Topic: RBI
1. Banks have used the Unified Lending Interface (ULI) pilot to disburse 7.5 lakh loans totaling ₹38,000 crore.
- In August 2024, RBI launched its ULI pilot. It involves thirty-six lenders.
- Public and private sector banks, small finance banks, cooperative banks, regional rural banks, and NBFCs are included in these lenders.
- Digital gold, e-Mudra, microbusiness, home, personal, tractor, pension, dairy upkeep, and MSME (unsecured) loans are among the 12 loans that were offered.
- RBI intends to increase the number of loans, data suppliers, and lenders in order to expand the scope of ULI.
- RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar called on banks to work together in order to expand the use of ULI and central bank digital currency (CBDC).
- The RBI set a daily goal of one million CBDC transactions, but acceptance has been slow.
Topic: RBI
2. RBI superseded Delhi-based Aviom India Housing Finance’s board of directors.
- The reason was governance concerns in the company and defaults in meeting payment obligations by the company.
- Concerns were raised by the company’s auditors about potential discrepancies in its accounts.
- The company's auditors also raised concerns about its inability to meet payment obligations on NCDs.
- Ram Kumar is former Chief General Manager of Punjab National Bank.
- He has been appointed as the Administrator of the company.
- RBI intends to file an application with NCLT for appointment of the Administrator as Insolvency Resolution Professional.
- In superseding Aviom India Housing Finance's board of directors, RBI had acted on National Housing Bank’s recommendation.
- RBI previously superseded boards of NBFCs like Dewan Housing Finance Corporation in November 2019 and Srei Infrastructure Finance and Srei Equipment Finance in October 2021.
Topic: Awards and Prizes
3. For the second year in a row, CUB won seven IBA Banking Tech prizes.
- During the 20th Annual Technology Conference, Expo, & Citations 2024, City Union Bank (CUB) won seven awards.
- The bank has won awards in all seven categories for the second year in a row.
- These awards are given by the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) to honor the top technology providers in the banking sector.
- T Rabi Sankar, Deputy Governor of RBI presented the awards to Vijay Anandh, Executive Director of City Union Bank.
- 20th Annual Technology Conference, Expo, & Citations 2024, was organised in Mumbai on January 24, 2025.
Topic: Appointments
4. P. Suriaraj has assumed charge as Dhanlaxmi Bank’s executive director (ED).
- RBI had appointed P. Suriaraj for a three-year term. He has worked with Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Ltd.
- Suriaraj has held the position of the General Manager in a number of departments.
- Throughout his career, he has also served as the head of branches and regions at Tamilnad Mercantile Bank.
- In compliance with the Banking Regulation Act of 1949, he will serve as a whole-time director on the Board.
Topic: Reports and Indices
5. According to the RBI, bank customer complaints via the Ombudsman program increased by over 33% in FY24.
- According to the RBI's Annual Report on the Ombudsman Scheme, the number of complaints from banking customers increased by 32.81% year over year under the integrated Ombudsman Scheme.
- In FY24, 9.34 lakh complaints were filed. This increase shows banking industry's declining standards for customer service.
- These complaints were registered with 24 Offices of the RBI Ombudsman and Centralised Receipt and Processing Centre (CRPC) of the RBI.
- A large number of the complaints, 85,281 (29.01 per cent of the total complaints), were related to loans and advances.
- Compared to the previous year, complaints about loans and advances rose by 42.70%.
Topic: RBI
6. RBI will fund the banking system with Rs 1.1 lakh crore.
- A variable rate repo auction and open market operations will be used to fund the banking system.
- Three tranches of Government securities valued at Rs 60,000 crore would be purchased through open market operations.
- January 30, February 13, and February 2025 are the dates of the tranches of open market purchase.
- On February 7, 2025, a 56-day Variable Rate Repo auction for Rs 50,000 crore will take place.
- On January 31, 2025, a $5 billion, six-month dollar-rupee swap auction will take place.
- Due to a reported deficit of more than Rs 3 lakh crore last week, the financial system is experiencing liquidity shortage.
