Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams - 22 June, 2015

Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

22 June 2015

NSE to begin overnight investment facility

The country’s top stock exchange NSE will introduce an overnight liquid transaction facility on its web-based Mutual Fund platform, from Monday.
The facility will enable traders, especially small investors, to invest even for a single night in liquid funds.
A similar product was introduced last month by BSE. The exchange has seen daily transactions worth Rs 400-500 crore in the product so far.
Mutual Fund Service System (MFSS) is an online order collection system provided by NSE to its eligible members for placing subscription or redemption orders.

Global brands stretched by India's food safety record

At a McDonald's plant outside Mumbai, 200 workers walk through air dryers and disinfectant pools, then get to work making the day's 25,000 patties from chicken painstakingly sourced in a country with one of the world's worst food safety records.
To safeguard its multibillion-dollar brand, McDonald's says more than 100 checks it applies across its international operations are then carried out after that.
Swiss food group Nestle is currently battling India’s biggest food scare in a decade and an unprecedented branding crisis in the country, after regulators reported some packets of its noodles contained excess lead, a finding the company disputes.

Switzerland admits being ‘attractive’ for money laundering

In a first major admission of being an “attractive location” for laundering of assets amassed illegally abroad, Switzerland has said it needs to further strengthen systems for combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
The admission comes at a time when Switzerland has been facing immense pressure from India and many other nations to share details of Swiss bank customers suspected to have used the famed secrecy walls of banking institutions in the European country to hide their illicit funds.
Without disclosing the names of the countries from where the financial crime proceeds could be coming in, a high-level government panel of the Alpine nation said that Switzerland is not immune to the financial crime and the banks are the most exposed financial entities to such risks.
While some Swiss banks have individually settled cases of alleged tax evasion by American citizens and by persons of other countries, this is the first time that Switzerland has admitted to the country being an “attractive” place for foreigners to keep their ill-gotten money.
The ‘first national report on money laundering and terrorist financing risks’ was discussed by Switzerland’s apex decision making body, the Federal Council, in its last meeting held here this Friday.

Black money: India slips to 61st place on Swiss money list

India has moved down to 61st place in terms of foreigners' money in Swiss banks and it now accounts for a meagre 0.123 percent of the total global wealth worth USD 1.6 trillion in Switzerland's banking system.
While the UK and the US have retained their top two positions with the largest shares of the foreign clients' money with Swiss banks, Pakistan has inched up to 73rd place.
Interestingly, just two big banks -- UBS and Credit Suisse -- account for nearly two-third of the total money kept by foreigners in Swiss banks, while their share in case of Indians is even higher at about 82 per cent.
As per the latest data released by Switzerland's central banking authority SNB (Swiss National Bank),
Indians' money in Swiss banks declined by over 10 per cent to about 1.8 billion Swiss francs (USD 1.98 billion or Rs 12,615 crore) in 2014.
This accounts for just 0.123 per cent of the total funds kept in the Swiss banks by people from across the world.
This is the second lowest level of Indian money in Swiss banks -- after an increase of over 40 per cent in 2013 -- and the latest data comes amid an enhanced clampdown against the famed secrecy wall of Switzerland's banking system.
At the end of 2014, there were 275 banks in Switzerland, but only two -- UBS and Credit Suisse -- were classified as 'big banks' by Zurich-based SNB at that time. There are also many foreign-controlled banks operating in the country.
The UK alone accounts for 22 per cent of total global funds in Swiss banks. Just four top nations together account for over half of all foreigners' wealth in Swiss banks, which rose to 1.47 trillion Swiss franc (about Rs 102 lakh crore or USD 1.6 trillion) in 2014.
There are only 19 countries with share of over 1 per cent each and they together command more than 80 per cent of funds. The remaining 20 per cent is divided among close to 200 other countries.

Softbank Paid $135 Million To Nikesh Arora, Highest Among Indian-Origin Executives

Japanese telecom carrier Softbank paid a whopping 16.5 billion yen ($135 million) to senior executive Nikesh Arora in the financial year that ended March, reported Nikkei Asian Review.
The amount included a one-time bonus for the India-born Arora, who had given up his high-profile role at Google Inc.
to join Softbank as vice-chairman in October 2014. Since then he has managed over $1.67 billion worth of deals, including in Indian startups such as e-commerce firm Snapdeal and taxi-hailing service Ola. Arora has now been named president and chief operating officer at the telco.
Last month, he was named a potential successor to chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son.
Arora also took the lead in investing $1 billion in Forward Ventures LLC, which launched Coupang, a South Korean e-commerce company.
Such big payments to executives are a rarity in japan. Chairman Masayoshi Son made less - he received 131 million yen in compensation, in addition to 10 billion yen in dividends. In 2014, Carlos Ghosn, president and chairman of Nissan Motor, had been paid 995 million yen.

Only 10 days left to exchange your pre-2005 currency notes

The currency notes issued before 2005 do not have the year of pring on the reverse side.
Only 10 days are left to exchange pre-2005 currency notes, including those of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations, at banks as the deadline to do so is ending on June 30.
Seeking cooperation for withdrawing pre-2005 currency notes from circulation, the RBI has asked the public to deposit the old design notes in their bank accounts or exchange them at a bank branch convenient to them.
The earlier deadline was January 1, but later the Reserve Bank had extended it till the end of this month. All pre-2005 notes continue to remain a legal tender.
These notes can be exchanged for their full value at bank branches.
It is easy to identify pre-2005 notes. The currency notes issued before 2005 do not have the year of printing on the reverse side.
In notes issued post 2005, the year of printing is visible at the bottom on the reverse. The rationale behind the move to withdraw banknotes printed prior to 2005 is to remove them from the market because they have fewer security features compared with banknotes printed after 2005, RBI said.
It is standard international practice to withdraw old series notes. Post-2005 notes have added security features and help in curbing the menace of fake currency.
Over 164 crore pre-2005 currency notes of various denominations, including of Rs 1,000 were shredded in regional offices of Reserve Bank in 13-month period ending January.
The face value of the shredded currency notes was around Rs 21,750 crore. As per the details given in Parliament in March, 86.87 crore pieces of Rs 100, 56.19 crore pieces of Rs 500 and 21.75 crore pieces of Rs 1,000 were shredded.