Issue: 1149
Trump hikes global tariff
from 10% to 15%, says it is 'legally tested': US President Donald Trump on
Saturday announced that he is raising the proposed global tariff rate from 10
percent to 15 percent, sharply criticising a recent US court ruling and calling
it “anti-American.” In a post on his social media
platform Truth Social, Trump said the higher tariff would take effect
immediately. He framed the decision as a response to what he described as
unfair trade practices by other countries and defended the move as legally
sound.
(Moneycontrol)
India-Brazil trade to cross
$20 bn in 5 yrs in 'win-win' deal: PM Modi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday held
bilateral talks with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, wherein
leaders of both the nations committed to raising bilateral trade beyond $20 billion
over the next five years. Speaking at a joint news conference, PM Modi said the
talks aimed at “moving forward across all sectors in the spirit of shared
purpose.” He appreciated President Lula’s “visionary leadership” in
strengthening India-Brazil relations and thanked him for participating in the
AI Impact Summit held in New Delhi. He said that India-Brazil efforts
strengthen the voice of the Global South.
(Business Standard)
India-US trade deal in
limbo, planned meeting of negotiators postponed after US SC tariff ruling: India and the US have decided to reschedule a
planned meeting of their chief negotiators in Washington that was meant to
finalise the legal text of an interim trade pact, news agency PTI reported via
sources. This development came after the US Supreme Court ruled that the
tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump‘s administration under International
Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) as illegal. The Indian delegation was
earlier set to start a three-day meeting from February 23. India’s chief
negotiator is Darpan Jain who is the Joint Secretary in the Commerce Ministry. Hours after the Supreme
Court’s ruling, Trump announced a 10% tariff on all countries from February 24
but a day later, the US government raised it to 15%.
(Financial Express)
SBI invests in
startup-focused funds to boost India's MSME ecosystem: MD: SBI is actively investing in startup-focused funds and financial market
infrastructure through direct equity participation as part of its MSME
strategy, a top official said on Saturday. "We have been actively
investing in startup-focused funds and financial market infrastructure through
direct equity participation and schemes like Startup India, and banks in
startup-intensive branches and business centres," SBI managing director
Ravi Ranjan said. Highlighting the role of startups, he said, "As a code
for the entrepreneurial spirit sweeping the new India, the startups are pivotal
in accelerating MSME credit by driving innovation, fostering internet adoption,
and creating basic employment and population scale with unicorns boosting
technology governance, facilitating economic expansion for MSMEs."
(Business Standard)
Brokers seek urgent FinMin
meet over RBI’s new capital market norms: Brokers are set to meet
Finance Ministry officials to flag concerns over the RBI’s new capital market
exposure norms that come into effect on April 1. The Association of National
Exchanges Members of India (ANMI) has sought time on Monday to explain how the
RBI’s move could impact market liquidity, trading volumes and even tax
collections. Industry participants are
likely to request a six-month deferment of the RBI’s directions. They are
expected to argue that proprietary trading firms are regulated,
well-capitalised entities that play a crucial role in providing liquidity and
aiding price discovery through arbitrage and market-making. The
RBI has directed banks to increase cash collateral backing bank guarantees from
50 percent to 100 percent. Brokers say this could restrict bank funding for
proprietary trades, reduce liquidity, widen bid-ask spreads and increase impact
costs.
(Moneycontrol)
After Rs 590 crore fraud,
Haryana govt stops government dealings with IDFC First Bank: The Haryana government on
Sunday has de-empanelled IDFC First Bank and AU Small Finance Bank for
government business with immediate effect, following the disclosure of an
alleged Rs 590-crore fraud involving accounts linked to the state government. In
an official circular, the state government said the two banks have been barred
from handling government business in Haryana until further orders. No
government funds will be parked, deposited, invested or transacted through
these banks going forward. The development comes after
IDFC First Bank disclosed in a regulatory filing that it has identified a fraud
of approximately Rs 590 crore involving certain Haryana government-linked
accounts operated through a branch in Chandigarh.
(Moneycontrol)
RBI’s norms on mis-selling,
broker funding will dent banks’ fee income: The Reserve
Bank of India’s (RBI) new guidelines on mis-selling of financial products and
broker funding are expected to hit banks’ fee income, said bankers and
analysts. Bancassurance is a widely used
model where banks partner with insurance firms to distribute insurance
products, earning significant fee income in the process. For instance, HDFC
Bank, India’s largest private sector lender, generated Rs 6,308 crore in fee income
from insurance sales in FY25, accounting for 13.8% of its other income. State Bank of India generated Rs 2,766.83 crore from
its insurance business, accounting for 4.5% of other income.
