ICICI Bank drags Punj Lloyd to NCLT, State Bank of India objects

ICICI Bank has filed a case against Punj Lloyd, the international engineering procurement and construction company, in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), New Delhi, for insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings. The division bench headed by Justice M M Kumar has issued a notice to Punj Lloyd, saying the lender has moved the tribunal under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). ICICI Bank has filed the case against Punj Lloyd to recover dues of Rs 8.52 billion. However, the petition seeking initiation of insolvency proceeding against the corporate debtor was opposed by State Bank of India (SBI).

News digest: GST e-way Bill, Rahul Gandhi's elevation, and more

GST Council firm on e-way Bill despite traders' concern

An electronic system to track movement of products under the goods and services tax (GST) system will be put in place across the country (inter-city as well as intra-city) by June 1, 2018. Read More...

More traders paying taxes on GSTN: Sushil Kumar Modi

The proportion of tax-paying traders has increased to 70 per cent of those registered on the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) as the technology backbone built by Infosys has begun to stabilise and make it easier for them to file returns, said Bihar Finance Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Saturday. Read More...

Rahul Gandhi takes charge of the grand old party

Rahul Gandhi on Saturday took charge as president of the Congress in the presence of the 132-year-old party’s brass and his family members. Read More...

UIDAI suspends Airtel, Airtel Payments Bank's e-KYC licence

In its strongest action yet, the UIDAI has temporarily barred Bharti Airtel and Airtel Payments Bank from conducting Aadhaar-based SIM verification of mobile customers using the eKYC process as well as e-KYC of payments bank clients. Read More...

US may stop spouses of H1B visa holders from working

The Trump administration is considering revoking an Obama-era rule that extends work authorisation to the spouses of H1B visa holders, a move that could affect thousands of Indian workers and their families. Read More...
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Trump names 'safe' choice Jerome Powell to lead US Fed: 5 questions answered

ditor’s note: Markets breathed a sigh of relief after President Donald Trump named Jerome Powell his pick to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve. If confirmed, Powell – considered a “safe” choice – would take over from current Chair Janet Yellen in February, becoming one of the world’s most powerful people. So what’s the big deal? Economist Greg Wright explains why who leads the U.S. central bank matters to us all.

What does the Fed do?

The Federal Reserve oversees all banks and financial institutions based in the U.S., including branches of foreign companies, and also sets U.S. monetary policy.

The main way it does the latter is through its target interest rate. This benchmark influences the pace of economic growth, the level of employment and the price of goods, services and assets around the world. As the engine behind the world’s most important economy, the Fed’s influence is hard to overstate.

As a result, the Fed affects the likelihood that you – and millions of others around the world – will keep your job, will be able to afford a new home and will be able to retire when you want. And while most Fed decisions are made by a seven-member Board of Governors, the chair’s voice is by the far the most important. For this reason the Fed chair is sometimes referred to as the “second-most-powerful person in the world” – after the U.S. president
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Brexit to cost UK 10,000 finance jobs on day-1, 75,000 in all: BoE governor

Job losses totalling 75,000 in banking and insurance because of Brexit are "plausible", Bank of England Deputy Governor Sam Woods said on Wednesday.

Woods told British lawmakers that the 65,000 to 75,000 estimate was drawn up by consultants Oliver Wyman and not the Bank of England, but that it was within a "plausible range of scenarios".

Woods also told a House of Lords committee that it was reasonable to expect that the UK financial sector will have lost about 10,000 jobs on "day one" of Brexit when Britain leaves the European Union in March 2019.

"It's a moving feast," Woods said.

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Nepal's central bank issues alert as hackers target major pvt bank

Cybercriminals reportedly hacked into the electronic fund transfer system of a major private sector bank in Nepal, prompting the country's central bank to issue an alert, officials said on Tuesday.

According to the officials of the Nepal Rastra Bank, the country's central bank, hackers tried to make illegal payment worth millions of rupees from the bank accounts of NIC Asia Bank Ltd using the SWIFT electronic money transfer system.

The NRB, they said, has asked foreign central banks not to make any payments sought.

