Will allowing business correspondents to hawk insurance products help in reviving 5-lakh strong field agents as a viable channel?
Concerned over the rise in mis-selling of products by banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is examining whether to come up with norms to curb such practices. Observing that pushing financial products, such as insurance, indiscriminately to unaware consumers may be detrimental to their well-being, RBI Deputy Governor M Rajeshwar Rao said, "We are examining whether it necessitates framing of guidelines to address mis-selling of financial products and services by REs (regulated entities)."
The International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA) plans to operationalise the framework for direct listing of companies at International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) exchanges by the end of the year, said Chairperson K Rajaraman. He added that the amendments would be notified within three months. Further, the GIFT City regulator is also considering the launch of separate payments system regulations - similar to that of the real time gross settlement (RTGS) for banking within a few months.
Airtel has informed the government and regulator Trai that it has approached Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea with a proposal for a joint initiative to unite the industry against rising telecom fraud and scams.
Dismissing the petitions, a bench headed by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma said Google Pay is "mere third-party app provider" which requires no authorisation from RBI under the Payments and Settlement Systems Act.
Pakistan on Tuesday increased its defence budget by 20 per cent, allocating PRs. 2,550 billion ($9 billion) for the fiscal year 2025-26, amid tensions with India.
Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the flagship payments platform of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), touched a record high both in terms of volume and value of transactions in June after a slump in April and May. The platform recorded 2.8 billion transactions worth Rs 5.47 trillion in June, up 10.6 per cent in volume terms and 11.56 per cent in value terms over May. This is in sync with the opening up of the economy as Covid cases gradually came down from its peak in mid-May and lockdowns were eased in various places.
In the letter issued, considering the last night attacks by Pakistani forces in Jammu and Jaisalmer regions, the provision also authorises the use of local authority funds for such emergency measures, giving them precedence over other financial obligations.
'Today, the State looks at everyone with suspicion.'
'The only solution is for the government to allow us to charge a low controlled MDR of 25 bps on UPI P2M transactions only for merchants with more than a Rs 40 lakh turnover.'
About 99,165 electric cars were sold in India in 2024, but electric car penetration -- share of electric car sales in total sales -- was just about 2.5 per cent.
The move would help tax authorities get leads on evasion.
'The issue stems from transfer of a player named Jason Cummings from another club two years ago and the training compensation fee. We have completed the payments at the time of signing.'
Fewer people participated in MGNREGA during the first six months of this financial year (April-September) compared to the same period last year, a recent analysis of the scheme's performance by LibTech showed.
Call centres, once the engine room of India's BPO exports, are evolving too. Depending on the complexity, 30 to 50 per cent of voice and chat volumes are now handled by conversational AI.
'They have since only tried to improve systems. Also, with regulatory guidance from time to time, we are in a position to assess a situation and react in time.'
Flipkart-backed fintech firm super.money is aiming to be among the top five players on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) leaderboard by the end of this year, a senior company executive has said. The company, which rolled out its beta version in June this year, has processed about 10 million transactions till date. "We have a target of 100 million transactions for the end of the year.
'India's letter to Pakistan on April 24 (2025; two days after the Pahalgam terrorist attack) didn't tear up the treaty -- but it did put it on ice.'
The Reserve Bank on Wednesday barred Mastercard Asia Pacific from onboarding new credit, debit and prepaid card customers with effect from July 22 as it failed to comply with data storage norms. The supervisory action will not impact existing customers of Mastercard, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said. Taking action against Mastercard, RBI said, "notwithstanding lapse of considerable time and adequate opportunities being given, the entity has been found to be non-compliant with the directions on Storage of Payment System Data".
The currency in circulation (CIC) declined by Rs 7,600 crore in the Diwali week, making it the first such happening in two decades, a report said on Thursday. This was made possible courtesy of a greater reliance on digital payments by people, the report by economists at SBI said, adding that the Indian economy is undergoing a structural transformation at present. They clarified that the Diwali week in 2009 had also witnessed a marginal Rs 950 crore decline in currency in circulation, but that was purely due to the economic slowdown amid the global financial crisis.
Amazon will invest more than Rs 2,000 crore (about $233 million) in India in 2025 as it strengthens its logistics and safety standards, said the ecommerce company on Thursday.
Global tech major Adobe Systems' chief executive Shantanu Narayen on Thursday said creativity, and not software code, will be the main driver of India's economy in the future.
