Name of the Bank which becomes first lender to charge for UPI use?

The Reserve Bank set the average base rate to be charged from borrowers by non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and micro-finance institutions (MFIs) at 9.21% for the first quarter of the next fiscal (April-June). The regulator in February 2014 had issued directions to NBFC-MFIs regarding pricing of credit.

According to a recent Asian Development Bank's (ADB) report titled 'Asian Development Outlook 2019: Strengthening Disaster Resilience', around 26 trillion dollars from 2016 to 2030, or 1.7 trillion dollars investment needed per year to build disaster-resilient infrastructure in Asia. Asian Development Outlook 2019.This is because Developing economies across Asia are among the most vulnerable to natural disasters and have suffered damages of around 644 billion dollars since 2000.Of these, approx 507 billion dollars wasted for weather-related hazards while the remaining 137 billion dollars wasted for geophysical hazards.

United Nations (UN) owes India USD 38 million, the highest it has to pay to any country, for the peacekeeping operations as of March 2019. In a report on improving the financial situation of the world body, as of March 31, 2019, the total amount payable to troop- and police-contributing countries with respect to active peacekeeping missions was USD 265 million. Of this, the UN owes USD 38 million to India, followed by Rwanda (USD 31 million), Pakistan (USD 28 million), Bangladesh (USD 25 million) and Nepal (USD 23 million). The arrears to troop- and police-contributing (TCCs/PCCs) countries could increase to USD 588 million by June 2019 "in the worst-case scenario".

Syndicate Bank and BEML Limited (Bharat Earth Movers Limited) have signed an agreement for financing Earth Moving and Construction Equipment which is manufactured by BEML. Also, it will facilitate the availability of loans and address the growing demand for higher capacity equipment in the Mining Industry.Under this agreement, the customers will be provided loans in the range of Rs 20 Lakh to Rs 300 Lakh and preferential pricing by Syndicate Bank. Also, Syndicate Bank and BEML expect to book business worth Rs.100 crore by March 2020.

Artificial Intelligence based HR solutions provider, Talocity will provide Yes Bank its touchless technology in hiring process for Yes bank. This is done to enhance the hiring process with unbiased HR outcomes and to attain high-quality talent. In the process of recruitment, candidates are interviewed by an AI bot on a one-way video platform. Talocity's machine learning and AI capabilities will create personality report of each job applicant. This creates a unique evaluation platform which is effective without any human involvement and helpful in large volume hiring.

Global card payments brand Mastercard has announced its plan of investing $1 billion in India operations over the period of next 5 years. About $350 million of the total amount would be invested in setting up a local payments processing center as per the Reserve Bank of India's mandate to store all payments data locally. The rest of the investment will go towards existing services and expanding capacity among others. This is the first such processing center of the company outside of the US and could provide service markets such as Southeast Asia and Asia-Pacific.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has divested its entire stake in National Housing Bank (NHB) and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) for Rs 1,450 crore and Rs 20 crore, respectively. The move is part of ending the cross-holding in regulatory institutions and follows the recommendation of second Narasimham committee report of October 2001 and the RBI's own discussion paper on the same entitled 'Harmonizing the role and operations of development financial institutions and banks. The current change in the capital structure of both these financial institutions was brought in by the government through amendments to the Nabard Act of 1981 and the NHB Act of 1987 which were notified on January 19, 2018 and March 29, 2018, respectively. With this, the Government of India (GoI) now holds 100% stake in both these financial institutions.

SBI Card raised Rs. 700 crore from various financial institutions including its parent SBI (State Bank of India) in the 2nd half of FY19 (Financial Year) to grow above the industry average. SBI Cards and Payment Services Pvt. Ltd (SBI Card) raised Rs. 100 crore from ICICI Securities Primary Dealership Ltd, Rs. 250 crore from State Bank of India and Rs. 50 crore each from Canara Bank and Axis Bank by issuing NCDs (Non Convertible Debentures) at 9.15% coupon. SBI Card also raised additional Rs. 250 crore from Axis Bank through a coupon of 9.55%. The Rs. 700 crore fundraise is part of SBI Card's plan to raise Rs. 1,500 crore in a few tranches.

According to a report by The Economic Times, India's Central Bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would tighten rules on opening and operating current accounts of corporate borrowers to prevent the diversion of funds. sRBI had notified that the banks with collection accounts will have to transfer funds to the current account and the current accounts could be opened only with the lead bank of a lending association. The rules would be applicable to corporates who have borrowed and used credit facilities of more than Rs 50 crore from the banking system.

Private lender HDFC Bank said it is planning to raise up to Rs.50,000 crore this fiscal by issuing bonds on private placement basis. It will raise funds by issuing perpetual debt instruments [part of additional tier I capital], tier II capital bonds and long-term bonds [financing of infrastructure and affordable housing] up to a total amount of Rs.50,000 crore in the period of next 12 months through private placement mode. The bank would consider the proposal on April 20.