* Axis Bank Limited and Max Financial Services Limited (MFS) announced the signing of definitive agreements to become joint venture partners in Max Life Insurance Company Limited (Max Life).

* Axis Bank will hold 30% stake in Max Life post transaction closure.

* Max Financial Services presently holds a 72.5% stake in Max Life and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance (MSI) owns 25.5% stake.

* Axis Bank also has a minor stake in the life insurer.

* Post completion of the series of transactions, Max Life will become a 70:30 joint-venture between MFS and Axis Bank.

* The proposed transactions are subject to approval of requisite corporate and regulatory authorities (including IRDAI, RBI and CCI).

* Axis Bank is the third largest private bank and Max Life is the fourth largest private life insurer in India.

• To ease liquidity pressures on mutual funds, Reserve Bank of India today announced a special liquidity facility of ₹50,000 crore for mutual funds.

• The RBI's liquidity facility for mutual funds will be effective from today till May 11, 2020 or up to utilization of the allocated amount, whichever is earlier.

• The RBI also assured that it will review the timeline and amount, depending upon market conditions.

• Under this facility, the RBI will provide funds to banks at lower rates and banks can avail funds for exclusively meeting the liquidity requirements of mutual funds.

• Banks can extend loans to mutual funds, undertaking outright purchase of and/or repos against the collateral of investment grade corporate bonds, commercial papers (CPs), debentures and certificates of deposit (CDs) held by mutual funds.

• The Leading forex and payment solutions provider Transcorp International Limited (TIL) becomes the 1st non-bank company to receive Reserve Bank of India (RBI) nod to enter into co-branding arrangements for prepaid Instruments to be used in over 35 lakh stores and online gateways due to the current outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.

• It will launch Application Programming Interface (API) based co-branded partnerships for digital, physical and contactless cards with select marquee clients in its own Bank Identification Number (BINs).

• These cards can be used by partners, financial institutions and corporate houses to ease their core business activities & facilitates the accounting department to manage expenses by not having to check every individual bill & eliminates cash as a medium of paying for company expenses.

* Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) has launched Working Capital demand Loan for agriculture sector (WCDL-Agri), a special credit facility for the agriculture sector & allied activities as a relief measure to fight the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

* The loans will be available to all the existing borrowers whose accounts are ‘standard’ and ‘performing’ as of March 2020 from poultry, dairy, fisheries and other allied activities and infrastructure activities such as cold storage and rural godowns.

* The bank will not charge processing fees or prepayment penalty & will offer loans of 10% of the existing fund based working capital limit with a maximum of Rs 10 crore for poultry sector and Rs 2 crore for other allied activities.

* The loan is repayable in 6 monthly instalments after an initial moratorium of 6 months. Interest will be serviced as and when debited.

* Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank (KVGB) has launched ‘Vikas Abhaya’ a loan scheme to provide some relief to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise(MSME) borrowers.

* This scheme is for those borrowers whose business activities are disrupted on account of the COVID-19 pandemic in Dharwad, Karnataka.

* The loan will be for the existing MSME customers who have been regular as on February 29, a maximum loan of up to Rs 1 lakh will be provided and no collateral security is emphasized & is repayable within 36 months.

* It is an additional credit facility to the eligible existing MSME borrowers & helps them to assist over the current crisis and ensures the continuation of viable business activity.

• International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) report titled ‘COVID-19 Pandemic and the Asia-Pacific Region: Lowest Growth Since the 1960s’ stated that Asia will stall at 0% growth in 2020 for the 1st time in 60 years which includes the Global Financial Crisis (4.7%) and the Asian Financial Crisis (1.3%).

• It also stated that the region will be “severe and unprecedented“ due to the impact of the pandemic & Asia is still doing better than other regions in terms of activity.

• Foreign ministers of the five large emerging economies of the world —Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have decided to allocate $15 billion towards setting up a special loan instrument to facilitate the rebuilding of their economies ravaged by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

• Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 20 April while attending the 5th Annual Meeting of board of governors of New Development Bank (NDB) through video-conference suggested that NDB should establish a $10 billion fund to help member countries fight covid-19

• NDB has already fast-tracked financial assistance of about $5 billion to BRICS countries including emergency assistance of $1 billion to India to combat the covid-19 pandemic.

• To enhance its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of India has signed a $1.5 billion loan with the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

• The loan amount will be used in fulfilling India’s immediate priorities.

• These priorities comprises of disease containment and prevention, social protection for the poor as well as economically vulnerable sections of the society, especially women and disadvantaged groups.

• NTPC Ltd, India's largest power producer and a central PSU under Ministry of Power, has invited Global Expression of Interest (EoI) to provide 10 Hydrogen Fuel Cell (FC) based electric buses and an equal number of Hydrogen Fuel Cell based electric cars in Leh and Delhi.

• The EoI has been issued by NTPC's wholly owned subsidiary, NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN) Limited.

• The move to procure Hydrogen Fuel Cell based vehicles is first of its kind project in the country, wherein a complete solution from green energy to the fuel cell vehicle would be developed.

• The initiative, which has been undertaken with support of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, will also harness renewable energy for generation of hydrogen and develop it's storage and dispensation facilities as part of pilot projects at Leh and Delhi. The move to launch hydrogen powered vehicles aims at decarbonizing mobility segment.

• IIFL Wealth Management has acquired entire(100%) equity shares of Larsen & Toubro Capital Markets(LTCM), a wholly-owned subsidiary of L&T Finance Holdings for Rs 230 crores plus available cash balance of LTCM after receiving requisite regulatory approvals.

• LTCM had a total income of Rs 124.81 crores while the net worth stood at Rs 82.45 crore at the end of March 2019 & has assets of Rs 20,807 crores as of April 21.

• IIFL Wealth Management is an investment and financial advisor to over 5,600 influential families in high net worth individuals (HNIs) and ultra HNI segments in India and abroad, with aggregate assets of more than 24 billion dollars under management

• It has more than 900 employees and presence in 6 major global financial hubs and 23 locations in the country.