German direct bank N26 has raised money in series C funding round. The online bank offers services in majority of Eurozone. The bank founded in February 2013 has witnessed impressive growth due to its low costs and online services.

As per reports, N26 has raised $160 million in a funding round co-led by Allianz X, the digital investment unit of Allianz Group, and Tencent Holdings Ltd., a leading provider of internet value-added services in China. The funding will be used to accelerate N26’s global growth strategy and product vision.

Indian stock market remained range-bound during the past week even as stocks managed to recover quite smartly across the globe. Indian market also remained low as public sector banks remained on investor’s selling list. PNB suffered the most during the recent banking scam involving Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Gems.

Dow Jones Industrial Average staged a smart recovery over the week. While the FED meeting led to decline in Dow Jones, the U.S. markets recovered a day after Federal Reserve meeting. Dow Jones looks strong at the moment and with minor correction that started in February, markets are looking forward to gain further in upcoming weeks.

NSE Nifty touched an all-time high of 10,191 on Friday and closed at all-time high of 10,167. Stock markets have offered nearly 20 percent return this year with some stocks offering even more than 100 percent return in the last two quarters. Investors have turned cautious in many blue chips and we have witnessed strong selling pressure at higher levels.

Market analysts believe that Nifty can scale new highs if it strongly closes above 10,200 level. Banks have not participated in the recent pullback in the stock markets. Few banks have declared quarterly results, which have remained below market expectations. And, market analysts are not having high expectations from public sector banks considering higher provisions for bad loans.

Comments on RBI Policy decision by Mr. Mustafa Nadeem, CEO, Epic Research. Today’s RBI Policy was, as widely expected by the market, neutral. Market has been expecting the same since the volatility was easily absorbed and markets remained at day’s high post policy announcement. The neutral stance is very much consistent with the core objective of RBI that is to keep medium term inflation in check at 4%.

Policy has of course revised its Inflation projection at 4.2-4.6% in second half of FY17-18. Inflation has changed its trajectory to upwards and seems to have tapered off the base effect in August.

New Delhi [India], Apr 28 : According to a report published by the Deutsche Bank, the government has two more years to're-energise' the economy, re-start the investment cycle and accelerate job growth.

May 25, 2017 marks the completion of three years of governance under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but despite several new policies, investment growth in the country continues to be stagnant, leaving a similar impact on economic growth and job creation in the country.

"With urban employment growth stalling over the past few quarters due to slowing investments in e-commerce/internet startups and Indian IT services demand, job creation is likely to take on critical status on the government's economic agenda as the government enters the last two years of its term," says the report.

New Delhi [India], Apr 26 : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday imposed monetary penalty on the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd. and the Kotak Mahindra Bank for violation of instructions on reporting requirements of FEMA 1999.

The central bank penalised The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd. for Rs. 70,000 and the Kotak Mahindra Bank for Rs. 10,000 in exercise of powers vested in the RBI.

As per the provisions under section 11(3) of FEMA 1999, the bank is required to take into account the violations of the instructions/directions/guidelines issued by the RBI.

The RBI had issued a show cause notice to the banks, in response to which the banks submitted a written reply and also made oral submissions thereon.

New Delhi [India], Apr.6 : Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel, along with the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), will announce their first bi-monthly monetary policy of the current financial year today.

In its last policy review of the previous fiscal in February, the RBI kept its key policy rate or the repo rate unchanged at 6.25 percent for the second time in a row with marginal standing facility rate, reverse repo rate and the bank rate unchanged.

In October, Urjit Patel's first policy review as the RBI Governor, which was also the maiden review of the MPC, the repo rate was reduced by 0.25 percent to 6.25 percent.

Since then, the repo rate has been retained at 6.25 percent. However, since January 2015 the RBI has cut repo by 1.75 percent.

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Apr. 1 : The State Bank of India has merged its five Associate Banks - State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Travancore besides Bharatiya Mahila Bank - with itself with effect from April 1.

With this six-way mega merger, the SBI has joined the league of top 50 banks globally in terms of assets.

The total customer base of the bank is now expected to reach 37 crore with a branch network of around 24,000 and nearly 59,000 ATMs across the country.

The merged entity will have a deposit base of more than Rs. 26 lakh crore and advances level of 18.50 lakh crore.

New Delhi [India], Mar. 30 : Contrary to its previous announcement that was circulated with regards to banks being operational on April 1, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in a revised circular stated that all payment systems will be closed on the aforementioned date.

In a circular dated March 24, the RBI announced that it is mandatory for banks to render services on all days starting March 25, up to April 1. This was also applicable to RTGS and NEFT transactions.

New Delhi [India], Mar. 30 : SBI Card, one of India's leading credit card issuers announced the launch of a credit card, 'SBI Card Unnati', targeted at all State Bank of India (SBI) customers, including Jan Dhan account holders, throughout the country.

The card, launched at an event by Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines in the Government of India, will place the power of card transactions in the hands of first time credit card users, including those who do not have a credit history.

