Banking Awareness Questions for IBPS, SBI, RRB, RBI and Clerical exams - Set 2

ANSWER: Bengal Bank

Explanation:
Cheque system was introduced by Bengal Bank.

A cheque is a document that orders a bank to pay a specific amount of money from a person's account to the person in whose name the cheque has been issued.

ANSWER: State Bank of India

Explanation:
State Bank of India (SBI) is an Indian multinational, public sector banking and financial services company.

The bank traces its ancestry to British India, through the Imperial Bank of India. Bank of Madras merged into the other two "presidency banks" in British India, Bank of Calcutta and Bank of Bombay, to form the Imperial Bank of India, which in turn became the State Bank of India in 1955.

SBI - State Bank of India

Tag-line - Pure banking nothing else; With you all the way; The Nation banks on us; A Bank to the common man; A banker to every Indian.

Founded: July 1, 1955
Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra
Current Head: Arundhati Bhattacharya (Chairperson)

ANSWER: C. D. Deshmukh

Explanation:
Sir Chintaman Dwarakanath Deshmukh was the first Indian to be appointed as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India in 1943 by the British Raj authorities.

He helped the smooth transition of the Bank from a shareholder's institution to a State owned organization, when the Bank was nationalized on 1st January 1949.

He subsequently served as the Finance Minister in the Union Cabinet (1950–1956).

As Governor, Deshmukh helped establish the Industrial Finance Corporation and focused on the promotion of rural credit.

ANSWER: No-frills Account

Explanation:
A no-frills account is a bank account that can be opened and maintained with a zero balance, levies zero charges and does away with the unnecessary services or frills.

The downside of such an account is that most of the facilities offered are limited. Once this limit is exceeded, the bank charges for these services.

What is the difference between a no-frills account and a zero-balance account?

A no-frills account is a real zero balance account in that there is no need to keep any minimum balance in the account and non-maintenance charges are not levied.

Zero balance accounts, on the other hand, do allow you to open the account without any minimum balance, but you may need to fulfill the minimum balance requirements of the bank or you are charged non-maintenance penalties.

ANSWER: Golden Jubilee Rural Housing Finance Scheme

Explanation:
The National Housing Bank monitors the performance of the Golden Jubilee Rural Housing Finance Scheme implemented through the scheduled banks of HDFC and the Co-operative Sector Institutions.

During 2009-10, 3.9 lakh dwelling units were successfully financed against a target of 3.5 lakh units.

Energy Efficient Housing Scheme (EEHS)

NHB has formulated a Scheme called, Energy Efficient Housing Scheme (EEHS), 2011 for lending towards energy efficient housing units/ buildings.

The objective of the Scheme is to provide refinance assistance to Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) in respect of their direct lending up to Rs.50 lakhs to individuals for purchase/construction of new energy efficient housing units in urban areas.

This scheme was launched in financial year 2011-12. The disbursement made under the scheme was Rs.81.36 crores.

ANSWER: State Bank of Saurashtra

Explanation:
State Bank of Saurashtra was a government-owned bank in India.

It was one of the seven Associate Banks of the State Bank of India, with which it merged on 13 August 2008.

At the time of the merger, the Bank had a network of 423 branches spread over 15 states and the Union Territory of Daman and Diu.

Similarly, State Bank of Indore (Indore Bank) was a government-owned Indian bank and the largest of State Bank of India's (SBI) six associate bank subsidiaries.

On 26 August 2010, State Bank of Indore officially merged into State Bank of India.

ANSWER: Aditya Puri

Explanation:
Aditya Puri, the chief executive and managing director of the second largest private sector lender HDFC Bank has been ranked as the best banking CEO in Asia by the investor community.

HDFC Bank (Housing Development Finance Corporation) is an Indian banking and financial services company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

HDFC Bank is the second largest private bank in India as measured by assets.

It is the largest bank in India by market capitalization as of February 2016.

It was ranked 69th in 2016 BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands.

HDFC Bank - Housing Development Finance Corporation

Founded – 1994
Headquarters – Mumbai, Maharashtra
Current Head – Aditya Puri (MD & CEO)

ANSWER: 1975

Explanation:
The first RRB, the Prathama Bank was established in the year 1975, with authorized capital of Rs. 5 crore.

The development process of RRBs started on 2 October 1975.

Also on 2 October 1976, five regional rural banks were set up with a total authorized capital Rs. 100 crore ($10 Million) which later augmented to 500 crores ($50 Million).

ANSWER: V K Sharma

Explanation:
The government has appointed V K Sharma as chairman of Life Insurance Corporation of India.

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is an Indian state-owned insurance group and investment company.

It is the largest insurance company in India.

The LIC was founded when the Parliament of India passed the Life Insurance Corporation of India Act, 1956 that nationalized the private insurance industry in India.

Over 245 insurance companies were merged to create the Life Insurance Corporation of India.

LIC – Life insurance Corporation of India

Founded: 1 September 1956
Headquarters: Mumbai, India
Current Head: V K Sharma (Chairman)

ANSWER: Pune

Explanation:
The National Insurance Academy (NIA) is situated in Pune, India.

Founded in 1980 by the Finance Department of the Indian government with capital from LIC and public sector general insurance industry.

NIA started MBA education as a lateral diversification from 2004 with Dr K C Mishra as the founder director and Dr R K Parchure as MBA Co-ordinator.

NIA runs a PGDM course. It provides a dual specialization (Insurance + Finance/Marketing/HR/IT).

A main source of income of the academy is arranged by IRDA in the form of Broker's training and examination programs.

NIA - National Insurance Academy

Founded: 1980
Current Head: Mr. Sushobhan Sarker (Director)

ANSWER: Indradhanush

Explanation:
Indradhanush is a seven pronged plan that includes appointments, capitalization, de-stressing PSBs, empowerment, framework of accountability and governance reforms.

It seeks to achieve the objective of economic growth revival through improving credit and minimizing the political interference in the functioning of PSBs.

Appointments : Appointing MD & CEO of PSBs as early as possible.

Bank Board Bureau (BBB) : It will be a body of ’eminent’ professionals to be selected within 6 months. It will become functional from Financial year 2016-17 i.e. form 1st April 2016.

Capitalization : Infuse 25,000 crore rupees of capital into debt-laden banks in this fiscal in phased manner.

Out of this 20,000 crore rupees would be injected in August 2015.

Rest 5,000 crore rupees will be performance based allocation to be allocated in the last quarter of 2016.

De-stressing PSBs : To develop vibrant debt market for PSBs in order to reduce lending pressure on banks. Strengthen asset reconstruction of companies.

Empowerment : Provide greater flexibility in hiring of manpower in PSBs.

Framework of accountability : It will seek to streamline vigilance process for quick action in case major frauds and also include connivance of staff.

Governance reforms in PSBs : Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) will be initiated for top management.

ANSWER: Basel III norms

Explanation:
Basel III or the Third Basel Accord is a global, voluntary regulatory standard on bank capital adequacy, stress testing and market liquidity risk.

The third installment of the Basel Accords (Basel I, Basel II) was developed in response to the deficiencies in financial regulation revealed by the financial crisis of 2007–08.

Basel III is intended to strengthen bank capital requirements by increasing bank liquidity and decreasing bank leverage.