VisVoice

 Proposed UPI transaction charges:  Is the action justified?  UPI transactions, exempted from MDR charges so far, are going to be charged effective 15th Oct 2026. Transactions up to ₹2000 under UPI are exempted and the proposed charges, to be levied above the exempted limit, carry a caveat that it shall not be passed on to the users/ultimate consumers. After all, UPI is part of the whole gamut of digital transactions, which form the majority of banking transactions today.  While the debate is going on as to  whether the consumers/small merchants are being fleeced in the process,  I would like to present certain facts about digital transactions before conveying my views on the proposed charges. 1. Digital Transactions carry convenience, reduced costs and increased opportunities: a. For the bankers: Digital transactions reduced the marginal operational expenditure like costs in carrying physical cash,  tallying, maintenance, staff salaries, branch renta...

  S BT Foundation Day 12th September 2026 Certain things cannot be restored in life. During such  situations, the counsel says "Accept reality; reconcile yourself". I accepted my retirement, sitting at home without work and all that; but yet to reconcile to the fact that my mother Bank SBT ceased to exist.  I joined SBT, when the work was carried out manually. Then I worked in a partially computerised set up followed by a fully computerised core banking environment as well. I mostly I worked in branches, till I entered administrative offices at higher levels. Month after month, on all salary days, I used to see, interact, and offer a 'cup of chai' to my senior retirees, who used to throng the branch for withdrawing money and updating their passbooks. The situation did not change, even when the ATM cards were introduced, passbook printing machines were kept alongside the online ATM machines.  Most of the retirees preferred cash withdrawal from the counters, (select so...

  NCLT Order on Mr.Subhash Chandra's liability as Personal Guarantor Dissenting banks have grounds to challenge News: 1. The National Company Law Board (NCLT) has allowed Zee Group founder and Chairman Subhash Chandra's (Mr. Chandra) plan to repay just ₹ 6.5 cr. against the admitted claims of ₹22,006 cr. This amounts to a recovery of around 0.03% of the admitted claims. 2. Mr. Chandra said the claims against him as personal guarantor were just ₹3,922 cr. and the claims pertain to, standing as personal guarantor to M/s.Vivek Infracon, Spirit Textiles and Churu Enterprises. He also said ₹620 cr. has already been settled and the borrowing entities had offered to pay ₹1,113 cr. to multiple lenders. 3. Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) (both public and private) are considering an appeal against the NCLT's decision. Impact: There is a wide spread impression that huge haircuts are witnessed in the lenders' books, in the resolution process under IBC. The debtors walk away with...

Overvaluation of NSE/BSE stocks: An example Last week, our Parliament passed an amendment to the Payment and Settlement Systems Act 2007. This enables the government to allow charges on digital payments including UPI transactions, which are free now. The Finance Minister (FM) clarified that person-to-person UPI payments will remain free and the consumers will continue to pay through UPI, free of charge. However, the FM did not rule out introduction of  merchant discount rate (MDR) on limited merchant transactions, in future, above a prescribed threshold, which might be recovered from merchants. This pushed the market price of the shares of the banks and payment service providers (PSPs) positively in the last week. T he stocks of One 97 Communications Ltd. (Paytm)  witnessed an increase of ₹ 144 (10% ) on 10th August 2026 and closed at ₹ 1585. (previous close ₹ 1441). For the week ended 14th Aug' 26, the share price moved up further and closed at ₹ 1604.   I was surpr...

  Pause repo rate and maintain stance: Is there any other option for RBI MPC? The third bi-monthly review meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the current financial year (FY 26-27) starts tomorrow. Going through the data of the following important parameters, which get discussed in the RBI MPC meeting, and the action of some major global central banks in the last few days, makes one feel that nothing concrete emerged since then to compel the MPC to vote for a change in the repo rate/monetary stance. 1. The CPI inflation is on the rise since Dec'25 and reached a high of 4.38% in June'26. But the Q1FY206 actuals at 3.93% is much less than that was projected at 4.1% by RBI MPC. It is important to note that the committee has already projected the CPI inflation to be above the 5% in the remaining three quarters of FY 26-27. 2. The factory output growth, based on the new series of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) with base year of 2022...

  SBT SMRITHI SAMGAMAM 2nd edition on 25th July 2026 Even if a stranger has participated in the above function, he would not only have understood who the SBTians are, but also appreciated the precision with which, the most memorable events were conducted. All credit goes to the meticulous hard core professionals, who ensured that the 'mega personal touch' remained the web throughout, to connect the  the participants with the events. A traditional prayer, sung in a divine voice  a minute of silence for all those SBTians, who since left and now live in our memories only ,  lighting of lamp by all the dignitaries,  SBT  memory song by the culturally talented SBTians in their best of voice, sharing their SBT times by the last two MDs, who served SBT prior to its merger with SBI  the most colorful and enjoyed event - kathakali dance and related dances by established artists with music, songs and visuals accompanying in the most appropriate manner  'Ko...