Banking News - IBPS Banking General Awareness- 18/04/2014

TPG, Smile Group in $100-m venture:

Private equity firm TPG Growth and India’s Smile Group will jointly invest $100 million (around Rs. 600 crore) to help Internet and e-commerce companies build and scale their businesses across the Asia Pacific region and West Asia. The San Francisco-based $60-billion fund and Smile Group will invest the amount through their joint venture fund Katalyzers, which will work with Internet companies in the marketplace. Smile Group, in the past, had successfully supported the international expansion of companies such as AirBnb.com, WPP Digital, Yahoo and others across Asia, Africa and Latin America through joint ventures and sweat equity partnerships.

‘Indian products may lose out in global markets if standards don’t improve’:

India needs to speedily implement a well defined road map on standards to avoid losing its share in the global market, Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth has warned. “If we are unable to act with clarity and speed, we run the risk of not only exposing our consumers to inferior goods, but also slowly getting excluded from main export markets,” Seth said addressing a ‘standards conclave’ organised by the Commerce Ministry, the CII and the Centre for WTO Studies on Wednesday. The two-day services conclave, which brings together experts from the World Trade Organisation, the Food and Agricultural Organisation, the International Trade Corporation, the global standard setting body Codex and United Nation’s ESCAP, is first in a series of such meetings to generate inputs to help the Government and industry deal with the high levels of standards being applied globally.

IndusInd Net Profit Up 29% to Rs. 396 crore:

Private sector lender IndusInd Bank on Wednesday said net profit jumped 28.84% in the quarter to March to Rs. 396 crore from Rs. 307.4 crore in the year-ago quarter. The bank said net interest margin improved 5 basis points to 3.75% at the end of the quarter. Net interest income increased 18.14% year-on-year to Rs. 781.21 crore. While the bank’s advances book grew 24% to Rs. 55,102 crore, its other income, or revenue earned through fees, rose 42.14% to Rs. 522.92 crore. The bank has taken a Rs. 88-crore hit for the full year on its treasury book as it booked mark-to-market losses

Bank of Maharashtra Hikes Lending Rate by 0.15%:

State-owned Bank of Maharashtra on Wednesday raised base rate, or the minimum lending rate, by 0.15%, making loans costlier. The base rate has been increased to 10.40% from 10.25% on monthly compounding basis, Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) said in a statement. The new rate would be effective from April 21.

RBI Accepts Bhaskar Panel Suggestions on Shifting Currency Markets’ Benchmarks:

 The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday accepted the Vijaya Bhaskar Committee’s recommendations, suggesting Indian money and currency markets move their benchmarks to transaction-based from poll-based in an attempt to weed out manipulation. The RBI has advised the FIMMDA and FEDAI to act as administrators to the rupee interest rate, and foreign exchange benchmarks, respectively, and to take necessary steps to implement the recommendations of the committee. “To overcome the possible conflicts of interest in the benchmark-setting process arising out of the current governance structure of the FIMMDA and FEDAI, an independent body, either separately or jointly, may be formed…,” RBI said in a notification on Wednesday. The RBI has asked benchmark submitters to set up an internal board - approved policy on governance of the benchmark submission process. Financial benchmarks such as the Mumbai Interbank Offered Rate, or Mibor, are used to settle financial contracts. “Benchmark submitters (or market participants) may establish appropriate internal controls to secure compliance with the benchmark submission procedures,” RBI said, adding the transactions taken as the basis for submission may be recorded so as to verify that they represent bona fide arm’s length commercial transactions.