The non-life insurance industry has received over 1 million Covid-related claims in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (Q1FY22), higher than in the entire FY21, indicating the severity of the second wave of the pandemic. According to the General Insurance Council data, which is not publicly available, non-life insurers have received 1.22 million Covid-related claims so far in FY22 and have settled 944,573 of those worth Rs 9,178 crore. In comparison, they had received 986,366 Covid claims in FY21 and settled 849,034.

The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) move to ban Mastercard from issuing new cards for not complying with the local data storage guidelines may hit five private banks, a non-bank lender, and a major card-issuing company. The impact is expected to be felt for a few months as these players transition to other card networks. According to Nomura Research, RBL Bank, YES Bank, and Bajaj Finserv are the ones most impacted by the ban as all their credit card schemes are allied to Mastercard. Among others, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank have 35-40 per cent of their credit card schemes tied to Mastercard, the report said.

Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the flagship payments platform of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), touched a record high both in terms of volume and value of transactions in June after a slump in April and May. The platform recorded 2.8 billion transactions worth Rs 5.47 trillion in June, up 10.6 per cent in volume terms and 11.56 per cent in value terms over May. This is in sync with the opening up of the economy as Covid cases gradually came down from its peak in mid-May and lockdowns were eased in various places.

After facing multiple outages that irked the regulator, the country's largest private sector lender, HDFC Bank, is revamping its technology infrastructure by making large scale investments, wherein it is bringing new talent, getting into cloud-native stacks, a shift from the traditional monolithic IT infrastructures, and working with strategic partners for better products and services. The bank management is clear that it will do whatever it takes in line with its growth path to ramp up its technology infrastructure.

'The overall death claims have gone up.'

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has approved the resolution plan of Twin Star Technologies -- a promoter entity of the Vedanta Resources group -- for the Videocon group. But it has pointed out that the successful resolution applicant is "paying almost nothing" as the amount offered is only 4.15 per cent of total outstanding claim. It noted the hair cut for all the creditors is 95.85 per cent and suggested to both committee of creditors (CoC) and the successful applicant an increase in the payout.

Auto-debit payment bounces have gone up for the second consecutive month in May, emphasising the stress building up due to a halt in economic activities as authorities lock down various parts of the country to stop the spread of the virus in the second wave. According to the National Automated Clearing House (NACH) data, in May, of the 85.7 million transactions initiated, 35.91 per cent, or 30.8 million transactions, failed.

The Mumbai Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Monday approved Piramal Group's resolution plan for the beleaguered Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), which has been reeling from the insolvency process since 2019. The plan put forward by Piramal Group, which has offered to pay Rs 37,250 crore, has been approved by the committee of creditors (CoC), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and the Competition Commission of India (CCI).

Public sector banks, including the country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI), have come out with a templated approach for restructuring retail and small business loans of up to Rs 25 crore under the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Covid restructuring package 2.0. They have also come out with standardised products to make funds available to business entities for improving healthcare infrastructure and to individuals for meeting Covid treatment expenses. Business loans have been divided into three categories.

These products are extremely transparent and are the lowest charged products in the insurance space. The policyholder has to only pay the fund management charge. Hence, from the cost side, ULIPs are very competitive.

The bank has decided to embark on a 'Technology Transformation agenda' to provide its customers smoother, faster, and better banking experience.

The unprecedented rise in Covid-19 infections in the country, which many are terming as the second wave, has also resulted in a rise in Covid-related claims for general and health insurance companies as hospitalisations have gone up. The insurers have received more than a million Covid-related claims as of April, 2021. According to the data compiled by General Insurance Council, the reported claims total 1.014 million, amounting to more than Rs 14,800 crore.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday proposed to make interoperability mandatory for digital payments firms. It also allowed users to withdraw cash from e-wallets and fintech companies to process RTGS and NEFT transactions. The RBI expressed dissatisfaction over prepaid payment instruments' (PPIs') failure to migrate towards full-KYC (know your customer) PPIs, and therefore interoperability, even two years after guidelines were issued.

As of March 25, life insurers have paid Rs 1,986 crore towards 25,500 Covid death claims

'We will be looking to prune our portfolio to make GIC Re a healthier entity.'

The race to get a New Umbrella Entity (NUE) licence for digital payments may get crowded. As many as six consortiums are said to be in the fray to apply for an NUE licence, which would create a for-profit National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)-like body for retail payments. A consortium led by Financial Software and Systems (FSS), a leading provider of payment products and payment processor, is in talks and may file an application to the RBI for an NUE license, said sources aware of the development. The other constituents of this group include Indian Bank, Central Bank of India, India Post Payments Bank, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), and a few small finance banks.

The product, named Saral Suraksha Bima, will have a maximum sum assured of Rs 1 crore and minimum Rs 2.5 lakh.

With inflation under control, the Monetary Policy Committee's (MPC's) job is to support growth because the economy had recovered well from the lows in the initial months of the pandemic, according to the panel's members, who met in the first week of this month. The minutes of the meeting show the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor in his statement said: "Given the sharp moderation in inflation along with a stable near-term outlook, monetary policy needs to continue with the accommodative stance to ensure that the recovery gains greater traction and becomes broad-based." Ashima Goyal, external member of the MPC, said: "The current macroeconomic configuration and its expected future evolution imply there is space for the MPC to continue to support the revival of the economy with inflation remaining in the target band."

While it took UPI three years to reach a billion transactions in a month, the next billion came in just a year. Digital payments, especially UPI, saw increased adoption in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

These top two apps account for more than 78 per cent of the UPI market in terms of volume of transaction, and 86 per cent of the market by value of transactions in December.