- Banks have asked for a deferment because they are worried about how the increased liquidity coverage norms will affect credit flow.
- On April 1, banks will be required to keep additional cash in accordance with the new liquidity coverage norms.
- Banks' proposal to include cash reserve ratios to the list of high-quality liquid assets under the new rules was denied by the RBI.
- To achieve the requirements for liquidity coverage, banks will have to spend more than Rs 4 lakh crore on government bonds.
Topic: Reports and Indices
7. Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Goa are among the top performing states in NITI Aayog's Fiscal Health Index.
- The first Fiscal Health Index (FHI) report, released by NITI Aayog on January 24, 2025, has listed Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Goa, and Jharkhand as top-performing 'achievers' among the States.
- The report titled 'Fiscal Health Index 2025' ranked states for 2022–23.
- It covers 18 major states that drive the Indian economy in terms of their contribution to India's GDP, demographics, total public expenditure, revenue, and overall fiscal sustainability.
- According to the report, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, and Kerala were the worst performing states in the Fiscal Health Index (FHI).
- The report listed them in the 'aspirational' category.
- The aim of the report is to develop an understanding of the fiscal health of the states in the country and has listed Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka in the 'Front Runners' category.
- Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Rajasthan, and Haryana were placed in the category of ‘Performers’.
- According to the report released by 16th Finance Commission Chairman Arvind Panagariya, Odisha has excelled in fiscal health with the highest composite index score of 67.8.
- The report provides a comprehensive assessment of the fiscal health of 18 major States, based on five key sub-indices: Quality of Expenditure, Revenue Mobilisation, Fiscal Prudence, Debt Index, and Debt Sustainability, along with insights into state-specific challenges and areas for improvement.
Topic: Banking/Financial/Govt Schemes
8. The government officially announced the implementation of the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS).
- Government had brought in this scheme for government employees in August of last year.
- Government had brought in the UPS as an option under National Pension System for Central Government employees.
- The scheme will become effective on April 1st of this year.
- According to the notification, UPS will apply to Central Government employees who are covered under the National Pension System and who choose this option under NPS.
- Current and future employees can choose to continue with NPS without the UPS option, or they can choose to take the UPS option under NPS.
- Employees who have exercised the UPS option will be ineligible for any policy concessions, changes, financial benefits, or parity with subsequent retirees, including post-retirement.
Topic: Reports and Indices
9. Credit card number has become more than double in 5 years: RBI Payment System Report.
- The number of Credit cards has doubled to 10.80 crore in the last five years. In 2019, the number of Credit Cards was 5.53 crore cards.
- Digital payments in India have grown exponentially in the last decade.
- In the CY 2013, there were 222 crore digital transactions valued at Rs 772 lakh crore.
- In CY- 2024, it has increased 94 times in volume and more than 3.5 times in value to over 20,787 crore transactions valued at Rs 2,758 lakh crore.
- Digital payments in India have increased 6.7 times in volume and 1.6 times in value.
- The Reserve Bank of India has been working towards enhancing cross-border payments by linking UPI with the fast payment systems of other countries.
- The fast payment systems of India and Singapore (PayNow) were linked in February 2023.
- RBI has also joined Project Nexus to enable instant cross-border retail payments by interlinking domestic fast payment systems of multiple countries.
Topic: Miscellaneous
10. A licence under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) has been granted to the Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan.
- This will make it possible for temple to get funding from overseas.
- A family of priests used to run the temple, which was regarded as private property.
- A committee designated by the court is currently in charge of temple.
- The management committee applied for an FCRA licence under the 2010 Act.
- The approval coincides with recent 2022 changes to the FCRA regulations.
- Key amendments include stricter restrictions on administrative costs for foreign funding, which were previously capped at 50%. These have been lowered to 20%.
- Organisations that want to receive foreign funding are required by law to get FCRA registration.
- This registration is subject to renewal and has a five-year validity.
- Any payments from overseas must go through the appropriate State Bank of India (SBI) branch in New Delhi.
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