Provident Financial News

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has recently introduced a new pension product called ICICI Pru Gold Pension Savings. With the aim of helping individuals build a substantial retirement corpus, this tax efficient product allows customers to make systematic contributions. 

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is contemplating reinvesting 50 per cent of its exchange traded funds (ETFs) redemption proceeds back into equity, reported Business Standard. 

Startup enfineo is building an alternative to your usual cryptocurrency wallets with a focus on traditional banking and finance. enfineo guarantees that the platform seamlessly integrates conventional banking with the dynamic world of cryptocurrencies, allowing users to manage their savings accounts, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and other membership cards in one place without extra efforts and cost.

—Name withheld on request

Shares of Japan's third-largest convenience store chain Lawson surged 18% it received an offer to go private.

Family offices are one-stop wealth management for Ultra-HNIs and look after investments, estate planning, tax efficiency and philanthropy among other things.

The recent introduction of India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) at the Eiffel Tower in France marks a monumental step in the global acceptance of digital payments, particularly benefiting Indian tourists who can now pay in rupees while visiting this iconic landmark. Tourists visiting Paris' Eiffel Tower will now be able to book their trip to the iconic monument using India's Unified Payment Interface.

Manulife Financial Corp. says patients who require specialty drugs will be able to fill their prescriptions at any pharmacy after backlash sparked by the insurance provider signing an exclusive arrangement with Loblaw Cos. Ltd.

A Liberal plan to crackdown on predatory lending could instead lead to a rise in crime and put vulnerable Canadians further at risk, a new warning from police and lenders argues.

More Republican lawmakers in states around the U.S. are getting behind the idea of using taxpayer money to subsidize child care

Responding to a consultation exercise that kicked off in February, HM Treasury and the Bank of England emphasise that no final decision has been made to pursue a digital pound. Instead, work will continue during the design phase exploring its feasibility and potential design choices. The feedback from respondents from a range of industries and organisations was largely supportive of the proposed design set out in the 2023 Consultation Paper, while other respondents raised concerns about the implications of a digital pound for access to cash, users’ privacy, and control of their money. To address these concerns, HM Treasury confirms that if a digital pound were to be implemented, primary legislation would be introduced, and this would guarantee users’ privacy and control.

9 February 2024 [Lisbon, Portugal]: Common Wealth, the powerful, all-in-one platform for early-stage Web3 investments, today announces the launch of a world-first initiative: a Free “earn-to-own” VC Fund. This launch represents a completely novel fusion of community-driven Web3 principles with the sophistication of venture capital investment. The initiative will see Common Wealth’s first fund opening up the venture capital sector to the masses, ensuring that the power of early-stage access in Web3 is now in the hands of the community it serves.

$WEN is a new meme coin on Solana, generating buzz and significant community interest after 70% of its total supply was airdropped to over one million wallets. A smart investor capitalized on the heightened attention around the meme coin, amassing about $1.60 million profit in 14 hours.

With a commanding lead in the polls ahead of a general election later in the year, the opposition party has set out its plans for financial services. Warning that the UK is in danger of slipping behind when it comes to innovation in financial services, the party says it will adopt a coordinated strategy and regulatory framework to embrace new technology. Labour "fully supports" the Bank of England's CBDC work and also wants to embrace securities tokenisation, which it says could increase liquidity, provide access to new asset classes and fractionalised assets, and strengthen risk management. "A future Labour government will therefore look to make the UK a global leader in tokenisation by advancing work to clarify the law around tokenisation, and working with regulators to establish a proportionate, outcomes-based regulatory regime to oversee the technology," says the plan. Labour also wants to take a lead in setting international standards for the use of AI in financial services. Meanwhile, the party is backing the Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee's work to define the next phase of Open Banking including laying out the long-term regulatory framework. It is also promising to develop a roadmap for Open Finance, arguing it has the potential to help improve financial inclusion and support household saving and investment. In addition, a Labour government will ask the FCA and PSR to evaluate the potential to stand up a new regulatory sandbox to encourage development of products to reach excluded and underserved Brits. Read the full plan

The recently announced interim budget resonated with the government’s aim of making India a developed economy by 2047. Instead of going for populist policies, the budget focus on infrastructure and R&D will go a long way in making India a manufacturing hub.

RateGain Travel Technologies Limited is a global p... moreRateGain Travel Technologies Limited is a global provider of SaaS solutions for the travel and hospitality industries.

The deal means BitGo will offer a single platform to service both traditional private securities and blockchain-based assets globally, allowing for the tokenisation of real world assets.The crypto firm - which was valued at $1.75 billion in a 2023 funding round - gets a technology stack including multi-asset custody, advanced capital formation solutions and streamlined record-keeping and transfer agent services.Mike Belshe, CEO, BitGo, says: "We currently have a dichotomy in financial services - one side deals with traditional securities and the other deals with up-and-coming blockchain-based assets and cryptocurrencies.

India’s interim budget for the year 2024-25 was presented earlier this month with an accompanying analysis of impacts on various sectors. As has been pointed out by many over the last week, several positive indications have been provided for sectors enabling low-carbon pathways for the country.

Companies are having to get their workforces up to speed on artificial intelligence, and fast. And it’s looking like AI itself may be teaching the class. Online teaching provider Coursera’s training includes an AI-powered chatbot that can provide personal feedback to students.

Mumbai: The broking community is divided about extending trading hours for the equity derivatives segment but is deliberating it and is expected to reach a decision shortly, said Madhabi Puri Buch, chairperson, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). “At the moment, the broking community itself is divided. It’s a divided house, and there is a lot of discussion that is going on.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Tuesday that a post sent from the agency's account on the social media platform X announcing the approval of a long-awaited bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) was "unauthorised," and that the agency's account was hacked.