Question 1

PAISALO Digital Limited signed the first co-origination loan agreement with which among the following bank?

Accepted Answer

PAISALO Digital Limited signed the first co-origination loan agreement with State Bank of India (SBI). This is the first agreement of its kind in the country that State Bank of India has signed. The agreement was signed with a vision of empowering the AGRI, MSME segment and small businesses. The loan ticket is designed at Rs.10,000 to 2 lakh. The company expects to disburse 200,000 loan applications in FY20. PAISALO Digital Limited is a leading systemically important non-deposit taking NBFC. It is registered with the Reserve Bank of India, in operations since 1992.

Question 2

Which bank has acquired the shares in electric equipment maker CG Power?

Accepted Answer

Yes Bank has acquired eight crore shares in electric equipment maker CG Power and Industrial Solutions which were pledged to it by a borrower. The acquired shares represent 12.79% ownership in the company and will be valued at ₹292.56 crore. CG Power had a turnover of ₹6,287 crore in fiscal year 2017-18.

Question 3

The first Asia-Pacific (APAC) central bank to begin interest rate easing cycle is;

Accepted Answer

Fitch Ratings has recently said in its APAC sovereign credit overview report that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is the first Asia-Pacific (APAC) central bank to begin interest rate easing cycle by cutting the policy rate back-to-back in the last two monetary policy reviews in 2019. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), headed by RBI Govenor Shaktikanta Das, cut rates in February and April, citing prospects of benign inflation. In the four months of 2019, the RBI has cut policy interest rates twice twice by 0.25% each to one-year low of 6%. Earlier in April 2019, Fitch Ratings kept India's rating unchanged for the 13th time in a row at BBB- , which is the lowest investment grade, along with a stable outlook. The agency cited various challenges faced by the country such as high public debt, weak financial sector and lagging structural reforms.

Question 4

Reserve Bank of India has permitted Re-insurance and Composite Insurance brokers to open which account for undertaking transactions?

Accepted Answer

The Reserve Bank of India sanctioned reinsurance brokers to initiate non-interest bearing foreign currency accounts with banks for undertaking transactions. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA) had issued notification and following this the RBI declared Foreign Exchange Management (Foreign Currency Accounts by a resident person in India) Regulations, 2015 - Opening of Foreign Currency Accounts by Re-insurance and Composite Insurance brokers. Foreign currency account refers to a bank account operated in currency other than the currency of India or Bhutan or Nepal.

Question 5

Which bank signed a loan agreement of USD 83 million line of credit to Congo to finance 3 solar power projects?

Accepted Answer

Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) signed a loan agreement on behalf of the government of USD 83.11 million to Congo for financing three solar power projects in the central African country. It aims to provide support for financing three solar photovoltaic power projects with a total capacity of 35 megawatts in the three provinces - Karawa, Mbandaka, and Lusambo.

Question 6

Which among the following bank has collaborated with India's health insurance company, Max Bupa to launch 'AnyTimeHealth machines' for distributing health insurance products?

Accepted Answer

Max Bupa, India's health insurance company collaborated with HDFC Bank, India's leading private sector banks, and launched 'AnyTimeHealth (ATH) machines. The machine is an automated, web-based model that permits customers to avail health assessment, namely, Body Mass Index', 'Blood Pressure', 'Body Type & Fat percentage', 'Muscle percentage', 'Bone Mass', 'Body Temperature' and buy health policy dynamically without incorporation of any kind of conventional manual efforts. Max Bupa partnered with HDFC Bank to design an end-to-end 'digital journey' for the bank's customers, which is designed to support HDFC Bank's assisted and non-assisted mode of selling insurance digitally, thus empowering the HDFC's customers to avail health insurance solutions proficiently.

Question 7

Name the bank which has signed an MoU with Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company for Insurance Products recently?

Accepted Answer

Karnataka Bank has entered into an MoU with Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company to distribute the latter's life insurance products. The bank will be able to provide a wide choice of life insurance products to its customers across 836 branches, supported by the products of Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company. This is the third such tie-up by the bank after PNB MetLife Life Insurance Company and LIC of India, both of which continue to provide insurance solutions to the customers of Karnataka Bank.

Question 8

RBI grants 12 years to LIC for reducing stake in which bank?

Accepted Answer

Life Insurance Corporation(LIC), the largest insurance company in India, got 12 years from RBI for cut down stake in IDBI Bank.LIC is the lender's major shareholder, and it has a 51 per cent stake in the Bank. It means that no obligation to sell its stake in the following years or would probably spend higher money to keep its stake in any future fund raising by the bank. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) claimed that LIC can take up to 15 percent stake in any bank,which can stretch up to 30 percent as per the board approval.But the insurance regulator has authorised LIC to hold up to 51 percent in IDBI Bank in 2018. After 12 years LIC has to decrease stake in IDBI Bank by 10 per cent to 40 per cent.

Question 9

Which Bank launched a paperless account opening facility for NRIs?

Accepted Answer

IDBI Bank has launched 'NRI-Insta Online' account opening process for NRIs residing in Financial Action Task Force (FATF)member countries to open an account in the Bank without visiting the branch or submitting paper documents such as physical documents as well as KYC proofs. This online facility is available in IDBI Bank's website. FATF is an inter-governmental body founded in 1989, which devices policy and sets standards to promote successful implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other similarthreats to the integrity of the international financial system.

Question 10

According to Reserve Bank of India, bank credit rose to __________ percent for the fortnight to March 29?

