Banking Sector

SMVdanmark, which represents 18,000 small and medium-sized enterprises in the country, said in the report published on Monday that since the summer "businesses have been hit hard by high inflation, soaring energy bills and, not least, fears about the future of the economy, which have sent consumers' appetite for buying into a tailspin", reports Xinhua news agency.

A throwback to this anomaly is when former RBI Governor Urjit Patel in a speech titled 'Banking Regulatory Powers Should Be Ownership Neutral' in March 2018 threw into stark relief that though the RBI is the banking regulator, the powers to regulate PSBs are held by the government.

Economic experts expect the MPC to hike the repo rate by 25-35 basis points (bps) with industry lobby body ASSOCHAM also urging the central bank to do the same. Further it will also be interesting to see whether there will be unanimity amongst the members of the MPC on the decisions taken at the ensuing meeting.

Assocham has also requested the RBI to treat retail loans for purchase of electric vehicle (EV) as priority sector lending. According to Assocham, the interest rate hike should be moderate so that the rising cost of borrowing does not have an adverse and disproportionate impact on the nascent economic recovery post the pandemic.

A person being an individual can buy electoral bonds, either singly or jointly with other individuals. Only political parties registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (43 of 1951) and which have secured not less than one per cent of the votes polled in the last general election to the Lok Sabha or state legislative assemblies are eligible to receive these bonds.

CNBC-TV18 reported, citing sources, that the Japanese investor is offering to sell 29 million shares in the digital payments and financial services company at Rs 601.45 apiece. The move comes as Paytm's lock-in for pre-IPO investors ends later this week. At Rs 601, Paytm's shares are currently trading at least 70 per cent below its IPO price. According to reports, SoftBank invested some $1.6 billion in Paytm. It took out up to $250 million in the company's IPO in November last year.

At the same time though, Governor Shaktikanta Das asked public as well as private sector banks to remain watchful of the evolving macroeconomic situation and take necessary mitigating measures to minimise their impact on balance sheets and contain financial stability risks.

According to a study made by the company, the date of investment does not make any difference as regards returns. "The study of the last 26 years' index data reveals no meaningful difference between the average return of different dates' 10 years SIPs," WhiteOak AMC said. In the long term it hardly matters if the investor invests via Daily, Weekly, or Monthly SIP Frequency, as per the company.

This is the lowest level at which foreign exchange reserves have fallen since July 2020. The slide has occurred mainly due to a fall in RBI's foreign currency assets, which fell to $465.08 billion in the week ended October 21. Foreign exchange reserves have fell by more than $100 billion since Russia invaded Ukraine in February this year.

Adressing the Annual Conference of RBI Ombudsmen in Jodhpur, he said that the RBI ombudsmen and regulated entities (REs) must identify the root causes of persisting customer complaints and take necessary systemic measures to correct them. The central bank governor said he was concerned about rising customer grievances, despite the RBI's efforts to resolve them.