 million target, United Progressive Alliance added 61 million in 2013-14.
A senior RBI official said the regulator was focusing on performance of banks' statewise and in each district.
In a bid to step up financial inclusion, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has permitted all business correspondents (BCs) or representative of any one particular bank to conduct business for other banks as well.
Upcoming payment banks will lift lower income groups in distant villages.
More than three crore signatures submitted to PM seeking scrapping of Aadhaar.
The challenge for the RBI in 2024 is likely to be less about containing elevated inflation and more about curbing excessive financial market exuberance and a 'problem of plenty', notes Sajjid Chinoy, Chief India Economist JP Morgan.
It was merely an obligation in the past, but financial inclusion has now turned into a big business opportunity for private banks.
Bandhan Financial Services, which is to start banking operations soon, has received a combined equity commitment of Rs 1,600 crore (Rs 16 billion) from International Finance Corp (IFC) and GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund.
After the finance minister directed public sector banks to join the account aggregator (AA) ecosystem, 5-6 major ones, including State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of Baroda are expected to go live by July-end. Sahmati, an industry alliance for the AA ecosystem, has been working with PSU banks to get them onboarded for quite some time now. So far, Union Bank of India and Punjab National Bank (PNB) have gone live on the AA ecosystem. While Union Bank has been live for a while, PNB went live earlier this month.
The Finance Ministry has asked all banks, including private sector lenders, to open branches in locations with population of more than 5,000 in the under-banked districts by September, 2012.
Remunerate Business Correspondent Channel to bring sustainability and scalability in the model
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have withdrawn over Rs 12,000 crore from Indian equities this month so far, mainly due to a sustained rise in US bond yields and the uncertain environment resulting from the Israel-Hamas conflict. However, the story takes an intriguing turn on observing FPI activity in Indian debt as they have infused over Rs 5,700 crore into the debt market during the period under review, data with the depositories showed. Going ahead, the trajectory of FPIs' investments in India will be influenced not only by global inflation and interest rate dynamics but also by the developments and intensity of the Israel-Hamas conflict, Himanshu Srivastava, associate director - manager research, Morningstar Investment Adviser India, said.
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Private banks account for a total of 21.15 per cent in terms of advances in the overall banking system.
The submissions were made in an affidavit filed in response to a batch of pleas challenging the Centre's 2016 demonetisation decision.
Dean of ISB, M Rammohan Rao on ISB's new programmes, their unique selling proposition, placement programme, their recently launched pre-doctoral programme and dearth of quality faculty crunch faced by Indian management schools.
Banks now ride on what is defined as a "banking outlet". This is a fixed-point service unit, manned by either the bank's staff or its business correspondent (BC), where all kinds of services - acceptance of deposits, encashment of cheques, cash withdrawal or lending of money - are provided for a minimum of four hours per day, for at least five days a week. Banks are now turning to reposition the manner in which they acquire customers, report Abhijit Lele and Raghu Mohan.
There are allegations that MFIs are charging exorbitant interest rates and using strong-arm tactics to recover the loans.
FM will meet public sector bankers tomorrow in a pre-budget meet to stress on credit targets and enhancing credits to minorities.
Seeking to insulate small and marginal farmers from exploitation by moneylenders, United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi has asked banks to provide credit to farming community at lower rates of interest.
Called 'Swabhiman', the programme, to be launched by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, was to be introduced earlier, but put off twice.
Like Indira Gandhi, even Narendra Modi seems to be relying on directing public-sector banks through ministry of finance supported by party cadres, says Debashis Basu.
Manish Khera, chief executive officer, Fino, tells Shriya Bubna that the smart card technology platform of Fino can help banks cut operational costs by one-third and MFIs, but connectivity remains an issue.
As the Andhra crisis continues to deepen, proponents of financial inclusion might find both unexpected challenges and inspiration in a short film called 'The Future of Money'.
Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been invited to join the grouping.
The lives of the kids Deepa Bhatia portrays in the series are bleak, with small periods of sunshine when they get picked for an ad or serial, punctuating the longer periods of struggle, observes Deepa Gahlot.
An Irda official said the idea was to improve the penetration levels of insurance and deepen financial inclusion.
The government's plan to tap into India's vast postal system to reach out to the unbanked population by utilising offices across the country as banks is expected to take some shape this year as the proposal has been sent to the Finance Ministry for its nod.
The Unique Identification Number, renamed as 'Aadhaar', would be issued soon to Indian residents, Nandan Nilekani, chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said on Wednesday.
Addressing the CII annual session, he also indicated to further liberalisation of policies to attract more FDI and FII funds, promote external commercial borrowings, service exports and tourism.
ICICI works on similar lines; alternative to Business Correspondents to reach financial inclusion targets.
To ensure its financial inclusion drive is not restricted to meeting branch opening targets, the Union finance ministry is to ask banks for a performance report of the 'ultra small' branches set up in the past two years in about 73,000 villages.
The venture is applying to the Reserve Bank of India for approvals.
Tamil Nadu is leaving no stone unturned in marketing its upcoming global investors meeting on January 7 and 8. While business veterans are promoting the positives of the state's industrial climate through the 'Titans of Tamil Nadu" campaign, the state is narrating the human stories behind its robust industrial growth via the 'One Trillion Dreams' campaign. Among the industry bigwigs, who are showcasing Tamil Nadu to the world through this mega marketing initiative include Venu Srinivasan of TVS Motor Company, K M Mammen of MRF Ltd, Pratap Reddy of Apollo Hospitals, P R Venketrama Raja of Ramco Group, Mallika Srinivasan of TAFE; and Vellayan Subbiah of Murugappa Group.
Addressing a press conference after the meeting, Sarma said a total of eight sub groups will be formed with members from the indigenous Muslim community to suggest various developmental measures.
Tata Consultancy Services TCS) said it has bagged a Rs 85-crore three-year deal for implementing smart card-based Financial Inclusion Solution (FIS) for Indian Bank.
The rating agency expects the Reserve Bank of India to continue its accommodative monetary stance.
Going by the RBI directive and the overall narrative, Paytm may have lost the rigour of stress tests, audits and compliance.
The decision of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to allow banks to engage companies with large retail outlets as business correspondents has the potential to change the future of financial inclusion and branch banking in India.
