Banking Awareness of 4, 5 and 6 November 2021

Topic: Reports and Indices

1. Services PMI rises to 58.4 in October.

• Services PMI has risen from 55.2 in September to 58.4 in October.
• On 1 November, manufacturing PMI increased to 55.9 in October.
• Manufacturing and Services together have more than 60 % share in the Gross Value Added (GVA).
• Services have a share of 57% in Gross Value Added (GVA). Manufacturing has over 14 % share in GVA.
• IHS Markit releases manufacturing PMI and services PMI data every month.
• Manufacturing PMI and services PMI are prepared by compiling responses from questionnaires sent to around 400 companies each from the manufacturing and services sectors.
• A diffusion index is calculated for each survey variable. The indices vary between 0 and 100.
• Reading above 50 shows an overall increase in comparison to last month. Reading below 50 indicates an overall decrease in comparison to last month.

Topic:  Regulatory Bodies/Financial Institutions

2. HDFC Life Insurance’s acquisition of 100% shareholding in Exide Life Insurance approved by CCI.

• HDFC Life Insurance’s acquisition of 100% shareholding in Exide Life Insurance has been approved by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
• In September, HDFC Life had announced that it would acquire the entire share capital of Exide Life Insurance for a total consideration of ₹6,687 crore.
• The deal would help HDFC Life strengthen its presence in South India.
• After completion of the share acquisition, Exide Life will be merged with HDFC Life.
• Competition Commission of India (CCI):
  • CCI was formed on 14 October 2003 under the Competition Commission Act, 2002.
  • It has a chairperson and six members. The chairperson and members are appointed by the Central government
  • It aims to eliminate practices that affect competition in Indian market and protect the interests of the consumers.
  • Current Chairperson: Ashok Kumar Gupta

Topic: RBI

3. RBI’s committee says that performance of ARCs in management of stressed assets since 2003 is still uneven on several parameters.

• RBI’s committee says that the performance of asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) in management of stressed assets of banks/financial institutions (FIs) since inception in 2003 is still uneven on several parameters.
• The committee was formed to review the working of Asset Reconstruction Companies. It was headed by Sudarshan Sen, former Executive Director of RBI.
• Overall recovery made by the ARC sector during FY04-FY13 was 68.6% when measured in terms of redemption of Security Receipts (SRs).
• Overall recovery made by the ARC sector during FY04-FY13 was 14.29 % when the redemption is measured in terms of the book value of the assets acquired.
• The committee observed that ARCs’ performance in ensuring the revival of businesses has also been poor.
• As per data, 80 % of the recovery for the sector has come through the deployment of methods of reconstruction that do not necessarily lead to the revival of business.
• The committee said that ARCs have rarely used methods such as change in or takeover of the management of the business of the borrower or conversion of debt into equity in a borrower’s company.
• Rescheduling of payment of debts was also involved only in 19.9% of the recovery made by ARCs.

Topic: Miscellaneous

4. Department of Telecom decides December 2022 as deadline for transition to new IP addresses.

• Department of Telecom has decided December 2022 as deadline for transition to new IP addresses.
• December 2022 is also deadline for internet service providers to customise their network and change modem and routers at customer premise for the services as per the internet protocol address, IPv6.
• June 30, 2022 is the last date for government organisations to complete the transition to IPv6.
• IP addresses help in identifying and connecting various devices and servers onto the internet.
• The DoT had released the first and second roadmap to roll out IPv6 addresses in the country in 2010 and 2012.
• IPv6 addresses can grant several trillions of unique internet addresses. IPv4 has a limit of 3 billion IP addresses.

Topic: Corporates/Companies

5. Indian Oil Corporation to install electric vehicle charging facilities at 10,000 fuel stations over next 3 years.

• Indian Oil Corporation will install electric vehicle charging facilities at 10,000 fuel stations over the next three years.   
• Indian Oil is currently having 448 EV charging stations and 30 battery swapping stations across the country.
• Proposed charging network will facilitate an uninterrupted driving experience for users and boost the country's EV manufacturing ecosystem.
• In the first phase, the company will focus on nine cities. They are Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Surat and Pune.
• This is as per the 'National Mission for Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage'.
• Indian Oil Corporation has started ‘Zero Emission Electric Mobility', a hybrid microgrid enabled clean energy EV charging solution, at its SBT Fuel Station at Neelamangala, Bengaluru.
• The hybrid microgrid comprises solar power, battery storage and grid power.
• Indian Oil Corporation Limited is one of the Maharatna public sector companies. It is the largest commercial oil company in India.

Topic: Corporates/Companies

6. Amazon requests SEBI to take action to stop shareholders’ meeting by Future Retail Ltd (FRL).

• Amazon has requested SEBI to take action to stop shareholders’ meeting convened by Future Retail Ltd (FRL) on November 10.
• The meeting was convened by Future Retail Ltd (FRL) to seek approval for the sale of assets to Reliance Industries for ₹24,731 crore.
• Amazon has written letter to SEBI chairman Ajay Tyagi and said that SEBI should compel FRL to comply with multiple court orders that have stayed all proceedings related to the Future Retail deal.
• Amazon said that SEBI should direct FRL to withdraw the notices for convening the meeting of shareholders and creditors of FRL.
• Amazon has filed a petition in the Supreme Court questioning the ₹24,000-crore merger deal and the matter is listed for November 11.
• Kishore Biyani-owned Future Retail had decided to sell its assets to Reliance Retail. This deal was contested by Amazon, which invested ₹1,400 crore in Future Retail’s sister concern Future Coupons Private Ltd.

Topic: Banking System

7. SBI posts highest-ever quarterly standalone net profit in Q2 at ₹ 7,627 crore.

• State Bank of India has posted highest-ever quarterly standalone net profit in Q2 at ₹ 7,627 crore.
• The rise in profit is mainly on account of significant improvement in asset quality and lower loan-loss provisions.
• The net profit in Q2 ended September 30, 2021 was 67 % up year-on-year (yoy) vis-a-vis year-ago quarter’s ₹4,574 crore.
• Dinesh Kumar Khara, Chairman, SBI said that bank’s ground level forces have also improved collections.
• The net interest income was up about 11% yoy to ₹31,184 crore. Loan-loss provisions declined 52 % yoy to ₹2,699 crore against ₹5,619 crore.
• Gross NPAs (GNPAs) increased to 4.90 % of gross advances as at September-end 2021 against 5.32 % in the preceding quarter.
• Net NPAs improved to 1.52 % of net advances against 1.77 % in the preceding quarter.

Topic: Banking System

8. Infibeam’s CCAvenue launches an interoperable solution ‘TokenPay’.

• Infibeam Avenues Ltd's digital payments platform, CCAvenue has launched an interoperable solution ‘TokenPay’.
• TokenPay has been launched for businesses/merchants to comply with Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) data security norms.
• RBI has prohibited merchants, businesses, payment aggregators, and acquiring banks from storing customers’ credit/ debit /prepaid card information.
• As per the new RBI framework, only card networks and card issuers are allowed to store customer card information.

Read Banking Awareness PDF - 4, 5 and 6 November 2021