BANKING, FINANCE and BUSINESS Current Affairs

Live A2A Payments + Digital Commerce Trends.
Global Share:

• The proportion of account-to-account (A2A) real-time payments is approximately a quarter of all retail digital transactions in the global world.
• Leading Markets (>50% share):
• India: UPI (more than 400 million users).
• Brazil: Become Pix (160 million users) driven.
• Use Cases: Bill payments, merchant, enterprise, and peer-to-peer.

Growth Region:

• Middle East & Africa: It will rise to over 50 percent adoption of real-time payments by 2030.

Future Driver:

• One of the main growth drivers that was identified is agentic AI workflows.
• Is predicted to control more than half of the total e-commerce expenditure worldwide.

RBI Increases Special rupee vostro account (SRVA) Balances.

• Ruling: Authorised Dealer Category-I banks (AD) have been allowed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to expand the utilization of money in Special Rupee Vostro Accounts (SRVAs).
• Previous Rule (Until now):
  • Investments into Government Treasury Bills and Government Securities were the only available investments to SRVA balances.
• New Rule (Effective Immediately):
  • Surplus SRVA balances can now be invested in by AD banks also:
  • Non-convertible debentures (NCDs).
  • Bonds
  • Commercial Papers
  • They all should be issued in the name of Indian companies, and investments should not exceed specified limits.
• Action Required:
  • AD banks need to take immediate measures to inform its constituents and customers regarding this change.
• Legal Basis:
  • The order is being issued under the Section 10(4) and 11(1) of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999.