Mastercard ban boosts Visa’s biz, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Mumbai: Visa is consolidating its leadership in the Indian credit card market with most issuers who had partnered with Mastercard earlier signing up with it to continue issuing credit cards.

Shares of RBL Bank, the latest to sign up with Visa, rose over 2% on Tuesday after the private lender announced that it has signed up with Visa to issue credit cards. RBL has a 5% share of the Indian credit card market, which is disproportionate to its size due to its partnerships for co-branded cards, particularly the one with Bajaj Finserv.

“We would like to thank Visa as well as Finserv, our technology partner, for enabling this journey. With this launch, we are confident of meeting our annual plan of issuing 1.2-1.4 million credit cards in FY22,” said RBL Bank head (retail, inclusion & rural business) Harjeet Toor.

Like RBL Bank, Yes Bank and Federal Bank have said that they will start issuing Visa credit cards. Both private lenders have said that they would also be issuing RuPay credit cards.

What will help Visa gain more market share is the lifting of the ban on HDFC Bank from issuing credit cards. The embargo on HDFC Bank on issuing cards was lifted soon after Mastercard received a ban from RBI for not adhering to norms that require customer data to be stored only in India. HDFC Bank is the largest issuer of credit cards in the country and the lifting of the ban is expected to spur pent-up demand from its customer base.



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RBL Bank | Mastercard ban: RBL Bank restarts credit card issuances with rival Visa, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Two months after getting hit by the regulatory ban on Mastercard, private sector lender RBL Bank on Wednesday restarted credit card issuances on rival Visa‘s payment network.

The Reserve Bank of India had banned Mastercard from issuing any new cards on July 14 this year for not complying with data localisation requirements. The move had hit a slew of lenders, including RBL Bank, which was fully dependent on the American payment company for its credit card business.

RBL Bank said it signed up with Visa on July 14 itself, and the technology integration was achieved in record time to restart new issuances.

Its head for retail business thanked Visa and technology partner Fiserv, and exuded confidence of meeting its target of issuing 12-14 lakh credit cards in FY22.

Visa’s head of business development for India Sujai Raina said the company aims to enable digital payments and help customers avail credit offerings from issuers with ease.

Credit cards contribute 37.5 per cent of the retail book for the lender, which has a 5 per cent market share in the segment. Its credit card book had grown 17 per cent to Rs 12,039 crore as of June, and had 30.69 lakh cards outstanding as of July.

The bank in its guidance had said that by mid-September, it will restart issuances and hoped to do 1 lakh cards a month on average.

The RBL Bank scrip was trading 2.42 per cent up at Rs 179.60 a piece on the BSE at 1252 hrs, as against gains of 0.59 per cent on the benchmark.



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RBL Bank credit cards go live on Visa

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Private sector lender RBL Bank on Wednesday started issuing credit cards to its new customers on Visa’s payment network.

“The launch follows the successful completion of technology integration with the new platform following the agreement between RBL Bank and Visa on July 14, 2021,” it said in a statement.

RBL Bank has a five per cent market share in credit cards in India. Its card issuance had got disrupted after the Reserve Bank of India imposed a bar on Mastercard from on-boarding new customers on its domestic network. RBL Bank earlier had an exclusive partnership with Mastercard.

Also read: Can you bank on neobanks?

The bank said it will leverage its partnership with Visa to offer a wide range of credit cards to a variety of customer segments, adding that the technology integration has been done in record time.

“With this launch, we are confident of meeting our annual plan of issuing 1.2-1.4 million credit cards in 2021-22,” said Harjeet Toor, Head – Retail, Inclusion and Rural Business, RBL Bank.

Sujai Raina, Head – Business Development, India, Visa said, “At a time when consumers are looking for more ways to pay without using cash, we are pleased to announce our partnership with RBL Bank to issue Visa-powered credit cards to their consumers.”

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Here are the top 5 bank fixed deposit interest rates, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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The fixed deposit (FD) is one of the most popular investment avenues. Many investors prefer bank FDs over equities as the former are considered safe. The return earned from a bank FD is fixed and known at the time of investing unlike in case of equity.

Fixed deposits are also known as term deposits. This is because money is deposited with a bank for a fixed predetermined time period or term. Here are certain things that you must know while opening an FD account.

You can open a term deposit account with a bank where one already has a savings account. Some banks may allow you to open an FD account without having to open a savings bank account. However, you will be required to undergo a know-your-customer (KYC) process in case the bank allows you to place an FD without a savings account. You will be asked to provide self-attested photocopies of ID proof such as PAN, address proof such as Aadhaar, Voter ID card, passport etc. and coloured passport size photographs. You will be required to show the original documents which will be returned immediately post-verification.