New Delhi [India], Mar. 25 : Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman, State Bank of India (SBI) has been ranked 26th in the fourth edition of Fortune's 'World 50 Greatest Leaders' list.

With this, Arundhati Bhattacharya has become the only Indian corporate leader to be featured in the list.

While announcing the names that have featured in the list, Fortune highlighted that Bhattacharya, the first-ever woman to helm India's largest bank, has steered SBI through rough waters.

Bhattacharya has helped to accomodate the 211-year-old institution into the digital era and overhaul the human resources department for more than 2,00,000 employees.

New Delhi [India], Mar 20 : Private sector bank ICICI Bank Ltd on Monday announced the launch of a unique mobile banking app 'Mera iMobile' for rural customers that will allow them to access banking services as well as information on agri services.

The app allows users in rural areas to avail as many as 135 services, some of which are unprecedented in the industry.

It will enable the users to save the time and cost of visiting a branch to avail these services. The list of services include Kisan Credit Card, Gold Loan, Farm Equipment Loan and loans to Self-Help Groups (SHGs).

The app also enables them to undertake an array of frequently used banking services from their smartphone, without using mobile internet services.

New Delhi [India], Mar 11 : The State Bank of India (SBI) on Saturday announced the incorporation of SBI Infra Management Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (SBIIMS Pvt. Ltd.) - a wholly owned subsidiary of SBI to manage premises and estate related matters of SBI.

The new subsidiary will be responsible for handling transaction management or advisory services, project management, facility management and implementation of policies and initiatives.

The decision to incorporate separate entity is implemented to save time of banks' executives who were involved in managing this non-core business so that these executives can instead focus on core Banking Services.

New Delhi [India], Mar 7 : Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB) on Tuesday announced that it has become India's first bank to launch access to DigiLocker on the Bank's Net Banking platform.

Through this platform, customers can eliminate the use of physical documents as Aadhaar-linked documents can be automatically fetched from Digilocker partner institutions. Customers can also download pre-verified documents themselves by providing some details.

New Delhi [India], Feb. 21 : After relentless debates have been underway discussing the impact of demonetisation, HDFC Bank Chairman Deepak Parekh on Tuesday stated that it is high time this discussion ended, while casting his vote in Mumbai today in the BMC polls.

Speaking to ANI outside the polling booth, Parekh revealed that demonetisation is a beneficial initiative and will have a positive outcome on the economy in the long run. "Demonetisation is just one out of the Government's many plans drafted towards the development of this country. It was necessary to eradicate black money and has come at the right stage in our country's economic growth," revealed Parekh.

New Delhi [India], Feb 8 : The Reserve Bank of India is expected to slash its key rates by 25 basis points in its Monetary Policy meet here today.

All eyes will be on Governor Urjit Patel's commentary on the inflation target and how he approaches the ultimate CPI goal of four percent.

According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, around 40 percent of the respondents suggest that the RBI may slash repo rate a total of 25 basis points in 2017, while the rest believe RBI to cut by 50 basis points this year.

However, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation came down to 3.6 percent in December due to decreased spending by cash strapped citizens in the aftermath of demonetisation.

Tokyo [Japan], Feb 7 : JCB International Co., Ltd. (JCBI), the international operations subsidiary of JCB has announced the launch of JCB card acceptance through Kazkommertsbank (Qazkom), which is one of the largest commercial banks in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the largest by assets in Kazakhstan.

This arrangement was achieved based on the strategic relationship between Discover and JCB starting in 2006, which has enabled JCB card acceptance on the Discover Network in the US, and Discover card acceptance on the JCB network in Japan.

New Delhi [India], Feb. 4 : In an attempt to promote cashless transactions in the country, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given banks the freedom to fix bank service charges for transactions, stated Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, in Lok Sabha on Friday.

RBI has deregulated interest rates on credit card dues. Interest rates are determined by banks with the approval of their respective Board of Directors subject to regulatory guidelines on interest rate on advances issued by RBI from time to time. RBI does not maintain information on the rate of commission charged.

New Delhi [India], Feb. 2 : Aiming to enhance quality and improve efficiency of the Engineering Education System, a Financing Agreement for IDA credit of USD 201.50 Million was signed with World Bank for the 'Third Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme' (TEQIP III) on Wednesday.

The Agreement was signed by Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, on behalf of the Government of India and Junaid Kamal Ahmad, Country Director, World Bank (India) on behalf of World Bank.

The objective of the agreement is to improve the Engineering Education sector in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, along with eight North Eastern States and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

New Delhi [India], Jan 26 : As per the 76th round of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Industrial Outlook Survey (IOS), the business sentiment outlook for the January-March quarter of the fiscal has shown deterioration in respect of demand conditions.

The survey indicates a decline in the business sentiments, with an elicited response from 1221 manufacturing companies.

It provides qualitative assessment of business situation of companies in the Indian manufacturing sector for Q3 in 2016-17 and their expectations for the ensuing quarter Q4:2016-17

Further indicating slight moderation in the sentiments, the survey indicates the demand condition for the second successive quarter.