1. STATE RUN BANKS TO OFFER “ESOPS” TO STAR PERFORMERS: Employees of state run banks may stand eligible for Employee Stock Options (ESOPS) from next fiscal. This is as per the suggestion made by the Banks Board Bureau (BBB). This will be kind ofa reward to Bank staff based on their performance. The total ESOPs will be a certain percentage of Bank’s net profit. For large banks the employee stock option plan could be as much as 5% of profit after tax.

2  RBI PROPOSES LOW MDR FROM APRIL 1^st TO KEEP DIGITAL PAY MOMENTUM: The Reserve Bank of India has proposed to drastically cut the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) charges on debit card payments from April 1^st with a view to maintain the momentum of digital transactions post note ban. The Merchant Discount Rate charge, which is charged to merchants on debit card transactions will be as low as 0.4% or 0.3% of the transaction value.

3.RBI TO REIMBURSE BANKS’ MDR CHARGES ON DEBIT CARD PAYMENTS TO GOVERNMENT: RBI in a notification has said that it will reimburse banks the MDR ( Merchant Discount Rate) charges on debit cards used for payment of tax and non-tax dues to the Government of India with effect from January 1, 2017. Banks have been asked to forward their claim for reimbursement of MDR along with statutory auditor’s certificate on a quarterly basis.

4. SBI CHIEF SEEKS MORE CLARITY, DISPENSATIONS TO RESOLVE NPAs: State Bank of India ChairpersonMs.Arundhati Bhattacharya has said banks need more clarity and dispensations to resolve the stressed assets problem. Banks should be allowed to amortise losses on account of haircuts(estimating Investor losses in debt restructuring) they will have to take while resolving a bad asset ( NPA) .

5. BANKS RUSH TO BUY CYBER SECURITY COVER AS DIGITAL PAYMENTS RISE: At a time when cyber threats are on the rise for banks for increasing cashless transactionsand effects of demonetization, insurers see rise in demand for cyber insurance and cyber liability insurance. The present industry base cyber insurance is currently as low as Rs 60 crore. There are various cyber insurance covers available but it is the cyber liability insurance which is in maximum demand.

6. INDIA RATING SAYS BANKS’ CAPITAL NEEDS IS Rs 91,000 CRORES: The Government , which owns majority in  nearly two dozen banks, has plans to inject Rs 20,000 crore in to those banks over the next financial years beginning April. But as per the India Rating & Research, banks need almost Rs91,000 crore to grow at a bare minimum pace of 8 to 9% onan   Some of the eminent analysts have said that the government will have to increase the capital injection significantly to keep some weak banks afloat as global Basel III banking norms are due to be fully implemented by march 2019.

7. TAX DEPARTMENT SCANS OVER ONE CRORE ACCOUNTS IN CLEAN MONEY DRIVE: The income tax department has done data analytics in more than one crore accounts through its data bank and has tried to match with tax payer profile. In a bid to clamp down on un-accounted money deposited in to the bank accounts post demonetization, the income tax department has scrutinized as many as one crore accounts and has asked 18 lakh people to explain the source of funds.