(Financial Express)
SBI aims to hike its green
advances portfolio up to 10 pc by 2030: State Bank of
India has set a goal of increasing green advances to 7.5-10 per cent by 2030,
with 25 per cent of these advances to be funded through green lines of credit. Green advances portfolio was 1.56 per cent of the
bank's total advances as on March 31, 2025. Further strengthening this
strategy, SBI has launched CHAKRA, a Centre of Excellence to finance sunrise
sectors such as renewable energy, electric mobility and green hydrogen,
accelerating India's green transition, the bank said in a statement on Sunday.
(Business Standard)
NSE to cut response time to
nanoseconds, targets 100 mn trades per second: The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE)
will reduce its system response time to nanoseconds from April 11, a move that
will allow the bourse to handle close to 100 million transactions per second,
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Ashishkumar Chauhan said on
Saturday. NSE’s current response time is around 100 microseconds, enabling
processing of roughly 50–60 lakh transactions per second. One second equals a
million microseconds, while one nanosecond is a billionth of a second.
(Business Standard)
India Post holds Rs 22 lakh
crore across 38 crore savings accounts: Union Minister Scindia: India Post is undergoing rapid modernization
with advanced technologies to enhance service delivery. The postal network
holds substantial savings accounts and Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana deposits.
Efforts are underway to improve financial performance and reduce
non-transactional post offices. Drones will be utilized for deliveries in hilly
regions, reflecting a commitment to reform and transformation. India Post has about 38
crore savings accounts with a fund of Rs 22 lakh crore, while there are 3.8 crore
Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana accounts with deposits of Rs 2.27 lakh crore, Union
Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Sunday.
(Economic Times)
UPI's global volumes cross
1 mn in FY26, nearly doubling from last year: Internationally, the
transaction volume of India’s flagship real-time payments system, Unified
Payments Interface (UPI), crossed the one-million mark for the first time in
the financial year 2025-26 (FY26). The payments system’s volume, now
operational in eight countries, nearly doubled to 1.48 million in FY26 (as of
December 2025) from 0.75 million in FY25. In terms of value, it recorded Rs
330.43 crore in FY26 as compared to Rs 258.53 crore in FY25. In comparison,
FY24 had recorded just 37,060 transactions with a value of Rs 19.7 crore.
(Business Standard)
MAT revamp prompts
capital-intensive firms to modify tax planning: The proposed changes to the
Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) regime, announced in the Union Budget for FY27,
will significantly impact companies in capital-intensive sectors such as
infrastructure, SEZ units and tax-holiday startups, analysts said. Electronics
manufacturing units, power and renewables and automobile firms will also require
to modify their tax planning. The government proposed a major overhaul of MAT
to simplify the corporate tax structure and encourage companies to shift to the
concessional 22% corporate tax regime. The key changes include reducing the MAT
rate from 15% to 14% on book profits, treating MAT as a final tax under the old
regime with no new credit accumulation from April 1, 2026, and restricting
set-off of existing MAT credits (accumulated up to March 31, 2026) to 25% of
tax liability per year only for companies transitioning to the new regime.
(Financial Express)
RBI builds secured data
centre away from potential enemy strikes, seismic risk: The Reserve Bank of India has built a
high-security data centre in Odisha, strategically located well away from
potential cross-border threat zones and high seismic-risk regions, as part of
efforts to safeguard critical financial infrastructure and strengthen
continuity of core systems. The greenfield facility in
Bhubaneswar is designed to house core computing systems supporting the central
bank's currency management, payment and settlement operations, and regulatory
data functions, analysts and officials said.
(Economic Times)
INTERFACE INTERFERENCE
§ A
design element that manipulates the user interface in ways that (i) highlights
certain specific information; and (ii) obscures other relevant information
relative to the other information, to misdirect a user from taking an action as
desired.
§ For
example: Displaying the preferable option for the bank in bright colours / bold
fonts on website / mobile app, Default choice for consent being ‘Yes’ in
various menu options on website / mobile
app etc.
RBI KEY RATES
Repo
Rate: 5.25%
SDF:
5.00%
MSF
/Bank Rate: 5.50%
CRR:
3.00%
SLR:
18.00%
FOREX RATES (RBI REF. RATE)
INR
/ 1 USD : 90.9518
INR
/ 1 GBP : 122.2938
INR
/ 1 EUR : 106.9060
INR
/100 JPY: 58.6000
EQUITY INDEX
Sensex: 82814.71 (+316.57)
NIFTY: 25571.25 (+116.90)
Bnk NIFTY: 61172.00 (+432.45)
World Understanding and Peace Day: February 23 is
primarily celebrated internationally as World Understanding and Peace Day,
marking the anniversary of the first Rotary Club meeting in 1905. It is also
known in several countries, including Russia and Belarus, as Defender of the
Fatherland Day.
Historical events: February 23rd
marks significant historical milestones, including the 1969 death of iconic
actress Madhubala, the 1952 passing of India's Employee Provident Fund Act, and
the 1905 founding of Rotary International, celebrated as World Understanding
and Peace Day. Other notable events include the 1945 raising of the US flag on
Iwo Jima and the start of the 1917 Russian Revolution.
****Have a nice Day****
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