  • Minimum and maximum investment amount

The minimum amount needed to open a fixed deposit account varies from bank to bank. However, there is no limit on the maximum amount which one can invest in an FD.The minimum and maximum tenure offered for which an FD can be placed varies from one bank to another. Usually, one can invest in FD for a minimum period of 7 days and for a maximum of 10 years. You can choose the period for which you wish to keep your FD as per your requirement.

Top 5 bank fixed deposit interest rates
Tenure: 1 year

Bank Name Interest rate (%) Compounded qtrly What Rs 10,000 will grow into
RBL Bank 6.10 10624.10
Indusind Bank 6.00 10613.64
DCB Bank 5.55 10566.66
Bandhan Bank 5.50 10561.45
IDFC First Bank 5.50 10561.45

Tenure: 2 years

Bank Name Interest rate (%) Compounded qtrly What Rs 10,000 will grow into
RBL Bank 6.10 11287.14
Indusind Bank 6.00 11264.93
Axis Bank 5.50 11154.42
Bandhan Bank 5.50 11154.42
DCB Bank 5.50 11154.42

Tenure: 3 years

Bank Name Interest rate (%) Compounded qtrly What Rs 10,000 will grow into
RBL Bank 6.30 12062.63
Indusind Bank 6.00 11956.18
DCB Bank 5.95 11938.52
IDFC First Bank 5.75 11868.13
Karnataka Bank 5.50 11780.68

Tenure: 5 years

Bank Name Interest rate (%) Compounded qtrly What Rs 10,000 will grow into
RBL Bank 6.50 13804.20
IDFC First Bank 6.00 13468.55
Indusind Bank 6.00 13468.55
DCB Bank 5.95 13435.42
Axis Bank 5.75 13303.65

All data sourced from Economic Times Intelligence Group (ETIG)
Data as on August 20, 2021
The interest rate offered on fixed deposits (FDs) will depend on the period for which you are investing in the FD and also vary from bank to bank for FDs for the same tenure. Senior citizens are typically offered higher interest rates. To receive the interest payment, you can choose either cumulative option or non-cumulative option.

Under the cumulative option, interest accrued on the deposit is reinvested and paid at the time of maturity along with principal amount.

In the non-cumulative option, interest is credited into the depositors account at the pay-out interval chosen at the time of placing the FD. Generally, one can choose from the options of receiving the interest on monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annually basis as offered by the bank.

Interest received on FD is fully taxable in the hands of the investor. It will be taxed at the rates applicable to your income tax slabs. TDS will be deducted by the bank if the interest payment in a single financial year exceeds Rs 10,000, as per current tax laws. To avoid TDS, one can submit Form 15G or Form 15H (as applicable) to the bank.In case of any urgent requirements, one can break his/her FD before the maturity date. A penalty may be levied by the bank on premature withdrawals. The penalty amount varies from one bank to another.

While placing a FD, one must check the rules regarding pre-mature withdrawals. Sometimes, banks offer FDs without premature withdrawal facility as well as FDs without penalty on premature withdrawal.

One can use FD as a collateral to obtain a loan. The maximum loan sanctioned is usually a certain percentage of the principal deposit. This percentage may vary bank to bank.Nomination facility for Fixed Deposits (FDs) is also available.At maturity, if no specific instructions are given, most banks automatically renew the FD for the same period for which it was initially placed at the interest rates prevailing on the date the FD matures. If you do not want automatic renewal of your FD, you need to choose this option on the account opening form.

If you have forgotten to mention it, then you can visit the bank branch on the day of maturity and ask them to credit the proceeds into your savings account.

Nowadays banks offer the facility of opening an FD account online via Net banking through your account. One can invest in FD without having to visit a branch physically. However, remember that your bank may not issue you a printed FD receipt/advice if invested online.

Disclaimer: The data/information given above is subject to change therefore before taking any decision based on it, contact the bank/institution concerned.



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Card issuing banks may be hit if Mastercard ban continues for long, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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A month after predicting a hit to five private sector banks due to the ban on Mastercard by the Reserve Bank of India, the global brokerage has said that there would be no material impact on the card issuers.

Nomura Global Markets Research says it does not foresee any material impact on card issuers in the near term, especially credit card issuers, but there could be a medium-term impact if this situation persists, according to a report.

What Nomura said

As many as five private sector banks, including Axis Bank, Yes Bank, and IndusInd Bank, are to be impacted by the Reserve Bank of India’s decision to ban Mastercard from issuing new cards for not complying with local data storage guidelines, Nomura had said last month.

