Bank of Baroda (BoB) became the second largest public sector undertaking (PSU) bank after merging Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank into itself as part of the first three-way amalgamation. BoB is now the third-largest bank after State Bank of India (SBI) and HDFC Bank. Following the merger, the number of PSBs has come down to 18. The consolidated bank will have over 9,500 branches, 13,400 ATMs, 85,000 employees to serve 12 crore customers. The bank will have a business mix of Rs 15 lakh crore of balance sheet, with deposits and advances of Rs 8.75 lakh crore and Rs 6.25 lakh crore, respectively. Post-amalgamation, the bank will have a 22 per cent market share in Gujarat and 8-10 per cent market share in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

State-owned Bank of India (BoI) raised Rs.660.80 crore by issuing shares to employees under Employee Share Purchase Scheme (ESPS). The bank issued 6,25,52,188 shares of Rs.10 each to eligible employees. The Bank offered a discount of 24.28% on the applicable price to the employees and about 94.70% of total employees participated.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has turned down IDBI Bank's proposal to change its name following the transfer of a controlling 51% stake to LIC, insurance behemoth, from the government of India. The board of IDBI Bank had, last month, sought the RBI's approval for a change in the name of the lender to either LIC IDBI Bank or LIC Bank following the takeover by Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). However, RBI did not elaborate on the reasons for denial by the regulator for changing the name.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) notified that Exim Bank has proffered soft loans worth 266.6$ million to Rwanda for various projects. The funding for the projects has been done in 3 distinct tranches. The projects are for supporting agricultural projects; for the development of Special Economic Zones (SEZs); for financing road projects in Rwanda. Exim Bank, according to the agreement will provide $100 million to finance the development of 2 SEZs, as well as for the expansion of the Kigali SEZ in Rwanda.

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.

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.

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".

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.

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.

Kotak Mahindra Bank (Kotak) stated that it will charge customers for UPI transactions starting 1st of May 2019. For each Kotak Bank account, the first 30 UPI fund transfers will be free after which a charge will be levied on all fund transfers from the bank account. This will be applicable across all platforms, including Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay or Truecaller Pay among others. The bank will charge Rs 2.50 per transaction for an amount value below or equal to Rs 1,000, and Rs 5 per transaction will be levied for a payment value above Rs 1,000.