"It has been found that transactions of NIC Asia Bank have been carried out from various banks in six countries by hackers using SWIFT, an international banking network," said Rajendra Pandit, deputy spokesperson of the NRB.

"We have already requested the central banks in those countries to stop processing payments to the parties requested by the hackers. Even payments which have already been made are likely to be retrieved," Pandit said.

The hackers reportedly broke into the SWIFT system of the NIC Asia Bank and siphoned off an undisclosed amount last week during the Diwali holidays.

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INX media case: Karti is not a 'fugitive of justice', lawyer Sibal tells SC

In a hearing of the INX media case on Tuesday, Karti Chidambaram's lawyer Kapil Sibal told the Supreme Court that the former is not a "fugitive of justice".

The case against Karti, which pertains to allege that he illegally took service charges for getting the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving funds from abroad worth Rs 305 crore in 2007 when his father P. Chidambaram was the finance minister in Congress-led United Progressive Alliance's rule, was heard by a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra.
Arguing in the court against the lookout notice used by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which prevents Karti from travelling outside India, Sibal told that though Karti went abroad but he came back to India again.

Sibal told the court that the Centre had pressurised the foreign bank to close Karti's account in United Kingdom, so he had to take money out of it during his last visit to the country.

The senior lawyer further argued that there is just an FIR against karti in the INX media case and nothing has been proved against him yet.

Denying Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) allegation of multiple foreign bank accounts, Karti earlier told the Supreme Court that he had only one account in the United Kingdom's Metro Bank and one property in that country.
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US oil surges to $50 a barrel as demand improves; Dow at new closing high

Rising demand pushed US crude above $50 a barrel on Thursday, while Sterling jumped after the Bank of England said it was likely to raise interest rates for the first time in a decade in coming months.

Energy shares rose on Wall Street and in Europe, but stocks were mixed worldwide. A gauge of global equity indexes fell slightly, as did the S&P 500 in the United States, while major European indexes gained and the Dow set a new closing high.

West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. crude benchmark, rose more than 2 percent before paring gains after a forecast by the International Energy Agency on Wednesday and dollar weakness prompted bullish sentiment in the oil market.

"Anticipation is growing that this could quicken the pace of oil market rebalancing," said Abhishek Kumar, senior energy analyst at Interfax Energy's Global Gas Analytics in London.

US crude rose 9 cents to settle at $49.89 a barrel and Brent settled up 31 cents at $55.47.

Brent has climbed more than $10 a barrel over the past three months and is close to where it was at the beginning of the year, roughly trading between $55 and $57 a barrel.
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US asks Pakistan's Habib Bank to shut shop over terror funding concerns

US banking regulators ordered Pakistan's Habib Bank to shutter its New York office after nearly 40 years, for repeatedly failing to heed concerns over possible terrorist financing and money laundering, officials said today.

Habib, Pakistan's largest private bank, neglected to watch for compliance problems and red flags on transactions that potentially could have promoted terrorism, money laundering or other illicit ends, New York banking officials said.

The state's Department of Financial Services, which regulates foreign banks, also slapped a $225 million fine on the bank, although that is much smaller than the $629.6 million penalty initially proposed.

Habib has operated in the United States since 1978, and in 2006 was ordered to tighten its oversight of potentially illegal transactions but failed to comply.

New York regulators said Habib facilitated billions of dollars of transactions with Saudi private bank, Al Rajhi Bank, which reportedly has links to al Qaeda, and failed to do enough to ensure that the funds were not laundered or used for terrorism.

"DFS will not tolerate inadequate risk and compliance functions that open the door to the financing of terrorist activities that pose a grave threat to the people of this State and the financial system as a whole," DFS Superintendent Maria Vullo said in a news release..

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ECB monetary policy could temporarily ease inequality in Europe

The European Central Bank's ultra-easy monetary policy may actually reduce income inequality in Europe, ECB Vice President Vitor Constancio said on Tuesday, rejecting the argument that asset buys disproportionately benefit the wealthy.

Constancio said the ECB's stimulus measures lower unemployment and thus increase disposable income for Europe's poorest, compressing inequality, at least in the short term.

"This result confirms that, from the distributional perspective, the main impact of expansionary monetary policies is on the reduction of unemployment with positive effects on the reduction of inequality," Constancio said in Lisbon.