HDFC Bank would also have been affected by this decision but the lender is already facing restrictions by the RBI on issuance of new cards (debit, credit or prepaid).

Besides these five banks, Bajaj Finserve and SBI Card may face problems as they were also issuing cards of this payment gateway.

So, in all, as per the report of global brokerage firm Nomura, seven financial institutions would not be able to issue new card as they sourced significant number from Marstercard.

The issuance of new cards through another payment gateway would take 2-3 months because it involves technology integration and other modalities, it had said.

“Among credit card issuers including co-brand partners, RBL Bank, Yes Bank and Bajaj Finserv lending are most impacted, in our view, as their entire card schemes are allied with Mastercard,” the report said.

As per the report, RBL Bank, Yes Bank and Bajaj Finserv were fully dependent on Mastercard for card issuance while dependence of IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank varied from 35 per cent to 40 per cent.

Card-issuing arm of State Bank of India, SBI Card, has only 10 per cent of their card tied up to the banned Mastercard. On the other hand, Kotak Mahindra Bank”s card portfolio is entirely allied to Visa and hence won”t face any issues.

After the development, RBL Bank had entered into an agreement with Visa Worldwide to start issuance of credit cards on the Visa platform. The bank will be able to issue the new cards after technology integration which is expected to take 8-10 weeks.

The RBI action

The RBI barred Mastercard Asia/Pacific Pte Ltd from on-boarding new customers across all its card products (debit, credit and prepaid) from July 22, 2021, as it failed to comply with data storage norms.

Taking action against Mastercard, the RBI said, “Notwithstanding lapse of considerable time and adequate opportunities being given, the entity has been found to be non-compliant with the directions on Storage of Payment System Data.”

However, the RBI’s directions will not impact existing customers of Mastercard.

Mastercard became the third major Payment System Operator on which restrictions have been imposed for non-compliance with RBI”s direction on Storage of Payment System Data.

Earlier, the RBI had restricted American Express Banking Corp and Diners Club International Ltd from onboarding new domestic customers on to their card networks from May 1 for violating data storage norms.

Mastercard is a payment system operator authorised to operate a card network in the country under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (PSS Act).

In terms of the RBI’s circular on Storage of Payment System Data on April 6, 2018, all system providers were directed to ensure that within a period of six months the entire data relating to payment systems is stored only in India.

They were also required to report compliance to the RBI and submit a board-approved system audit report conducted by a CERT-In-empanelled auditor within specified timelines.



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RBL Bank empanelled as Agency Bank by RBI

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Private sector lender RBL Bank has been empanelled by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as an ‘Agency Bank’ to conduct banking business for the Central and State Governments.“The authorisation will enable RBL Bank, to handle a broad range of transactions related to government business, such as distributing subsidies, pension payments, collecting Central and State taxes including income tax, excise duties, customs, GST, stamp duty, registration, value added tax and professional tax, in both online and offline modes,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.

Also read: RBL Bank selects AWS to accelerate AI efforts

The accreditation comes on the heels of the RBI’s guideline authorising scheduled private sector banks as Agency Banks to carry out specific government-related business transactions.

Parool Seth, Head – FIG, Inclusive FI, MNC and New Economy Client Coverage, RBL Bank said, “With the RBI’s accreditation, we will be in a position to offer to the Centre and the State governments, cost and time-efficient best-in-class products and solutions.”

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Banks report improved NII, lower NPA provisioning in Q1, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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The provision for cumulative non-performing assets (NPA) by banks softened in the June 2021 quarter after a spike in the previous quarter when they resumed accounting for slippages after RBI’s schemes to defer the recognition of actual NPAs ended in December. For a sample of 28 banks, the loan loss or NPA provision fell by 6.8% year-on-year and 43.8% sequentially to Rs 36,805.4 crore in the June quarter.

The aggregate provision by the public sector (PSU) banks fell by 27% year-on-year due to a sharp double digit drop reported by State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, and Bank of Baroda. On the other hand, private sector banks reported 51% jump following a sharp increase reported by HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank, Bandhan Bank and RBL Bank. As a result, their share in the total NPAs increased to 42.5% from 26.1% in the year-ago quarter.

The total sample’s net interest income (NII) increased by 4.8% year-on-year to Rs 1.2 lakh crore. A majority of the banks, 20 to be precise, reported higher net interest from the year-ago level. The share of the private banks in the sample’s net interest expanded to 43.8% from 41.7% a year ago.

The sample’s cumulative COVID provisioning increased to Rs 34,641.5 crore in the June quarter from Rs 29,892.8 crore in the previous quarter. Here, the share of PSU banks increased to 34.7% from 26.7% sequentially.

