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

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%.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.