The two Indian private sector lenders Axis Bank and ICICI Bank to close their operations in Sri Lanka after the Central Bank of Sri Lanka has permitted. The licenses issued by Central Bank of Sri Lanka will be cancelled once the winding-up operations are complete. The two banks are no longer to carry their banking operations, including accepting deposits from the public in Sri Lanka.
Retinuz, an Android mobile application using artificial intelligence, can rightly identify the denomination of the newly introduced currency notes for visually challenged at a single tap. It can be downloaded for free from Google Play Store.
Retinuz comes alongside Reserve Bank’s MANI (Mobile Aided Note Identifier). Both apps scan currency notes, identify them and read out the information, but Retinuz can be used offline, unlike MANI. Retinuz works at night as well, as the app automatically switches on the torch on the mobile phone to scan the currency notes. The app scanner reads the colour pattern and width of the printed denomination for identification.
Digital payments player PayPal has unveiled a new adoption assistance programme aimed at enhancing the parental support benefits for employees. The new policy will offer financial support of upto Rs one lakh per adoption for adoptive parents. This covers reimbursement of adoption expenses such as CARA registration, child placement, foster care and establishment of legal guardianship.
PayPal stated that it offers paid adoption leave of 16 weeks for female employees and paternity leave of two weeks. The move is a part of the company’s endeavour to ensure a work-life balance for employees keeping in mind the evolving family dynamics and work culture
The Indian bank has signed a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) with Women Entrepreneurs Welfare Association (WEWA) of Tamil Nadu(TN) to provide training and credit linkage to its women entrepreneurs to establish business.
The Indian bank will provide loans to the WEWA members at discounted rates. Training will be given to the WEWA members in the INDSETIs (Indian Bank Self Employment Training Institutes).
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has granted “in-principle” approval to Shivalik Mercantile Co-operative Bank Limited for transition into a Small Finance Bank (SFB). The transition into a SFB will be under the “Scheme on voluntary transition of Urban Co-operative Bank into a Small Finance Bank” issued on September 27, 2018.
The “in-principle” approval granted will be valid for 18 months to enable the applicant to comply with the requirements under the Scheme, the Guidelines for ‘on tap’ Licensing of Small Finance Banks in the Private Sector and fulfil other conditions as stipulated by the RBI. On being satisfied that the applicant has complied with the requisite conditions laid down by RBI as part of “in-principle” approval, the RBI would consider granting it a licence for commencement of banking business under Section 22 (1) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 as a SFB.
India’s leading Digital lending startup, RevFin has joined hands with PNB MetLife India Insurance Company to offer protection to the RevFin’s customers by bundling life insurance cover on their loans. This insurance covers loans up to ₹3 lakh for a period of 3 years.
The collaboration will help PNB MetLife to reach out to unbanked areas & drive greater financial inclusion in the country by securing the families of the borrowers against loan repayment in case of unfortunate death of the borrower.
Common Service Centres (CSC) e-Governance Services India has signed a memorandum of understanding with Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL) for sale of FASTags. The agreement will facilitate the sale of PPBL FASTags through the last mile network of 3.6 lakh CSCs, helping realise the government’s vision of cashless and smooth transit at all toll plazas across the country.
FASTags which work on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology have been made mandatory at toll gates on national highways. The FASTag process allows toll payments directly from the prepaid or savings account linked to it, thus doing away with the need for waiting in queues, saving time and fuel.
To boost the digital payments, the government has stated that all businesses with a turnover of Rs 50 crore or more have to operationalise payments through Rupay and Bhim UPI, failing which they have to pay a hefty penalty of Rs 5,000 per day from February 1.
The value of UPI transactions had breached the Rs 2 lakh crore mark in December last year, witnessing a 100 per cent rise year-on-year. It is for the first time since UPI’s inception in 2016 that the value of transactions has reached Rs 2 lakh crore.
The surge has gone in favour of private sector players such as Paytm, Google Pay and PhonePe, which dominate the UPI space as most of the transactions are done via these platforms. Government-run BHIM, which also uses UPI, still trails its private sector peers.
However, after this Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) notification comes into place, the market will tilt in favour of Rupay and Bhim, with both expected to see a major boost. The CBDT notification says that business establishments with an annual turnover of more than Rs 50 crore, shall offer low-cost digital modes of payment (such as BHIM UPI, UPI QR Code, Aadhaar Pay, Debit Cards, NEFT, RTGS etc.) to their customers, and no charge or Merchant Discount Rates (MDR) shall be imposed on customers and merchants.
Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) has appointed S Sundar, its chief financial officer, the interim managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) effective January 1, 2020. As part of this, he resigned from the post of CFO.
He has also been appointed an additional director of the bank. In August 2019, the bank’s MD & CEO, Parthasarathi Mukherjee, resigned from the position and the post was lying vacant since then.
Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd (HDFC), India’s largest mortgage financier, has received approval from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) to acquire 2% stake in Apollo Munich Health Insurance – a joint venture between Apollo Hospitals and German reinsurer Munich Re Group.
The Corporation and HDFC Ergo have received all requisite approvals for the acquisition including competition commission of India (CCI), Reserve Bank of India and the last being from Irdai on 1 January. Post the completion of the proposed acquisition, Apollo Munich will be merged with and into HDFC Ergo, subject to approval from the Mumbai bench of National Company Law Tribunal.
In June 2019, HDFC had agreed to acquire the entire 8% stake of Apollo Hospitals Group in a health insurance joint venture with German reinsurer Munich Re Group as part of its strategy to tap this potential growth market.