June ’20 September ’20 December ’20 March ’21 June ’21
Loan loss provision (Rs crore) 39504.8 33896.1 28828.5 65542.2 36805.4
Loan loss provision (YoY % change) -17.0 -11.0 -59.6 19.5 -6.8

Share of PSU banks in quarterly provisioning (%)

June ’20 September ’20 December ’20 March ’21 June ’21
PSU share (%) 73.9 77.5 63.7 66.4 57.5
Non-PSU share (%) 26.1 22.5 36.3 33.6 42.5

Data for a sample of 28 banks. Source: Bank data, ETIG



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RBL Bank selects AWS to accelerate AI efforts

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RBL Bank has selected Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com company, as its cloud provider.

AWS would help RBL Bank strengthen its AI-powered banking solutions and drive digital transformation at the lender.

“The bank is building on its analytics practice and investing in AI capabilities to implement various use cases across multiple segments, including risk, customer service, human resources, and operations,” RBL Bank said in a statement on Monday.

It will leverage Amazon Textract, a machine learning service that automatically extracts text, handwriting, and data from scanned documents, across the bank’s risk and operations divisions to analyse documents such as financial statements, stock statements, and stock audit reports to predict default risk.

“Using ML allows analysts at RBL Bank to extract data and automate the handling of 2,500 documents per quarter,” the bank said.

Other use cases already being tested within the operations division include using services like Amazon Rekognition and Amazon Textract to automatically extract and match customer signatures and running fuzzy match algorithms to replace manual name match for various processes, it further said.

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Bankers view on RBI’s policy, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Dinesh Khara, Chairman, SBI said, “The RBI policy is pragmatic and strikes a fine balance between stance and strategy. While the policy stance continues to be accommodative to continuously support growth, a strategy of careful recalibration of liquidity management is clearly indicated with the roll out of VRRR.

Dinesh Khara

The policy has also nudged banks to shift to an alternate reference rate with the discontinuation of LIBOR. The extension of the on-tap TLTRO scheme and the deferral of the deadline for meeting the operational parameters for stressed entities will help corporates navigate through the pandemic with a degree of certainty.”

Rajni Thakur, Chief Economist, RBL Bank said, “MPC announcements were pretty much on expected lines with key rates held constant and upward revision of inflation forecasts for the current fiscal year.

Policy bias in favour of nurturing growth continues and there was a strong denial of any urgency to scale back monetary support on account of higher inflation or potential global normalisation.

While enhanced VRRR quantum and one voice of dissent can be seen by market as mildly dovish, in all likelihood, RBI has kept its options open to support growth should the third wave disrupt nascent momentum or to use monetary tools to begin normalisation if growth -inflation dynamics start to get complicated.”

Rajni Thakur
Rajni Thakur

On similar lines, Siddhartha Sanyal, Chief Economist and Head – Research, Bandhan Bank said, “While the status quo on rates with a 6-0 voting and continued “accommodative” stance were on expected lines, the split voting as regards the policy stance was a modest surprise. Still, the overall tone of policy continued to focus clearly on supporting growth recovery.”

“Given higher global commodity prices, sticky food inflation and rise in domestic fuel prices, inflation may stay higher than for the RBI’s comfort. However, with the tentative and uneven nature of recovery, one expects the MPC to continue prioritizing supporting growth in the coming months.”

Sidharth Sanyal
Sidharth Sanyal

Indranil Pan, Chief Economist – YES BANK said, “RBI has attempted and managed to balance the contradicting objectives of managing inflation expectations while also communicating the need for sustained policy accommodation.

Even as the inflation forecasts for the current FY have been raised, the communication continues to be that the hump in inflation is supply-led and thus ‘transitory’ wherein the demand side push for inflation is almost absent. This is the reason for RBI to have been able to see-through the current high inflation levels.

RBI continues to highlight that any pre-emptive tightening can kill the nascent and hesitant recovery that is taking shape. In cognizance with an extremely uncertain growth climate, we think that the RBI will maintain its accommodative policy and not move on any form of tightening – be it on the rates side or on the liquidity side – till the end of the current FY.”

Yes Bank
Yes Bank

While A. K. Das, Managing Director & CEO, Bank of India has a positive outlook. He said, “Continued accommodative stance of RBI is expected to catalyze growth in real segments in a strong, broad based and sustained manner”.



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Here are the top 5 bank fixed deposit interest rates, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Read More/Less


The fixed deposit (FD) is one of the most popular investment avenues. Many investors prefer bank FDs over equities as the former are considered safe. The return earned from a bank FD is fixed and known at the time of investing unlike in case of equity.