"(Monetary policy) measures can improve their welfare and contribute toward reducing income disparities, at least in the short-term."

But he added that such steps are likely to be temporary with the "hollowing out of the middle class" and the increasing polarisation of incomes likely continuing over the longer term.
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Indian Bank brings 2-tier interest rate for savings A/Cs

PSU lender Indian Bank on Friday said it will offer an interest rate of 4 per cent per annum on savings account with an incremental balance of over Rs 50 lakh and 3.50 per cent per annum for deposits up to Rs 50 lakh.

The lender in a statement said it "has introduced two tier interest rate structure for saving bank accounts and will offer 4 per cent interest per annum for incremental balance over Rs 50 lakh and 3.50 per cent per annum for balance up to Rs 50 lakh."

The new interest rate will be effective from August 16, 2017, the bank said in a BSE filing.

Recently, the country's largest lender State Bank of India had slashed interest rate on savings account deposits by 50 basis points to 3.5 per on balance of Rs 1 crore and below.

However, SBI continues to offer 4 per cent interest on savings account balance of Rs 1 crore and above.

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Bank of America picks Dublin as new base for EU operations post Brexit

Bank of America on Friday became the first Wall Street lender to pick Dublin as its new base for its European Union operations as Britain prepares to leave the bloc.

International banks are planning to set up subsidiaries in the EU to ensure they can continue to serve clients if their London operations lose the ability to operate across the bloc once Britain leaves in March 2019.

Frankfurt and Dublin are emerging as early winners for banks' post-Brexit operations.

"Bank of America has operated in Ireland and engaged in the local community for almost 50 years," said Brian Moynihan, chairman and CEO of Bank of America.

The bank did not say how many roles would be moved or created in the Irish capital, where it currently has over 700 staff and a fully licensed entity, but said that some roles would also move to other EU locations.

The Irish government, which has been keen to attract investment banks to Dublin, welcomed the news.

"This announcement...is a strong endorsement of Ireland's attractiveness as a location for investment, and of the government's approach to securing Brexit-related activities," Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said following the announcement and a meeting with Moynihan in Dublin on Friday.
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European Central Bank keeps easy money stance despite better growth

The European Central Bank left its ultra easy monetary policy stance unchanged as expected on Thursday, keeping rates at record lows and even leaving the door open to more asset buys if the outlook worsens.

After ECB chief Mario Draghi raised the prospect of policy tightening last month, he signalled that any policy tweaks would come only gradually, setting the scene for a possible discussion in September about a long-awaited tapering of its asset buys.

"We need to be persistent and patient because we aren't there yet, and prudent," Draghi told his regular news conference after a meeting of ECB policy-makers in Frankfurt.

He stressed that the bank's governing council were unanimous both on the decision to keep its guidance unchanged and to avoid setting a precise date for a discussion of future policy, noting only that it would occur in the autumn.

With the euro zone economy now growing for the 17th straight quarter, its best run since before the 2007-08 global financial crisis, that at least suggested the ECB is starting to contemplate easing off the accelerator, preserving some firepower after printing nearly 2 trillion euros to jump start growth.

The prospect of reduced monetary stimulus has kept financial markets edgy, with investors sifting through clues to gauge how big central banks around the globe will unwind unconventional policy that have kept borrowing costs at rock bottom.
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Morgan Stanley to shift 200 jobs to Frankfurt, prepare for post-Brexit EU

Morgan Stanley has picked Frankfurt as a new temporary hub to operate in the European Union when Brexit takes effect, a person familiar with the situation said.

The New York investment bank will double staff in the German city from 200 to 400 in order to be ready to continue to operate in Europe by the March 2019 deadline for Brexit to take effect, the person said on Wednesday.

"It's a short-term solution," the person said, adding that Morgan Stanley executives continued to consider other cities for its long-term headquarters.

Morgan Stanley currently employs about 5,000 people in London but will relocate some traders as well as marketing and administrative staff to Frankfurt.

The bank also plans to shift a smaller number of banking and trader jobs to Paris, Dublin, Madrid and Milan, the person said.

