1. SOON YOU CAN MAKE PAYMENTS USING YOUR WHATSAPP: WhatsApp could go live with much-awaited payments feature as early as next month, providing a big boost to the digital payments movement in the country. The most widely used messaging App in India is at an advanced stage in integrating its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) based payments platform with many banks like SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank.

2. IDFC BANK, CAPITAL FIRST MAY ANNOUNCE MERGER: IDFC Bank and Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) Capital First are likely to announce a merger, creating a larger institution with about Rs. 1.4 Lakh crore assets and nearly 64 lakh customer base. This merger could also act as a springboard for IDFC Bank which is looking to grow its assets in this competitive market.

3. UNCLAIMED BANK DEPOSITS CROSS Rs. 8,000 CRORE: Unclaimed deposits of bank account holders have crossed a record Rs. 8,000 crores, with stricter KYC norms making withdrawal of the funds difficult specially in cases of death claims unless the next of kin of the deceased can establish the legitimacy of their claims. According to the latest report released by RBI, Rs. 8,864 Crore is lying unclaimed in 2.63 lakh accounts with all banks.

4. AFFORDABLE HOUSING LOANS UP TO Rs. 2 LAKH SEE HIGHEST NPAs: With a sharp rise in loan disbursements and number of beneficiaries in the Affordable Housing segment, loans up to Rs. 2 lakh have ended up with the highest level of Non-Performing Assets in home loans. Public Sector banks reported higher NPAs in sub Rs.2 lakh housing loans as compared to finance companies.

5. TO FIGHT E-CRIME GOVERNMENT TO HIRE EXPERTS FROM IITS, PVT INSTITUTES: The government has decided to hire IT experts from premier public and private institutions including IITs, to fight new age crimes like online fraud, hacking, identity theft, child pornography, and cyber terrorism. It wants to prepare a road map for Indian Cyber Crime Coordination centre.

6. HDFC BANK IS 3 RD INDIAN COMPANY TO CROSS Rs. 5 LAKH CRORE M-CAP: HDFC Bank became the third Indian company and first Indian bank to cross a new milestone of Rs 5 lakh crore in market capitalisation. TCS and Reliance Industries are the other two Indian companies which have crossed market capitalisation of Rs 5 lakh crore. HDFC bank now has a market cap of Rs 5.57 lakh crore. It surpassed ING Group to become 22 nd most valuable bank in terms of market cap.

7. SBI TO RAISE Rs. 20,000 CRORE VIA BONDS FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING SEGMENT: At a time when the report shows lot of NPAs in the low cost housing segment and also when the rating agencies have flagged concerns over the rising delinquencies in the affordable housing segment, State Bank of India has said that its board has given approval to raise Rs. 20,000 crore for financing affordable housing, and infrastructure projects through long-term bonds.

8. DEFAULTERS USE MINOR KIN TO EVADE SCRUTINY AND RECOVERY BY LENDERS: Some defaulting borrowers with no intension of paying back their loans are using their children to conceal their assets from banks during insolvency proceedings. It is found that several promoters have diverted borrowings from banks to invest in real estate in the name of children. Since minors are not required to file tax returns, tracing assets that belong to them becomes tougher.