ICICI Bank Saral-Rural Housing Loan Launched
- India’s largest private sector bank, ICICI Bank, announced a new home loan proposition, ‘ICICI Bank Saral-Rural Housing Loan’, with a special interest rate on August 10, 2015 in order to support the socio-economic development of a larger section of the society.
- Applicants from rural areas including women borrowers as well as seekers from weaker sections can now avail home loans at the ICICI Bank Base Rate (‘I-Base’) which is currently at 9.70%. An eligible borrower can take up to Rs 15 lakh under the ‘ICICI Bank Saral-Rural Housing Loan’.
- The key features of‘ICICI Bank Saral-Rural Housing Loan’ are
- Rate of Interest At TBase’which is Currently at 9.70%
- Loan Amount Rs 5 toRs 15 lakh
- Loan Tenure 3 to 20 years
- Type of Loan Floating rate home loan
RBI Activities
RBI Panel Recommended Conversion of UCBs into Regular Banks
- In order to minimize the systemic risk, a Reserve Bank of India panel headed by RBI Deputy Governor R. Gandhi has recommended on August 22, 2015 about the conversion of Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs), which have a revenue of more than Rs 20000 crores into regular banks.
- With the objective of allowing UCBs to grow and proliferate further for financial inclusion, the conversion will not be compulsory for large UCBs and they can continue the way they operate currently in terms of balance sheet or asset size.
- The RBI has suggested that licenses may be issued to financially sound and well-managed cooperative credit societies having a minimum track record of five years to operate as UCBs.
See Also – International Current Affairs September 2015 (Part 1).
RBI Cleared 11 Payments Banks
- The Reserve Bank of India ‘in principle’ cleared 11 entities to setmp ‘Payments Banks’ on August 19, 2015. This approval is valid for 18 month period. The applicants were detailed inspected by an External Advisory Committee (EAC) under the Chairmanship of Dr. Nachiket Mor the Director, Central Roar’d of the Reserve Bank of India.
- The entities are Reliance Industries, Airtel ‘ m-Commerpf Services, Tech Mahindra, Vodafone m-Pesa, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Department of Posts, Cholamandalam Distribution Services, Fino PayTech, PayTm, National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) and Sun Pharma.
- Payments banks can accept deposits up to only Rs 1 lakh and cannot grant loans. They can only deposit their money in government bonds. They can issue debit cards but not credit cards. Other than this they can provide all the services of a universal bank.
RBI Suspended Licences of Seven NBFCs
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) suspended licences of seven non-banking finance companies on August 17, 2015. They are Religare Finance, Eden Trade & Commerce, Artisans Micro Finance, Nott Investments, RCS Pariyar Finance, Swetasree Finance, Dewra Stocks & Securities.
- A Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) is a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956,. whose principal business are lending, investments and receiving deposits. At present, there are around 12000 NBFCs in India.
- RBI has power under RBt Act 1934 to register, regulate, lay down policy, inspect, issue directions, supervise and exercise/surveillance over NBFCs’that meet the 50-50 criteria of principal business and has the power to cancel licence if the companies do not fulfil various norms including minimum net owned funds.
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