Morgan Stanley plans to later take a decision on the permanent headquarters for the EU operations. French President Emmanuel Macron, among other European leaders, has been actively trying to lure bankers to Paris for the post-Brexit era.

Frankfurt has already been picked as the EU headquarters by Standard Chartered and Nomura.

JPMorgan Chase has transferred hundreds of jobs to Dublin but has not announced plans for a permanent headquarters for the EU.

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Deutsche Bank wants former bosses to share past misconduct costs

Deutsche Bank expects former board members to voluntarily pay substantial sums for their role in past misconduct which has tarnished the reputation of Germany's biggest lender, its chairman Paul Achleitner said on Thursday.

Achleitner told shareholders at Deutsche Bank's annual general meeting that the supervisory board and two committees were discussing the need for personal and collective responsibility and the bank had sought external legal advice.

"The supervisory board expects that in the coming months, there will be an arrangement which ensures that the individuals involved make a substantial financial contribution," he said, adding that while no decision had yet been reached, discussions were at an advanced stage.

The talks are focusing on why Deutsche Bank's own response was so slow, as well as its involvement in a series of financial scandals, Deutsche Bank sources told Reuters. Collective responsibility of the board for the company's actions as a whole were at the centre of the talks, rather than personal failure or involvement in individual litigation cases, they added.

Achleitner did not name any individuals, but Deutsche Bank sources said the supervisory board is in talks with around ten people including former co-chief executives Anshu Jain and Juergen Fitschen, as well as other former board members including Stephan Leithner, Rainer Neske, Henry Ritchotte, Stefan Krause and current board member Stuart Lewis.

Deutsche Bank said Lewis, who currently sits on the bank's board, would not comment. Spokesmen for Jain and Neske said they would not comment. The other former Deutsche top managers did not respond to requests for comment
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Is there cash in the ATM? 6 months later, India shakes off note-ban blues

‘Is there cash at the ATM?’ is a question many still ask Bir Singh, posted outside an automated teller machine on Lodhi Road in the Capital. After weeks of going through the tedium of standing in queues for cash, and often coming away disappointed, many have got used to asking this question before entering an ATM.

“People still think there is a shortage. However, we have refills twice a day on weekdays and once on Sundays,” says Singh. Cash is back in full force in the National Capital Region and lining up to take out a little cash is a thing of the past. If an ATM is empty, it is mostly because of technical glitches, not due to no cash being available.

The situation in other parts of the country is very similar. Prime Minister Narendra Modi shocked the nation on November 8, 2016, by freezing 86 per cent of the cash in the system. He declared the existing Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes paper, albeit preserving their economic value if deposited in banks. The entire nation queued up outside ATMs. Bank branches worked overtime and on holidays as people stood in line to deposit the scrapped notes. Some even died while standing in the queue. Banks had parked Rs 6 lakh crore of their excess money with the central bank, at which point the Reserve Bank (RBI) resorted to extraordinary measures for absorbing the deluge. Neither the government nor the RBI has yet stated how much of money was deposited with banks till the window closed on December 30 for banks and by March with designated branches of the central bank, for no clear reason.

“Cash is available a lot more freely at ATMs now and the queues at banks have come down drastically. The situation has returned to normal but there’s still some odd days when there’s a shortage, especially on weekends,” said Nikhil Infant, who works at Garden City College in Bengaluru as head of social media and digital content.
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Federal Bank Q4 profit jumps to Rs 257 cr as net NPAs ease

Private lender Federal Bank's net profit went up manifold to Rs 256.59 crore for the quarter to March as net bad loans shrank.

Also, there were significant gains from retail, corporate and wholesale banking verticals. Net profit stood at Rs 10.26 crore in the January-March quarter of 2015-16.

The board also approved capital-raising plan of Rs 2,500 crore through various means, including qualified institutional placement (QIP), rights issue, preferential issue or follow-on public offer.

Total income during the period rose to Rs 2,598.06 crore, from Rs 2,262.94 crore a year ago, Federal Bank said in a regulatory filing.

For the all of 2016-17, net profit spiked 75 per cent to Rs 830.79 crore, from Rs 475.65 crore a year earlier.

Likewise, total income grew to Rs 9,759.20 crore, from Rs 8,556.35 crore.

