SIDBI and Yes Bank became Partner for Loan Guarantee Under World Bank Scheme
- The SIDBI entered into a partnership with private sector lender Yes Bank to guarantee 75% of loans of up to Rs 15 crore extended to energy efficiency projects under a World Bank initiative on July 8’, 2016.
- A MoU was signed between SIDBI and Yes Bank under the Partial Risk Sharing Facility (PRSF) for financing energy efficiency projects programme sponsored by the World Bank.
- The SIDBI is the project execution agency whereas Yes Bank claims to be the first Indian lender to be empanelled for the programme.
SBI Launched 3 New Digital Offerings
- The SBI, on the occasion of 61st I ‘ State Bank Day, launched a social media banking platform for Facebook and Twitter users, called ‘SBI Mihgle’ which will help the I customers with a host of banking services on their social media I accounts, at their own convenience on July 6, 2016.
- The SBI partnered with Flipkart to offer its consumers the facility of pre-approved EMI Facility on purchases. Under this partnership the SBI will provide overdraft facility to pre-qualified set of customers for transacting on Flipkart for a minimum purchase of Rs 5000.
- The SBI also launched its new initiative SBI Digital Villages aimed at transforming villages into cash less eco-system by adopting them. In its first leg the bank has adopted 21 villages to be moved on the digital platform and plans to bring 100 villages under this initiative.
World Bank and SBI Signed Agreement to Support Solar Programme
- The State Bank of India (SBI) and the World Bank (WB) signed an agreement worth $ 625 million (around 14200 crore) to support India in order to meet power requirement on July 3, 2016.
- The World Bank will help the SBI in financing Grid Connected Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic (GRPV) projects at competitive rates.
- The programme also aims at improving the investment climate for solar PV, and increase the ‘ease of doing rooftop businesses through technical assistance to strengthen the capacity of key institutions, and support development of the overall solar rooftop PV market.
RBI’S ACTIVITY
RBI Reformed On-Tap Bank License
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan took key reform in the country’s banking sector by announcing final norms for ‘on tap licensing’ or continuous licensing on July 31, 2016.
- From this point onwards, any eligible banking aspirant, individual or entity, can walk to’ the Central bank with an application to start a full-service bank at any point.
- In the first round, the RBI gave ten permits, while two each in the second and third round. These include Kotak Mahindra and Yes Bank (2004) and later IDFC and Bandhan.
- Since 1990s, some of the private banks which got license, lost their race in the tough competition. They got eventually merged with other banks. A few examples are Bank of Rajasthan, Times Bank and Bank of Madura.
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