A Quick look at Financial Awareness (25 Oct – 31 Oct 2018)

Dear readers,

Today, we are sharing the next 98th part of our Banking and Finance Awareness Series "Quick Look at Financial Awareness". Go through this now to get all the important insights which took place last week in the Banking and Finance Sector in India and the world. This will immensely help you in upcoming exams.

A Quick look at Financial Awareness 98

1. SBI ATM withdrawal limits reduced to Rs. 20,000

• The Country’s largest bank SBI has reduced the daily cash withdrawal limit for Classic and Maestro debit cards to Rs. 20,000 per day (earlier, Rs. 40,000).
• New ATM cash withdrawal rules for SBI account holders will come into effect from today (31st October).
• Now, SBI account holders having higher daily cash withdrawal requirements can apply for other debit card variants that have a higher daily withdrawal limit.
• There will be no changes in the daily withdrawal limits on other SBI debit cards.

2. SBI & Hitachi payments form a joint venture

• State Bank of India (SBI) and Hitachi Payment Services India (payments solution provider) has entered into an agreement to form a joint venture for establishing a card acceptance and digital payment platform.
• SBI will have a majority stake in the proposed joint venture.
• Hitachi Payment Services India is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi Group, Japan.

3.  Seychelles launches world’s first Sovereign Blue bond

• The Republic of Seychelles has launched the world’s first Sovereign Blue Bond.
• Sovereign Blue Bond is a financial instrument designed to support sustainable marine and fisheries projects.
• The bond demonstrates the potential for countries to harness capital markets for financing the sustainable use of marine resources.
• The bond raised USD 15 million from international investors.

4. IBM acquired Red Hat for USD 34 Billion in its biggest purchase

• America's IBM has acquired software company Red Hat in a USD 34 billion cash and debt deal, marking its biggest ever acquisition till date.
• The open source, enterprise software maker ‘Red Hat’ founded 25 years ago, valued at about USD 20.5 billion at the end of trading.

5. Corp Bank bags MSME award

• Corporation Bank has bagged the ‘Best MSME Bank - Winner 2018’ award instituted by the Assocham.
• The ‘6th Assocham SMEs Excellence Award – 2018’ was held in New Delhi.
• Shivanand Hebbar, DGM, received the award from Chief Minister of Meghalaya Conrad K Sangma.
• The award was conferred based on the bank’s performance in SME (small and medium enterprise) segment.

6. Satish Kumar Gupta appointed CEO of Paytm Payments Bank

• Veteran banker Satish Kumar Gupta has been appointed as managing director (MD) and CEO of Paytm Payments Bank.
• Gupta comes in after Renu Satti stepped down as CEO in July.
• Previously, Mr. Gupta had stints as the chief product officer at National Payments Corporation of India and deputy general manager at State Bank of India.

Note:

• The Paytm Payments Bank is a separate entity in which founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma will hold 51% share, One97 Communications holds 39% and 10% held by a subsidiary of One97 and Sharma.
• The bank was officially inaugurated in November 2017 by the Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley.
• It is set to launch over 100,000 banking outlets across India by end of 2018.

7. PNB Metlife launches AI-powered customer service app 'Khushi'

• PNB Metlife has unveiled an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered customer service app ‘Khushi’.
• The app is designed to be a one-stop shop providing insurance-related information, anytime, anywhere, such as policy features, premium due details besides providing fund value and portfolio details.
• Khushi app has the ability to understand customer intent and provide tailored responses.
• Earlier in 2016, PNB Metlife had launched ‘conVRse’, virtual reality (VR) service platform as well as ‘eBranch’, a paperless digital platform enabling real-time transfer of information.

8. India 9th most valuable nation brand in the world

• According to the Nation Brands 2018 report by Brand Finance, India is the 9th most valuable nation brand (last year it’s rank – 8th) in the world.
• India's brand value is USD 2,159 billion in 2018.
• US topped in the list with a brand value of USD 25,899 billion.

Note:

• Brand Finance measures the strength and value of the national brands of 100 leading countries using a method based on the royalty relief mechanism employed to value the world’s largest companies.

9. IFC launches USD 1 Billion masala bond programme in the US & Europe

• International Finance Corporation (IFC) has launched its USD 1 billion masala bond programme in the US and Europe.
• These bonds are aimed at funding the rapidly expanding investment activities of IFC in India.
• Masala bonds are bonds issued outside India but denominated in Indian Rupees.
• IFC uses them to raise rupee funds overseas and brings the proceeds to India for investments.

Note:

• Masala (means spices) term was used by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to evoke the culture and cuisine of India.
• The first Masala bond was issued by the World Bank-backed IFC in November 2014 when it raised 1,000 crore bonds to fund infrastructure projects in India.

10. Paytm launches ‘PayPay’ mobile wallet in Japan

• Paytm has launched a QR-based smartphone payment settlement service in Japan in collaboration with SoftBank and Yahoo Japan Corporation.
• It is a smartphone-based settlement service that allows users to store money from a bank account in their 'PayPay' wallet and make payments with it.
• It is built around its QRtech which it has deployed in India to allow customers to make offline payments.

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 You can go through all the previous articles of this series from the link provided below -

Quick Look at Financial Awareness Series 

All the best for your exams.

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