The bank improved its asset quality, with net non- performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans easing to 1.28 per cent of net loans as on March 31, 2017, from 1.64 per cent at the end of March 2016.

Gross NPAs read 2.33 per cent of gross advances by the end of 2016-17, slightly down from 2.84 per cent a year ago.

In absolute terms, net NPAs stood at Rs 941.20 crore at March-end, down from Rs 950.01 crore in the year-ago period. Gross NPAs came in at Rs 1,727.05 crore as against the earlier Rs 1,667.77 crore.
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Google introduces tools to prevent ads with undesirable content

Google, which has seen a slew of companies withdraw ads after they appeared alongside extremist content, said on Tuesday it was introducing new tools to give firms greater control.

"We know advertisers don't want their ads next to content that doesn't align with their values," Google's chief business officer Philipp Schindler said in a post on the internet giant's blog.

"So starting today, we're taking a tougher stance on hateful, offensive and derogatory content."

The move came a day after an apology by a senior Google executive after the British government and a handful of top firms including Marks and Spencer and HSBC bank pulled their adverts after they appeared alongside extremist content on its internet platforms.

Schindler said Google will tighten safeguards to ensure that ads show up only against legitimate creators on its video-sharing site YouTube, and "is taking a hard look at our existing community guidelines to determine what content is allowed on the platform".

A boycott by firms worried about damaging their image could cause incredible damage to Google as advertising makes up the overwhelming majority of the internet giant's revenue.

Schindler said Google acknowledged that companies have brand guidelines which dictate where and when they want their ads to appear and that it wants to give them more control to do that.

"In the coming days and months, we're introducing new tools for advertisers to more easily and consistently manage where their ads appear across YouTube and the web," said Schindler.

The British government put its YouTube advertising on hold on Monday, saying "it is totally unacceptable that taxpayer-funded advertising has appeared next to inappropriate internet content - and that message was conveyed very clearly to Google."

A Marks and Spencer spokesman said: "In order to ensure brand safety, we are pausing activity
across Google platforms whilst the matter is worked through." (READ MORE)

SBI, associate banks gain after Cabinet okays merger

Latest News - Shares of SBI and its associates ended the day with as much as five per cent gains today after the Cabinet approved their merger, a step aimed at strengthening the sector through consolidation of public banks.

The scrip of State Bank of Mysore jumped 4.66 per cent, State Bank of Travancore gained 4.21 per cent, State Bank of Bikaner rose by 3.48 per cent and SBI was up 0.65 per cent on BSE.

During the day, these stock went up by up to 13.5 per cent.

Seeking to create a global-sized bank, the Cabinet on Wednesday gave the go-ahead to the merger plan of SBI and its five associates.

However, no decision was (Read More)

RBI Governor Urjit Patel nudges banks to reduce lending rates

Latest News - Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel on Saturday exhorted banks to reduce their lending rates to push credit demand in laggard segments, saying banks have benefited from influx of low-cost deposits and its previous repo rate cuts.

"One the amount of reduction in the repo rate that we have undertaken combined with the fact that banks have benefited immensely from the influx of deposits which are CASA deposits, that has come into the system. And the weighted average lending rate reduction has been considerably less, given that we feel that there is some scope for further reduction in lending rates and if you see that for sectors like housing, personal etc the reduction has been much more than for other sectors by the same bank," he said.

He expressed hope that there could be a cut in lending rates in some sectors where reduction has been relatively lower so far.

Earlier this week, RBI retained the repo rate, at which it lends to the (Read More)

Good news! RBI may lift cash withdrawal limit by Feb-end

Latest News - With the cash crunch situation easing, the Reserve Bank might do away with the weekly withdrawal limits from banks as well as ATMs by the end of next month, bankers said.

The RBI had recently raised the ATM withdrawal limit to Rs 10,000 a day but maintained the weekly cap at Rs 24,000 for saving account and Rs 1 lakh for current account holders.

"I think the restrictions on withdrawal by RBI should be completely lifted by February-end or by first half of March as cash situation is easing gradually," Bank of Maharashtra executive director R K Gupta told PTI.

It is entirely RBI's decision and the (Read More)