1. BANKING SECTOR STARES AT AN ADDITIONAL Rs 40,000 CRORE NPA: The RBI has directed certain reclassification in the private sector banks’ asset classification and provisioning as on 31/03/2017, subsequent to the annual Risk Board Supervision (RBS) exercise conducted by them. As a result of this, more than Rs 40,000 crore of bad loans will be added to banking sector NPAs. Axis Bank alone has reclassified 9 standard accounts to NPA category, of which 8 accounts are part of consortium finance.

2. INDUSIND BANK TO TAKE OVER BHARAT FINANCIAL: Indusind Bank and the second largest micro lender Bharat Financial Inclusion (BFIL) announced the largest merger in the MFI space. With this merger Indusind will add additional 6.8 million customers to its existing 10 million customer base. This merger will help Indusind Bank in rural lending and also help reduce its cost of funds by 3–4 %. The entire balance sheet of BFIL will move into Indusind Bank, while its operation team will continue as a wholly owned subsidiary and work as business correspondents.

3. RESERVE BANK OF INDIA SETS UP TASK FORCE ON PUBLIC CREDIT REGISTRY:

4. BANKING INDUSTRY WAGE PACT UNLIKELY BY MONTH END: The term of existing wage agreement of PSU Banks ends on October 31^st. The discussions and negotiations for the fresh wage revision started 4 months ago. The prospects of arriving at a wage pact between bank managements under the aegis of Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) and trade unions by the end of this month looks very grim.

5. RBI SAYS LINKING OF AADHAAR TO BANK ACCOUNTS A MUST:The Reserve Bank of India has said that linking of Aadhaar number to the bank accounts is mandatory. This was in reply to a query raised under Right To Information (RTI) application, which suggested that the apex bank has not issued any order for mandatory Aadhaar linkage with bank accounts.

6. ONLY 2,300 BANK BRANCHES OPEN AADHAAR ENROLMENT CENTRES: Only 2,300 branches of private and public sector banks have opened Aadhaar enrolment and updation centres within their branch premises as against the targeted 15,300 branches by this month end. The September 30^th deadline that was given to the banks had been extended by one month to October 31^st.

7. INDIA’S FOREX RESERVES RISE BY $ 1.5 BILLION: India’s Foreign Exchange reserves (Forex) kitty increased by $ 1.5 billion as on October 13^th The overall Forex Reserves rose to $ 400.29 billion. India’s Forex Reserves comprise of Foreign Currency Assets (FCAs), gold reserves, Special Drawing Rights( SDRs) and RBI’s position with the International Monetary Fund(IMF).