Banking Notes for RBI & SBI exams

Dear readers, here we are posting some notes on General Knowledge (Banking), which will be helpful in the upcoming RBI and SBI exams.

                                    Quick Notes

Ø  FII: Foreign Institutional Investment  - The term is used most commonly in India to refer to outside companies investing in the financial markets of India. International institutional investors must register with the Securities and Exchange Board of India to participate in the market.

Ø  FDI: Foreign Direct Investment  - It is a direct investment into production or business in a country by an individual or company of another country, either by buying a company in the target country or by expanding operations of an existing business in that country.

Ø  MSF: Marginal Standing Facility - Under this scheme, banks will be able to borrow upto 1% of their respective net demand and time liabilities. The rate of interest on the amount accessed from this facility will be 100 basis points (i.e. 1%) above the repo rate. This scheme is likely to reduce volatility in the overnight rates and improve monetary transmission.

Ø  FIU: Financial Intelligence Unit set by the Government of India on 18 November 2004 as the central national agency responsible for receiving, processing, analysing and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions.

Ø  SEBI: Securities and Exchange Board of India -  SEBI is the primary governing/regulatory body for the securities market in India. All transactions in the securities market in India are governed and regulated by SEBI. Its main functions are:

1. New issues (Initial Public Offering or IPO)

2. Listing agreement of companies with stock exchanges

3. Trading mechanisms

4. Investor protection

5. Corporate disclosure by listed companies etc.

Note:  SEBI is also known as capital regulator or mutual funds regulator or market regulator. SEBI also created investors protection fund and SEBI is the only organization which regulates the credit rating agencies in India. (CRISIL and CIBIL).

Ø  IRDA: Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority  - It is an autonomous apex statutory body which regulates and develops the insurance industry in India.

Ø  FINANCIAL REGULATORS IN INDIA - RBI, SEBI, FMCI (Forward Market Commission of India), IRDA etc.

Ø  ASBA:  Application Supported by Blocked Amount  -  It is a process developed by the SEBI for applying to IPO. In ASBA, an IPO applicant’s account doesn’t get debited until shares are allotted to him.

Ø  DEPB Scheme: Duty Entitlement Pass Book - It is a scheme which is offered by the Indian government to encourage exports from the country. DEPB means Duty Entitlement Pass Book to neutralise the incidence of basic and special customs duty on import content of export product.

Ø  LLP: Limited Liability Partnership, is a partnership in which some or all partners (depending on the jurisdiction) have limited liability.

Ø  Balance sheet:  A financial statement that summarises a company’s assets, liabilities and shareholders’ equity at a specific point in time.

Ø  TAN: Tax Account Number, is a unique 10-digit alphanumeric code allotted by the Income Tax Department to all those persons who are required to deduct tax at the source of income.

Ø  PAN: Permanent Account Number, as per section 139A of the Act obtaining PAN is a must for the following persons:-

1. Any person whose total income or the total income of any other person in respect of which he is assessable under the Act exceeds the maximum amount which is not chargeable to tax.

2. Any person who is carrying on any business or profession whose total sales, turnover or gross receipts are or are likely to exceed Rs. 5 lakh in any previous year.

3. Any person who is required to furnish a return of income under section 139(4) of the Act.

Ø  JLG: Joint Liability Group, when two or more persons are both responsible for a debt, claim or judgment.

Ø  IRR: Internal Rate of Return, is a rate of return used in capital budgeting to measure and compare the profitability of investments.

Ø  MICR: Magnetic Ink Character Recognition  - A 9-digit code which actually shows whether the cheque is real or fake.

Ø  UTR Number: Unique Transaction Reference number  - A unique number which is generated for every transaction in RTGS system. UTR is a 16-digit alphanumeric code. The first 4 digits are a bank code in alphabets, the 5th one is the message code, the 6th and 7th mention the year, the 8th to 10th mentions the date and the last 6 digits mention the day’s serial number of the message.

Ø  RRBs: Regional Rural Banks  - As its name signifies, RRBs are specially meant for rural areas, capital share being 50% by the central government, 15% by the state government and 35% by the scheduled bank.

Ø  MFI: Micro Finance Institutions  -  Micro Finance means providing credit/loan (micro credit) to the weaker sections of the society. A microfinance institution (MFI) is an organisation that provides financial services to the poor.

Ø  PRIME LENDING RATE: PLR is the rate at which commercial banks give loans to its prime customers (most creditworthy customers).

Ø  BASE RATE: A minimum rate that a bank is allowed to charge from the customer. Base rate differs from bank to bank. It is actually a minimum rate below which the bank cannot give loan to any customer. Earlier base rate was known as BPLR (Base Prime Lending Rate).

Ø  EMI: Equated Monthly Installment  - It is nothing but a repayment of the loan taken. A loan could be a home loan, car loan or personal loan. The monthly payment is in the form of post dated cheques drawn in favour of the lender. EMI is directly proportional to the loan taken and inversely proportional to time period. That is, if the loan amount increases the EMI amount also increases and if the time period increases the EMI amount decreases.

Ø  Basis points (bps): A basis point is a unit equal to 1/100th of a percentage point. i.e. 1 bps = 0.01%. Basis points are often used to measure changes in or differences between yields on fixed income securities, since these often change by very small amounts.

Ø  Liquidity: It refers to how quickly and cheaply an asset can be converted into cash. Money (in the form of cash) is the most liquid asset.

Ø  P-NOTES: “P” means participatory notes.  These are the instruments issued by registered foreign institutional investors (FII) to overseas investors, who wish to invest in the Indian stock markets without registering themselves with the market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India - SEBI.

Ø  Certificate of Deposit (CD) is a negotiable money market instrument and issued in dematerialised form for funds deposited at a bank or other eligible financial institution for a specified time period.

Ø  Commercial Paper (CP) is an unsecured money market instrument issued in the form of a promissory note. It was introduced in India in 1990. Corporates and the All-India Financial Institutions are eligible to issue CP.

Ø  REER: Real Effective Exchange Rate.

Ø  NEER: Nominal Effective Exchange Rate.

Ø  LIBOR: London Inter Bank Offer Rate.

Ø  MIBOR: Mumbai Inter Bank Offer Rate.

Ø  EFT – Electronic Fund Transfer

Ø  NEFT  –  National Electronic Funds Transfer

Ø  RTGS  – Real Time Gross Settlement

Ø  ATM – Automated Teller Machine

Ø  CBS – Core Banking Solution

Ø  CORE in CBS stands for “Centralized Online Real-time Exchange.”