The number of cyberfraud cases has skyrocketed from 2,677 in 1999-2000 to 29,082 in FY24 -- more than a 10-fold increase. The RBI pegs digital payment frauds at Rs 1,457 crore in FY24, up more than five times in a year. It's not just the number of frauds. What's alarming is the growing sophistication of the fraudsters, exposing the vulnerabilities within the financial system, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The Centre is unlikely to announce an agreement over payment mechanism with Russia until a ceasefire is declared in the Ukraine war, said people in the know. An inter-ministerial group headed by the finance ministry has been meeting regularly for over a month to analyse and discuss payment mechanisms that can work under the current circumstances and ensure the trade between India and Russia is not disrupted. The US had recently said that there would be consequences for countries actively attempting to "circumvent or backfill" American sanctions against Russia.
Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das on Monday said payments through UPI (unified payment interface) have grown exponentially in the past 12 months with daily transactions crossing 36 crore, which is up 50 per cent from 24 crore in February 2022. In value terms, these transactions are worth Rs 6.27 lakh crore, registering a growth of 17 per cent from Rs 5.36 lakh crore in February 2022, the governor told reporters while launching the Digital Payments Awareness Week at the RBI headquarters in Mumbai this afternoon. He also said the overall monthly digital payment transactions crossed over Rs 1,000-crore-mark each month during the past three months.
In today's rapidly evolving digital payment landscape, security concerns remain a top priority for stakeholders across sectors.
The RBI on April 6 directed all payments service providers to make sure "that the entire data relating to payment systems operated by them are stored in a system only in India."
The new system is likely to be implemented by November.
'With a very stable technology with limited functionalities, a large network has spanned out.'
This innovation has made mainframes the fastest-growing segment within IBM's Infrastructure business, demonstrating that even legacy technologies can continue to deliver value.
In a bid to check fraud, the Reserve Bank on Friday decided to permit all banks to introduce card-less cash withdrawal through ATMs.
Isn't there something significant in the UPI example for all of us to learn from and execute to enable world-scale success for our startups?, asks Ajit Balakrishnan.
The Maharashtra government has ordered a probe into the death of a pregnant woman after a hospital in Pune allegedly denied her admission due to non-payment of Rs 10 lakh as advance deposit. The woman, Tanisha Bhise, died after giving birth to twin girls at another hospital. The incident sparked protests outside the Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital, with opposition parties alleging negligence and demanding action against the hospital.
i-flex Solutions Ltd said UBS Warburg, an investment banking and securities firm implemented a cash, current accounting and payment system around Flexcube, the banking application suite from i-flex.
The 16th Brics Summit beginning Tuesday in Kazan, Russia, is expected to see more focus on creating a sharper energy policy for Brics that ensures closer partnership among members in both energy security and energy transition, official sources said. The same is expected to be a part of the Kazan declaration, currently being negotiated, they added.
The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) draft guidelines on gold loans, if implemented in their current form, are expected to impact non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and mid-tier banks in the near term, more significantly than larger banks, according to analysts.
The Supreme Court of India has invalidated the appointment of 25,753 teachers and other staff in West Bengal's state-run and state-aided schools, deeming the selection process "vitiated and tainted." The court ordered the state government to conduct a fresh selection process within three months. The decision comes after a Calcutta High Court verdict in April 2024, which also annulled the appointments. The apex court, while upholding the high court's order, made some modifications, including exempting disabled employees from returning their salaries. The case stemmed from alleged irregularities in the 2016 recruitment process by the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC), involving OMR sheet tampering and rank-jumping. The Supreme Court had previously termed it a "systemic fraud." Former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee and Trinamool Congress MLAs Manik Bhattacharya and Jiban Krishna Saha are among the accused being investigated in the recruitment scam.
Anmol Singh Jaggi and Puneet Singh Jaggi, once hailed as rising stars in India's clean energy sector, are now facing serious regulatory action.
The Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital in Pune, India, has stopped taking deposits from patients at the emergency department after a pregnant woman died after being turned away for non-payment. The hospital faced intense criticism following the incident, which involved the wife of a BJP MLC's personal secretary. The woman was shifted to another hospital where she died after delivering twins.
Bharti Airtel aims to leverage its 180 million plus digital service customers and its wide presence in rural areas to grow its payment bank business. "We are well placed as we can leverage the 180 million plus customers we have across our digital assets. "We offer a plethora of services such as lucrative interest rates, gift cards, FASTag, telecom recharges, payments and debit cards. "Our large merchant base of more than eight million allows us to drive both engagement and monetisation.
