Banking Affairs 15th February 2017 | Financial Awareness 15th February 2017

1. SBI in Pact with Oman’s SGRF

• State General Reserve Fund of Oman (SGRF), a Sovereign Wealth Fund and the SBI will infuse $150 million and $50 million respectively in Oman India Joint Investment Fund (OIJIF).
• The bank is backing the private equity fund for its second offering (Fund II).
• This decision is driven by the performance of the first fund.
• The first fund of $100 million’s has been fully invested in 7 companies.

2. Sebi Notifies Rules for Foreign Holding

• Sebi has notified rules allowing foreign investors to own up to 15 percent stake in an exchange.
• A move that is expected to help attract more overseas funds.
• Currently, foreign entities can hold only up to 5 percent in an exchange.
• Sebi has amended regulations to increase the limit of the shareholding of foreign entities in Indian stock exchanges to 15 percent, from 5 percent.

3. Ken-Betwa River Linking Project Cleared

• India’s first river interlinking project, the Ken-Betwa project has received clearance. The total cost is Rs 9393 crore.
• It will connect Ken river in Madhya Pradesh with the Betwa in Uttar Pradesh.
• It will help irrigate 6.35 hectares annually and will provide 49 million cubic metres (mcm) of drinking water & provide 78MW of power.
• The project was first envisaged in 1980.

4. L&T and MBDA Missile Systems Forms JV to Develop Missiles in India

• Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T), an Engineering and construction major has entered into a Joint Venture with European defence major MBDA Missile Systems.
• The main aim of the JV is a development of missiles in India under the Make in India initiative while procuring the missile systems from abroad.
• As per the agreement, L&T will own 51 percent stake in the JV named L&T MBDA Missile Systems while the rest 49% the European partner. L&T is targeting an annual turnover of Rs 10,000 crore from the JV by 2021.

5. RBI wants banks to create common pool of forensic audit firms

• The Reserve Bank of India wants banks to create a common pool of forensic audit firms so that they can pick one of them quickly whenever a high-value fraud needs to be investigated.
• This is aimed at ensuring that precious time is not lost in evaluating eligibility criteria of audit firms.
• This development comes in the wake of the central bank finding that advances-related frauds constituted nearly 92 percent of the total frauds reported by all banks in FY16.

6. United Bank to strengthen presence in South

• United Bank of India plans to strengthen its presence in the southern and western parts of India, where it is weak at present, Pawan Bajaj, Managing Director and Chief Executive of UBI, said.
• Speaking to select reporters after inaugurating the 2018th branch of the bank at Kovaipudur in Coimbatore, he said, “We plan to add another 35 branches before the close of this fiscal, including three link centres at Indore, Agra and Ludhiana.”

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