Banking Sector

News of the worrying shortfall came amid the closure of Silicon Valley bank- the largest collapse since Washington Mutual in 2008, the Daily Mail reported. As the government scrambles to prevent contagion, the Federal Reserve announced on Sunday night that all depositors would get their money back.

The amended money laundering rules define PEPs as "individuals who have been entrusted with prominent public functions by a foreign country, including the heads of States or Governments, senior politicians, senior government or judicial or military officers, senior executives of state-owned corporations and important political party officials".

On Thursday, shares of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a key lender to technology start-ups, plunged after it announced plans to shore up its finances. This had a knock-on effect, with the four largest US banks losing more than $50bn in market value. Bank shares in Asia and Europe fell sharply on Friday, BBC reported.

During the week ending on February 17, the total foreign exchange reserves of the SBP rose to around $3.26 billion, the SBP added on Thursday in a statement. Net foreign reserves held by commercial banks came at $5.47 billion, it said. Total liquid foreign reserves held by the South Asian country stood at about $8.73 billion, according to the central bank.

"To support credit-off take, banks are expected to shore up their liability franchise by raising capital (AT1 bonds, other debt instruments such as infrastructure bonds) and deposits. The market has been facing lower liquidity and elevated inflation, hence borrowing costs for deposits and the cost of raising capital are expected to increase," the credit rating agency said in a report.

"The expected benefits of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in financial institutions worldwide, including in India, are cost reduction, profit maximisation, and gains through portfolio or geographical diversification," the paper, authored by Snehal S. Herwadkar, Shubham Gupta, and Vaishnavi Chavan, notes.

The meeting would discuss the possibilities of using the schemes to help businesses impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic, the sources said. To ensure that the ECLGS is helpful for such businesses, the meeting is likely to discuss extending the scheme beyond March 31, 2023.

Sources said Indian markets have been under onslaught in the last few trading sessions and a probe will ascertain the role of short sellers in bringing the market down. According to a SEBI discussion paper, short selling -- the sale of a security that the seller does not own -- is one of the long-standing market practices, which has often been the subject of considerable debate and divergent views in most of the securities markets across the world.

According to Venkatachalam, the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) has agreed to hold a meeting with the unions on January 31. At the conciliation meeting held on Friday, it was decided that the three common issues -- five day banking, updation of pension and restoration of old pension scheme -- will be discussed on January 31. The other residual issues will be discussed with respective officers and workmen unions separately.

In December alone, 32.49 crore e-KYC transactions were carried out using Aadhaar, over 13 per cent more than the previous month. The Aadhaar e-KYC service is increasingly playing an important role for banking and non-banking financial services by providing transparent and improved customer experience, and helping in the ease of doing business.