Banking Awareness of 20, 21 and 22 November 2022

Topic: Appointments

1. Centre has appointed 10 Executive Directors (EDs) in various Public Sector Banks (PSBs).

• The appointment of ten EDs in various PSBs has been approved by Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC).
• Lalit Tyagi has been appointed as Executive Director (ED) of Bank of Baroda for three years.
• Binod Kumar has been appointed as ED of Punjab National Bank (PNB) for three years.
• Other appointments are given in the following table.

Topic: Banking System

2. Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank (KVGB) has received national award from PFRDA.

• The bank has received the award for significant enrolment under Atal Pension Yojana (APY).
• The bank has till now opened 3,34,687 accounts under APY.
• During 2022-23, KVGB enrolled 69,132 accounts compared with the target of 50,320.
• KVGB Chairman, P Gopi Krishna, received the award from PFRDA Chairman, Supratim Bandopadhyay.
• He said that PFRDA has fixed target of 80 accounts per branch. He further said the bank has achieved an average of 110 accounts against the target.
• Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank is an Indian Regional Rural Bank sponsored by Canara Bank.
• Atal Pension Yojana (APY):
  • It was launched in 2015. It was launched to provide financial support post-retirement to the people working in the unorganised sector.
  • APY subscribers would receive a minimum guaranteed pension of ₹1000 to ₹5000 per month after the age of 60 years.

Topic: Banking System

3. Credit-Deposit (C-D) ratio of North-Eastern, Eastern, Central and Southern Regions improved as per the latest RBI data.

• However, C-D ratio of Northern and Western Regions declined in 2022.
• RBI’s data on State-wise C-D ratio of scheduled commercial banks according to place of utilization show that C-D ratio of Northern Region declined from 78.2% to 77.7%.
• Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Delhi and Ladakh form Northern Region.
• C-D ratio of Union Territories (UTs) of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh have increased to 52.2% and 36.9%, respectively.
• Punjab, Chandigarh and Delhi are the states that recorded a decline in C-D ratio in Northern Region.
• Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan recorded improvement in C-D ratio in Northern Region.
• C-D ratio of Western Region declined from 78.1% to 77.5% as ratios of Maharashtra and Dadra & Nagar Haveli declined.
• C-D ratio of Central region improved because of improvement in the ratios of Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. C-D ratio of Madhya Pradesh declined from 70.7% to 70.4%.   
• Three states in Southern region recorded triple digit C-D ratios. These states are Telangana (from 99.3% to 103.4%), Tamil Nadu (from 103.8% to 103.7%) and Andhra Pradesh (from 135.2% to 142.7%).
• Credit-Deposit (C-D) ratio shows how much of each rupee of deposit goes to credit markets in a region.

Topic: Banking System

4. Paytm app users can now make UPI transactions to mobile numbers across all UPI payment apps.

• This facility will also be available even if the recipient is not registered with Paytm.
• With this facility, users will get the benefit of interoperability across all UPI-based payment apps.
• Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL) leads UPI payments as the largest beneficiary bank and a leading remitter bank.
• As per latest report by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), PPBL has registered over 1,614 million transactions as a beneficiary bank in October 2022.
• It has registered over 362 million transactions as a remitter bank in October 2022.

Topic: MoUs/Agreements

5. Federal Bank has signed an MoU with JCB India. 

• The MoU has been signed to finance heavy equipment buyers.
• Under the MoU, Federal Bank is the preferred finance partner of JCB.
• JCB India is a leading manufacturer of earthmoving and construction equipment.
• Federal Bank is an Indian private sector bank with headquarters in Aluva, Kochi.
• Shyam Srinivasan is CEO of Federal Bank. Its tagline is your perfect banking partner.

Topic: Banking System

6. ICICI Bank has launched loan against deposits and dollar bonds for NRIs at its GIFT City branch in Gujarat.

• In a release, ICICI Bank said that it is the first to offer these products in GIFT City.
• The loan against deposits facility is same to a loan in foreign currency against a deposit in India.
• It includes non-resident external fixed deposits in rupees.
• Using this loan, up to 95% of the deposit value can be availed.
• Customers can borrow for flexible tenures at fixed or floating interest rates.
• ICICI Bank (ICICI Bank Limited):
  • It is a private sector bank. It is headquartered at Mumbai.
  • Girish Chandra Chaturvedi is chairman of its board of directors. Its MD & CEO is Sandeep Bakhshi.

Topic: RBI

7. RBI has approved the opening of Vostro accounts by HDFC Bank and Canara Bank.

• Earlier, RBI has given permissions to SBI, IndusInd Bank and Uco Bank.
• RBI has given the approvals to open Vostro accounts in a bid to facilitate rupee trade with Russia.
• A new arrangement for settling international trade in rupees was introduced by RBI in July.
• A Vostro bank is an account held by a correspondent bank on behalf of other bank.
• These accounts come under correspondent banking in which the bank holding funds acts as custodian for a foreign counterpart or manages the account of a foreign counterpart.

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

8. CRISIL has cut its forecast for India’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 7% for this fiscal year (2022-23).

• It has previously estimated India’s real GDP growth for current fiscal year at 7.3%.
• As per the rating agency, the cut is mainly due to the reason that the slowdown in global growth has begun to impact India’s exports and industrial activity.
• However, domestic demand is supportive this fiscal because of contact-based services, government capital expenditure (capex) and overall normal monsoon for the fourth time in a row.
• It is expected that the impact will be more next fiscal (2023-24) as global growth slows down faster.
• In its ‘Market Intelligence & Analytics’ report, the agency said domestic demand could come under pressure.
• CRISIL expects India’s GDP growth to slow to 6% in fiscal 2024. It expects India’s GDP growth to average 6.6% between fiscal 2024 and 2026.
• It expects CPI inflation to average 6.8%. For fiscal 2024, it expects CPI inflation to averaging 5%.

Topic: Summits/Conferences/Meetings

9. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India hosted 21st World Congress of Accountants (WCOA) 2022 in Mumbai in Hybrid mode.

• ‘Building Trust Enabling Sustainability’ is the theme for the WCOA 2022. It was held from 18th to 21st November 2022.
• WCOA 2022 is platform for exchange of ideas through discussions for accounting, finance and business professionals.
• Over 6,000 professionals related to accountancy attended WCOA 2022. They included more than 1800 foreign delegates from 100 nations.
• World Congress of Accountants (WCOA) is popularly known as the "Olympics of the Accountancy Profession”. 20th WCOA was held in Sydney, Australia in 2018.
• The WCOA 2022 has been organised by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC).
• International Federation of Accountants (IFAC):
  • It was founded in 1977. It is the global organization for the accountancy profession.
  • It is comprised of 180 members and associates in 135 countries and jurisdictions.

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