Fixed deposits are also known as term deposits. This is because money is deposited with a bank for a fixed predetermined time period or term. Here are certain things that you must know while opening an FD account.

You can open a term deposit account with a bank where one already has a savings account. Some banks may allow you to open an FD account without having to open a savings bank account. However, you will be required to undergo a know-your-customer (KYC) process in case the bank allows you to place an FD without a savings account. You will be asked to provide self-attested photocopies of ID proof such as PAN, address proof such as Aadhaar, Voter ID card, passport etc. and coloured passport size photographs. You will be required to show the original documents which will be returned immediately post-verification.

  • Minimum and maximum investment amount

The minimum amount needed to open a fixed deposit account varies from bank to bank. However, there is no limit on the maximum amount which one can invest in an FD.The minimum and maximum tenure offered for which an FD can be placed varies from one bank to another. Usually, one can invest in FD for a minimum period of 7 days and for a maximum of 10 years. You can choose the period for which you wish to keep your FD as per your requirement.

Top 5 bank fixed deposit interest rates
Tenure: 1 year

Bank Name Interest rate (%) Compounded qtrly What Rs 10,000 will grow into
RBL Bank 6.10 10624.10
DCB Bank 6.00 10613.64
Indusind Bank 6.00 10613.64
Bandhan Bank 5.50 10561.45
IDFC First Bank 5.50 10561.45

Tenure: 2 years

Bank Name Interest rate (%) Compounded qtrly What Rs 10,000 will grow into
RBL Bank 6.10 11287.14
DCB Bank 6.00 11264.93
Indusind Bank 6.00 11264.93
Bandhan Bank 5.50 11154.42
Karur Vysya Bank 5.50 11154.42

Tenure: 3 years

Bank Name Interest rate (%) Compounded qtrly What Rs 10,000 will grow into
DCB Bank 6.50 12134.08
RBL Bank 6.30 12062.63
Indusind Bank 6.00 11956.18
IDFC First Bank 5.75 11868.13
Canara Bank 5.50 11780.68

Tenure: 5 years

Bank Name Interest rate (%) Compounded qtrly What Rs 10,000 will grow into
DCB Bank 6.50 13804.20
RBL Bank 6.50 13804.20
IDFC First Bank 6.00 13468.55
Indusind Bank 6.00 13468.55
Axis Bank 5.75 13303.65

All data sourced from Economic Times Intelligence Group (ETIG)
Data as on August 5, 2021The interest rate offered on fixed deposits (FDs) will depend on the period for which you are investing in the FD and also vary from bank to bank for FDs for the same tenure. Senior citizens are typically offered higher interest rates. To receive the interest payment, you can choose either cumulative option or non-cumulative option.

Under the cumulative option, interest accrued on the deposit is reinvested and paid at the time of maturity along with principal amount.

In the non-cumulative option, interest is credited into the depositors account at the pay-out interval chosen at the time of placing the FD. Generally, one can choose from the options of receiving the interest on monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annually basis as offered by the bank.

Interest received on FD is fully taxable in the hands of the investor. It will be taxed at the rates applicable to your income tax slabs. TDS will be deducted by the bank if the interest payment in a single financial year exceeds Rs 10,000, as per current tax laws. To avoid TDS, one can submit Form 15G or Form 15H (as applicable) to the bank.In case of any urgent requirements, one can break his/her FD before the maturity date. A penalty may be levied by the bank on premature withdrawals. The penalty amount varies from one bank to another.

While placing a FD, one must check the rules regarding pre-mature withdrawals. Sometimes, banks offer FDs without premature withdrawal facility as well as FDs without penalty on premature withdrawal.

One can use FD as a collateral to obtain a loan. The maximum loan sanctioned is usually a certain percentage of the principal deposit. This percentage may vary bank to bank.Nomination facility for Fixed Deposits (FDs) is also available.At maturity, if no specific instructions are given, most banks automatically renew the FD for the same period for which it was initially placed at the interest rates prevailing on the date the FD matures. If you do not want automatic renewal of your FD, you need to choose this option on the account opening form.

If you have forgotten to mention it, then you can visit the bank branch on the day of maturity and ask them to credit the proceeds into your savings account.

Nowadays banks offer the facility of opening an FD account online via Net banking through your account. One can invest in FD without having to visit a branch physically. However, remember that your bank may not issue you a printed FD receipt/advice if invested online.

Disclaimer: The data/information given above is subject to change therefore before taking any decision based on it, contact the bank/institution concerned.

For any queries or changes, please write to us on etigdb@timesgroup.com or call us at 022 – 66353963.



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