Banking Current
Affairs
IndusInd Bank has joined hands
with American Express to unveil IndusInd Bank Iconia
American Express Card for its rich customers.
Card Benefits
The card offers its
customers reward points and lifestyle benefits such as golf, entertainment, travel and dining.
Subscribers of the
card will get a reward of 1.5 point on weekdays and of 2 points on the weekends
on every Rs 100 they spend. These points can then be redeemed for cash credit
at full value, i.e, a rupee for each reward point and for partner air miles.
IndusInd Bank ventured
into the credit card sector after acquiring Deutsche Bank’s loss making credit
card business from its Indian operations in 2011.
Click Below Link to Download ↓
Taking further
measures to curb the expanding Current Account Deficit (CAD) and forex outflow,
the RBI has imposed restrictions on banks and NBFCs for providing loans against
purchase of gold in any form, including primary gold, gold bullion, gold
jewellery, gold coins, units of gold ETF and units of gold Mutual Funds to discourage demands for gold.
Banks have also been directed to ensure that the amount of loan to any customer
against gold ornaments, gold jewellery and gold coins (weighing up to 50 grams)
should be within the board approved limit.
However , Banks are
allowed to grant of advances against specially minted gold coins sold by banks,
there is a risk that some of these will weigh much more, thereby circumventing
the RBI’s guidelines regarding restrictions on grant of advance against gold
bullion.
Current Status: At present,
banks are allowed to provide advances against gold ornaments and other
jewellery and against specially minted gold coins sold by banks.
However, no advances can be granted by banks for purchase of gold in any form, including primary
gold, gold bullion, gold jewellery, gold coins, units of gold exchange traded
funds and units of gold mutual funds.
Why this measure?
Why this measure?
India is one of the largest importers of
gold. In the last few years, India has witnessed a sharp rise in the demand as
well as in the prices of gold which has in turn led to bigger imports. As the
imports are generally paid in dollars/ foreign currency, it has led to massive
outflow of foreign exchange reserves leaving a huge CAD. CAD occurs when a
country’s total imports of goods, services and transfers are greater than the
country’s total export of goods, services and transfers. This situation makes a
country a net debtor to the rest of the world. Very high CAD is detrimental to
the outlook of the whole economy of the country.
Government has taken several steps recently, including raising import duty, to
curb the inbound shipments of gold. RBI too had put restrictions on banks on
gold imports.
Market regulator SEBI
has announced that it will double the charges for orders based on Algorithms
(algo) in stock exchanges from May 27, 2013.
What is Algo Trade?
§ Algorithmic (Algo)
trading refers to orders generated by use of advanced mathematical models that
involve automated execution of trade. It is mostly used by large institutional
investors and has raised concerns that algo exposes small investors to possible
systemic risks.
§ Charges on an algo
trade vary among exchanges.
Why SEBI is increasing
the charges on Algo trade?
§ Algo trading method is
mostly used by large institutional investors and has raised concerns that algo
exposes small investors to possible systemic risks.
§ The move to increase
the algo trade charges is intended to disincentivise those having high
order-to-trade ratio using algo. Brokers with repetitive instances of high
daily order-to-trade ratio will face additional penalty in the form of
suspension of their proprietary trading book.