Accepted Answer

According to the data of Reserve Bank of India, which was released on 11th April, 2019, bank credit rose 13.24% to Rs 97.67 lakh crore for the fortnight to March 29.This is the second consecutive robust credit growth after the same had declined to 4.54 percent in FY17 at Rs 78.41 lakh crore, which was the lowest since 5 decades.Deposits have grown by 10.03 percent to Rs 125.72 lakh crore during the same period.

Question 11

Which bank partners with CreditVidya to leverage customer experience?

Accepted Answer

RBL Bank has partnered with CreditVidya to enhance the lender's customer experience (by offering them relevant credit products) and construct customised offerings for over 15 lakh customers. RBL bank had first partnered with CreditVidya in 2018 for instant and automated verification of employment details of salaried card applicants. RBL Bank will leverage CreditVidya's big data underwriting platform across its credit card and mobile banking apps. CreditVidya helps lenders, wallets assess risk of customers, leverages alternative data, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning for credit scoring for the facilitation of institutional credit for the underserved.

Question 12

Name the bank which has received CCI Nod for Merger with Gruh Finance.

Accepted Answer

Bandhan Bank has received approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for the proposed scheme of amalgamation of Gruh Finance with the bank. The approval has been made under sub-section (1) of Section 31 of the Competition Act, 2002. Bandhan Bank had, in January 2019, announced the merger of Gruh Finance with it. The move was taken to bring down promoter holding in the bank to 61% from 82.3%.

Question 13

Which bank celebrated its 114th Foundation Day on 12th March 2019?

Accepted Answer

Corporation Bank celebrated its 114th Foundation Day on 12th March at various centres of the bank across the nation and undertook 114 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities to mark the day. CEO and MD for the bank P.V Bharathi, Executive Directors Gopal Murli Bhagat and Birupaksha Mishra and other senior officials were present at the occasion. Corp Ease- which is a mobile banking app in 10regional languages, was launched by P.V Bharathi.

Question 14

Karnam Sekar has been appointed as the MD and CEO of this bank, recently.

Accepted Answer

The government has announced that Karnam Sekar (MD and CEO of the erstwhile Dena Bank) will take over as MD and CEO of Indian Overseas Bank from July 1. His term will end in June 2020. Also, R A Sankara Narayanan (former MD and CEO of Vijaya Bank) will move to Canara Bank as MD and CEO. His term will end in January 2020.

Question 15

Name the India's largest bank which has signed an MoU with the Bank of China to boost business opportunities.

Accepted Answer

The country's largest lender State Bank of India has signed a pact with the Bank of China to boost business opportunities. SBI has signed an MoU to enhance business synergies between both the banks. Through this pact, both SBI and BoC will gain direct access to their respective markets of operation. Both banks' clients will be able to use the vast combined network to expand their businesses abroad. SBI has a branch in Shanghai and BOC is opening its branch in Mumbai.

Question 16

As per Forbes World's Best Bank survey, which bank has been identified as number 1 bank by customers in India?

Accepted Answer

HDFC Bank has been identified as number 1 bank by customers in India, as per Forbes World's Best Bank survey. In the first edition of this survey, Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista to measure the best banks in 23 countries. HDFC Bank emerged as India's No 1 bank. ICICI Bank was at number 2 and SBI was surprisingly ranked 11th in the list. Customers were asked to rate banks on overall recommendation and satisfaction, as well as 5 key attributes or 'sub-dimensions' namely trusts, terms & conditions, customer services, digital services and financial advice.

Question 17

BSE has signed a memorandum of understanding with which of the following bank to strengthen the BSE Startups platform?

Accepted Answer

The BSE has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with HDFC Bank with an objective to strengthen the BSE Startups platform. The MoU has been signed to spread more awareness on the benefits of the listing of startups on this BSE startup platform. The exchange had launched the startup platform in December, with an aim to encourage entrepreneurs to get listed and raise equity capital for their growth and expansion.

Question 18

Which of the following banks have been designated as the RBI's list of D-SIBs?

Accepted Answer

The State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank would have to comply with additional capital requirement norms by 1st April 2019 as the banks continue to be in the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s list of Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs) for 2018. D-SIBs are required to maintain higher capital as compared to other banks. It means that these banks are too big to fail and failure of any of these banks will have cascading effect on Indian financial system. The D-SIB framework requires the RBI to disclose the names of banks designated as D-SIBs starting from 2015 and place these banks in appropriate buckets depending upon their Systemic Importance Scores (SISs). SIBs are subjected to higher levels of supervision so as to prevent disruption in financial services in the event of any failure.

Question 19

Which bank received a capital infusion of Rs 5,042 Crore from the government, recently?

Accepted Answer

The government has decided to infuse a capital of 5,042 crore rupees into state-owned Bank of Baroda ahead of its merger with two other public sector lenders Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank,with Bank of Baroda which would be effective from 1st April 2019.With this initiative, the share price of Bank of Baroda rose 6.21% to 129.10 compared to the previous close of 121.55 on BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange).According to the Scheme of Amalgamation, shareholders of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank will get 402 equity shares and 110 equity shares of BoB respectively for every 1,000 shares held.

Question 20

Which Bank has introduced a new interest rate to RBI's Repo Rate?

Accepted Answer

India's largest bank State Bank of India has moved to a new interest rate regime on large savings account deposits as well as short-term loans. Earlier, SBI had announced that it will link its interest rate on savings account with a balance above Rs1 lakh and short-term loans like overdraft and cash credit facility to Reserve Bank of India's repo rate, effective 1 May 2019. The interest rates on large SBI savings account deposits and interest rate on some short-term loans will automatically change as and when RBI changes its repo rate. This will help in better transmission of RBI's policy rates into the banking system.

Banking Questions