SBI Imposed Penalty for not Maintaining Minimum Account Balance
- Facing a backlash for levying penalty on non-maintenance of minimum balance in accounts, the State Bank of India (SBI) justified its move saying the bank needs to impose some charges to balance the ‘burden’ of managing a large number of no-frills Jan Dhan accounts on March 6, 2017.
- The country’s largest lender decided to re-introduce penalty on non-maintenance of minimum balance in accounts and also revised charges on other banking services. The new charges would be applicable from April 1, 2017.
- The monthly average balance that customers will have to maintain in their savings bank accounts in SBI branches in metropolitan areas is Rs 5000.
- In case the shortfall in the monthly average balance is below 50%, then a charge of Rs 50 plus service tax will be levied.
- If the shortfall is between 50% and 75%, then the account holder will have to pay f 75 plus service tax, and if the shortfall in the average balance is more than 75%, then a charge of Rs 100 plus service tax will be levied.
IDFC Launched Biometric Based Payment System Aadhaar Pay System
- IDFC Bank has became the first bank to launch the biometric-based payment system Aadhaar Pay through its network.
- The bank aims to onboard anywhere between 50000-75000 merchant to the Aadhaar pay module in the next two years with a total target of touching 100000 merchants over the next 36 months or 3 years. The news came up on March 7, 2017.
- The Aadhaar Pay app has been developed by IDFC Bank under the guidance of the Ministry of IT, NTTI Aayog, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
MEITY to Promote Digital Transactions in Place of NITI
- The government has shifted the responsibility of s promoting digital transactions in the country to the Ministry of IT and Electronics (MEITY) from National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog on February 28, 2017.
- This decision was taken in view of the core competence of MEITY to promote digital means for various transactions. MEITY is responsible for promotion of e-govcraance for empowering citizens as well as promoting inclusive and sustainable growth of electronics and IT in the country.
Paytm to become Member of ASCI
- Paytm, one of the fastest growing mobile wallet arid e-commerce industry in India has achieved a new milestone by becoming the sole member of Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). The order was passed by ASCI and PAYTM is all set to become its member by April, 2017.
- This move comes after the six complaints which are filed against the errant advertisers under the e-commerce majors PAYTM, Amazon, Clear trip, Magic bricks, free charge and Pepper fry for making false and misleading claims on November, 2016.
Mobile Payment Service ‘Samsung Pay’ Officially Launched in India
- Samsung Electronics launched a mobile payment service, Samsung Pay, on March 22, 2017 that enables consumers to pay for products and services by. simply waving their Samsung smartphone near a cash register.
- with Samsung Pay, consumers don’t have to swipe a debit or credit card nor dole out their payment information. It allows payments using debit cards, credit cards, mobile, wallet Paytm and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) with a single app.
