WatchBanking, HDFC Bank - Current Affairs Questions and Answers

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
The Reserve Bank of India has listed HDFC Bank as a domestic systemically important bank (DSIB) under the bucketing structure identified last year.

State Bank of India and ICICI Bank were identified as DSIBs under the RBI rules in 2015.

The additional Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) requirement for D-SIBs has already been phased-in from April 1, 2016 and will become fully effective from April 1, 2019.

The additional CET1 requirement will be in addition to the capital conservation buffer.

D-SIB surcharge for HDFC Bank will be applicable from April 1, 2018.

What is DSIB?

• The RBI had issued the framework for dealing with domestic systemically important banks (D-SIBs) on July 22, 2014.
• The D-SIB framework requires the RBI to disclose the names of banks designated as D-SIBs every year in August starting from 2015 and place these banks in appropriate buckets depending upon their systemic importance scores (SISs).
• In case a foreign bank having branch presence in India is a global systemically important bank (G-SIB), it has to maintain additional CET1 capital surcharge in India as applicable to it as a G-SIB, proportionate to its risk weighted assets (RWAs) in India.
• Based on their systemic importance scores in ascending order, banks will be plotted into four different buckets and will be required to have additional Common Equity Tier 1 capital requirement ranging from 0.20 per cent to 0.80 per cent of risk weighted assets.
• SIBs are perceived as banks that are ‘Too Big To Fail (TBTF)’. This perception of TBTF creates an expectation of government support for these banks at the time of distress.

ANSWER: HDFC

Explanation:
HDFC Bank launched the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) on peer-to-peer payments app Chillr. Consequently, the HDFC bank UPI will now be available on Chillr too, besides its own mobile banking app.

Chillr has been running on IMPS with 11 banks prior to this launch and claims a monthly transaction value of $77.2 Mn (INR 500Cr).

With this launch, this base will expand as 33 more banks will be able to use it besides the existing 11 banks.

As a result, Chillr is now targeting a monthly transaction value of $1 Bn.

The startup expects to see 10 Mn active transacting users by the end of the year.

Currently, the app claims to have around 3 Mn+ total user base, 50% of whom are from outside the top 10 cities.

As of date, about $463.2 Mn (INR 3,000 Cr) has been transacted with HDFC bank on the app.

The startup raised a Series A round of funding with $7 Mn from Blume Ventures, Unicorn Ventures, Sequoia Capital and others in December 2015.

ANSWER: Electronic virtual assistant

Explanation:
HDFC Bank launched electronic virtual assistant (EVA), India’s first artificial intelligence-driven banking chatbot, for customer services.

It can answer millions of customer queries across multiple channels instantly. It can assimilate knowledge from thousands of sources and provide answers in simple language in under 0.4 seconds.

Since its launch Eva has answered over 1 lakh queries from thousands of customers from 17 countries across the world.

The system becomes smarter as it learns through its customer interactions.

ANSWER: Spend pattern of users

Explanation:
HDFC Life launched an exclusive data-led group term insurance plan in partnership with ET Money, the Times Internet backed financial services app.

This is the country’s first term insurance plan based on the spend pattern of the users, the private insurer indicated.

This financial planning management app brings insurance at the finger-tips of the discerning new-age generation.

Offered as an ET Money benefit, the group term life insurance plan can be availed exclusively by 1 million users of the ET MONEY app.

One can get a group term life insurance coverage that ranges anywhere from Rs 25-50 lakh and it will be based on spend pattern of the user.

HDFC Life substantiates ET Money's data-led, mobile-first approach and we are excited to work with them closely, the company executives said in a statement.

HDFC: Know More

• CEO : Aditya Puri
• Headquarters: Mumbai
• Founded: August 1994, India
• Number of employees: 90,421

ANSWER: Intelligent Robotic Assistant

Explanation:
HDFC launched ‘IRA’ (or Intelligent Robotic Assistant), a humanoid, which will provide assistance services in bank branches.

The robot will be unveiled at one of its bank branches in the next 10-12 days. The bank will take a decision on deploying additional robots in branches.

In the initial phase, it will be deployed in branches. It will be a mobile robot which will be capable of offering services while being in motion.

Block-chain, artificial intelligence and Internet of Things will also be looked into in the future to offer products and services in this domain.

Kochi-based ASIMOV Robotics has helped the bank with the robot creation. This company is a single window solution and services provider that aims to meet all robotics/automation needs.

Through the Digital Innovation Summit, HDFC is also inviting ideas from startups and fintech companies in the areas of Internet of Things, virtual reality, block-chain, rural fin-tech, among others.

The top five ideas selected will be evaluated to give the respective companies an opportunity to partner with HDFC Bank.

City Union Bank had launched its humanoid Lakshmi which was an artificial intelligence powered robot.

This robot was able to speak English, gesture and engage in a life-like manner in conversations.

It was enabled to interact with customers on segments like account balance and interest rates on loans.