Banking Awareness of 25, 26 and 27 December 2025

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

1. Net FDI was negative for the third continuous month in October 2025.

• As per RBI's latest monthly bulletin, net outflows stood at $1.5 billion.
• This was primarily because of high repatriation and outward FDI.
• In September and August 2025, net FDI recorded outflows of $2.4 billion and 0.6 billion, respectively.
• During April-October 2025, FDI (foreign direct investment) was higher than last year both in gross and net terms.
• Gross inward FDI was steady in October at $6.5 billion. It stood at $6.6 billion in September.
• Singapore, Mauritius and the US accounted for over 70% of total FDI inflows.
• In October, the financial services sector, followed by manufacturing, electricity, and communication services, were the highest recipients of FDI inflows.
• Manufacturing, retail & wholesale trade, communication services, financial services and computer services were the major recipient sectors in September.
• Singapore, followed by the US and the UAE were key destinations for outward FDI in October 2025.
• These accounted for over half of total outward FDI.
• The financial, insurance, and business services, followed by wholesale, retail trade and manufacturing were the major sectors for around 90% of outward FDI in October 2025.

Topic: RBI

2. Implementation of Phase 2 of Cheque Truncation System has been postponed by RBI.

• The implementation of the second phase of Continuous Clearing and Settlement on Realisation in Cheque Truncation System (CTS) has been postponed until further notice.
• This step has been taken to give banks more time to streamline their operations.
• Second phase of Continuous Clearing and Settlement on Realisation in CTS was planned to start on 3 January 2026.
• RBI had brought in the same-day cheque clearance facility on October 4, 2025. 
• During this, businessmen and individual customers of banks experienced delays in cheque clearance.
• The move follows technical and operational issues seen during Phase 1 implementation.
• Phase 2 proposes change in item expiry time of cheques to T+3 clear hours.
• If drawee bank receives the cheques between 10 am and 11 am, it must confirm, either positively or negatively, by 2 pm (3 hours from 11 am).
• If the drawee bank does not provide confirmation within the prescribed 3 hours for certain cheques, such cheques will be deemed approved and included for settlement at 2 pm.
• RBI has also modified the timing of the presentation session to 9 am to 3 pm. This timing was envisaged to be 10 am to 4 pm in August 2025 circular.
• The timing of confirmation session has been modified to 9 am to 7 pm (earlier timing 10 am to 7 pm).

Topic: Banking System

3. Bank of India collected ₹10,000 crore via the issue of long-term infrastructure bonds at a coupon rate of 7.23%.

• The base size for the issue was ₹5,000 crore. An additional ₹5,000 crore was available under the greenshoe option.
• The bank received 83 bids on the NSE Electronic Bidding Provider Platform.
• These 83 bids amounted to ₹15,305 crore. Out of this, the Bank accepted 37 bids.
• The cumulative value of these bids amounted to ₹10,000 crore.
• The funds collected through long-term infrastructure projects in sub-sectors and affordable housing in accordance with RBI guidelines.
• Bank of India is an Indian public sector bank. It was founded in 1906.
• It is a founding member of SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Inter Bank Financial Telecommunications).
• It is headquartered in Mumbai. Rajneesh Karnatak is its MD & CEO.

Topic: RBI

4. RBI plans to inject around ₹3 trillion into banking system through open market operations and a foreign exchange swap.

• RBI will purchase government securities worth ₹2 trillion through open market operations.
• This will be carried out in four equal tranches of ₹50,000 crore each on December 29, January 5, January 12 and January 22.
• On 13 January, RBI will carry out a three-year USD/INR buy-sell swap of $10 billion.
• RBI recently carried out intervention in the foreign exchange market.
• It sold dollars to curb volatility in the rupee. As per experts, this currency market intervention had tightened rupee liquidity.
• So far in December, RBI has already injected about ₹1.45 trillion of liquidity through bond purchases and foreign exchange swaps.
• In the 1st half of this calendar year, RBI injected around ₹9.5 trillion into the banking system.
• This was done through open market purchases, long-term repo operations, and USD/INR buy-sell swaps.
• Open market operations are a monetary policy tool. RBI uses them to manage money supply and liquidity in economy.
• Open market operations involve buying and selling of government securities with commercial banks and financial institutions.
• Foreign exchange swap is a simultaneous purchase and sell of same amounts of one currency for another.

