On World Earth Day- April 22, 2019 the State Bank of India (SBI) has launched India's first 'Green Car Loan' (Electric Vehicle) to encourage customers to buy electric vehicles. The new scheme 'Green Car Loan' will offer loan at 20 basis points lower than the interest rate on the existing car loan schemes. The scheme comes with the longest repayment period of up to 8 years. It is thus a strategic inclusion to SBI's auto loan segment that is offered with zero processing fee for the first 6 months of the launch. SBI has already notified 100% migration to EVs (Electric Vehicles) by 2030 in order to decrease carbon footprints, thus being in line with the government's pledge of ensuring 30% EVs on road by 2030.

The central government has increased the authorized capital of state-owned Allahabad Bank from Rs. 3,000 crore to Rs. 8,000 crore after consultation with the Reserve Bank of India.This move by the central government has enabled Allahabad bank to raise further fund up to a maximum ceiling of Rs. 8,000 crore.

State Bank of India launched 'YONO Cash' for cardless withdrawal of cash at over 16,500 SBI ATMs across the country. With this facility, customers can initiate the cash withdrawal process on the YONO app and set a six-digit YONO Cash PIN for the transaction. They will also get a six-digit reference number for the transaction on their registered mobile number via SMS. The withdrawal has to be completed in the next 30 minutes at the nearest ATM. The initiative will also address their concern of using debit card at the ATMs for cash withdrawals by eliminating possible risk associated with it.

Bank of Baroda and city-based Srei Equipment Finance Ltd will collaborate to offer joint loans for infrastructure equipment under a new agreement.This collaboration will allow both Srei and Bank of Baroda to cooperate and widen their respective markets and customer base.Sourcing of loans will be facilitated through iQuippo, which is a Kanoria Foundation initiative.

HDFC, India's largest mortgage lender, which has agreed to merge its low-cost arm Gruh Finance Pvt. Ltd. with Bandhan Bank, can hold 9.9 percent in the bank, according to its exchange filing. That's the maximum a non-banking finance company can own in a private bank. HDFC had sought approval for 14.96 percent.

Reserve Bank of India received a huge response for introducing a $5-billion swap facility for the banks to facilitate permanent liquidity support.To ease the liquidity crunch, Reserve Bank of India will buy dollars from banks for three years and offer them rupees in return, which will bulk up the central bank's foreign-exchange reserves while injecting cash into the banking system.Banks offered $16.31 billion at the auction against the notified amount of $5 billion for the rupee-dollar swaps and out of this $16.31 billion received via 240 offers by market participants, the RBI accepted $5.02 billion via 89 offers.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) launched 5$ billion Action Plan for Healthy Oceans and Sustainable Blue Economies for the Asia and Pacific region. This will support ADB's developing member countries' efforts for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), inclusive of the SDG 14: Life Below Water. Among the 10 rivers that transports 88% to 95% of plastics into the sea globally, 8 are in Asia and Pacific region. The Healthy Oceans Action Plan was launched at the 52nd Annual Meeting of ADB's Board of Governors, Fiji.

The board of Lakshmi Vilas Bank approved a share swap acquisition by housing finance firm Indiabulls Housing Finance. The merged entity, Indiabulls Lakshmi Vilas Bank, will be among the top eight private banks by size and profitability. The merger will need the approval of the Reserve Bank of India and other regulators. As per the share swap ratio for the merger, for every 100 shares of Lakshmi Vilas Bank shareholders will get 14 shares of Indiabulls Housing Finance.

ACI Worldwide, a global provider of real-time electronic payment and banking solutions, announced that Canara Bank has successfully rolled out major new functionality to support EMV card acquiring across its ATM network and Aadhaar Authentication, leveraging ACI's UP Retail Payments solution to achieve market firsts. Canara Bank, with nearly 6,300 branches and a network of more than 10,000 ATMs, is the first public sector bank to shift to EMV chip and PIN for card present transactions across the country's vast ATM network.

KVS Manian and Gaurang Shah appointed as Kotak Mahindra Bank's whole-time directors for a three-year term effective from the date of approval from the Reserve Bank of India. He is currently working as the president - corporate, an investment bank and Gaurang Shah is the president- group chief risk officer of the bank.