Current Affairs - Banking & Finance

The Indian Finance Ministry has made amendments to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) rules on March 10, 2023.

On February 22, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has given the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) the green light to establish a Social Stock Exchange (SSE).

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has signed a Currency Swap Agreement with the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) under the SAARC Currency Swap Framework.

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2022 was awarded to Ben S. Bernanke, Douglas W. Diamond, Philip H. Dybvig (all from the USA) “for research on banks and financial crises”.

• Together, the work for which Bernanke, Dybvig and Diamond have been recognised has also laid the foundation for modern bank regulations. Their work has been “crucial to subsequent research that has enhanced our understanding of banks, bank regulation, banking crises and how financial crises should be managed”.

On 29th July 2022, India International Bullion Exchange (IIBX) was launched at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) - India’s maiden International Financial Services Centre (IFSC).

Operator of the IIBX

• A holding company India International Bullion Holding IFSC will operate the International Bullion Exchange.

The government garnered Rs. 96,000 crore under the National Monetisation Pipeline in FY22, surpassing the target of Rs. 88,000 crore.

• The figure could touch Rs.1 lakh crore as data was still trickling in and was yet to be finalised.

Recently, Finance Secretary accused ratings agencies of “double standards” when assessing emerging markets and developing economies.

• Fitch, a rating agency, had stated that higher deficits and continued lack of clarity on medium-term consolidation plans in the recent Union Budget was its rationale for projecting of a downward trajectory in the country’s debt/GDP.

Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Urjit Patel has been appointed as a vice-president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a Beijing based multilateral development bank.

• He will succeed outgoing Vice President D J Pandian.

Airtel Payments Bank has been categorised as a scheduled bank by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Meaning of Scheduled Bank

• The banks in the Indian banking system are sub categorized as Scheduled Banks, Non-Schedule Banks, Private Banks and Public Banks.
• Scheduled banks are those banks that are listed under Schedule II of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.

On 9th December, 2021, Capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) proposed a regulatory framework for algorithmic trading (algo trading) by retail investors to make such trading safe and prevent market manipulations.

• At present, though the broker can identify the orders emanating from an Application Programming Interface (API), they are unable to differentiate between an algo and non-algo order emanating from an API.