Topic: Miscellaneous

5. National Consumer Day: 24 December

• National Consumer Day is celebrated every year on 24th December to highlight the importance of the consumer movement and spread awareness about the rights and responsibilities of every consumer.
• This year's theme for National Consumer Day is “Efficient and Speedy Disposal through Digital Justice.”
• It was on this day in 1986 the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, received the President's assent.
• Consumer Protection Act, 1986 was replaced by Consumer Protection Act 2019 from 20th July 2020.
• The Central Consumer Protection Authority was set up on 24 July 2020 under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
• It serves as a regulatory body to safeguard the interests of consumers as a collective.
• e-Jagriti was launched on 1 January 2025. It is now a significant digital platform for consumer grievance redressal in India.

Topic: Agriculture

6. Area under Rabi crop sowing in 2025-26 has increased by over 8 lakh hectares from the area of the same period last year.

• According to data released by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare on 22 December 2025, total Rabi crop coverage stood at 580.70 lakh hectares as of 19 December 2025.
• At the same stage in the previous crop year, total Rabi crop coverage stood at 572.59 lakh hectares.
• An increase in pulses and oilseeds acreage caused this expansion in total Rabi crop coverage.
• Coverage under pulses has grown by 3.72 lakh hectares. An increase of 4.89 lakh hectares has been recorded for the Gram.
• Area under oilseeds reached 93.33 lakh hectares. This was led by rapeseed and mustard.
• Among foodgrains, wheat sowing area was higher by 1.29 lakh hectares and rice sowing area recorded a rise of 1.83 lakh hectares compared with the same period last year.
• As per data, other crops showed a mixed trend. Lentils recorded a slight decline in area.

Topic: Miscellaneous

7. Cyber fraud losses of ₹660 crore have been stopped by the government within a span of six months through the use of the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator.

• With the help of Financial Fraud Risk Indicator, high-risk and suspicious financial transactions can be identified and blocked.
• Over 1,000 banks, third-party application providers and Payment System Operators (PSOs) have joined the Digital Intelligence Platform.
• They have also started adopting the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator actively.
• The Financial Fraud Risk Indicator is actively supported by the Reserve Bank of India and the National Payments Corporation of India.
• This institutional support has enabled large-scale onboarding of banks and financial institutions.
• Financial Fraud Risk Indicator is a risk-based metric. It classifies a suspected mobile number as Medium, High, or Very High risk of financial fraud.
• Digital Intelligence Platform has been developed by Department of Telecommunications.
• It is an online platform for the purpose of sharing information related to misuse of telecom resources.

Topic: MoUs/Agreements

8. A comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and New Zealand have been concluded recently.

• This agreement is one of the India’s fastest-concluded FTAs with a developed country.
• The negotiations for the comprehensive FTA formally began on March 16, 2025.
• The negotiations continued for nine months and concluded after five formal negotiation rounds.
• As part of the FTA, zero-duty market access on 100 per cent of New Zealand’s tariff lines is provided.
• This grants duty-free access for all Indian exports.
• Under the FTA, India has provided tariff liberalisation on about 70 per cent of tariff lines.
• Sensitive sectors such as dairy, coffee, milk and milk products, sugar, spices, edible oils, rubber and onions have been excluded from market access to protect farmers and domestic industry.
• The agreement will boost India’s labour-intensive sectors.
• Duty-free access to key inputs such as wooden logs, coking coal, and metal waste will benefit India’s manufacturing sector.
• In services, the FTA covers 118 services sectors. It also extends Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) commitments to around 139 sub-sectors.
• The FTA boosts student mobility through post-study work visas.
• Indian students can get post-study work rights of up to three years for STEM graduates and up to four years for doctoral scholars.
• Under the agreement, Agricultural Productivity Partnerships is provided through Centres of Excellence for apples, kiwifruit and honey.
• New Zealand will facilitate investments worth USD 20 billion in India over the next 15 years.
• Bilateral merchandise trade between India and New Zealand stood at USD 1.3 billion in 2024–25.
• The India-New Zealand FTA is the third trade agreement signed by India in 2025.