NPCI Refused To Ban Crypto Currencies: Current Affairs Special Series

Team Adda247 and BankersAdda are here with a Current Affairs Special Series for SBI and IBPS interview 2021.  In this series, candidates will be introduced to current affairs topics daily, which will not only improve their general awareness but also will ensure that the candidates do not lack if any current affairs topic is asked in the interview. Today’s Current Affairs topic is NPCI Refused To Ban Crypto Currencies.

NPCI refused to ban Crypto currencies

An umbrella body, NPCI (National Payment Corporation of India) has denied blocking fund transactions for crypto-currency trades. NPCI directed the banks to take decisions based on the advice of their respective legal and compliance departments.

The stance was taken by NPCI so far assumes significance because several leading banks are slowly choking payments connected to crypto deals. Payment gateway operators have been directed to blacklist merchants who are involved in buying or selling crypto-currencies by Half a dozen local banks. These banks also have muted customers from using online fund transfer facilities like net banking and UPI for buying or selling crypto currencies. The decision taken by NPCI is based on the Supreme Court’s ruling in March 2020, when the apex court had set aside the Reserve Bank of India’s April 2018 directive banning banks and finance companies from dealing in ‘Virtual Currencies’ or ‘providing services to facilitate’ anyone “dealing with such digital currencies”. RBI has not come out with any directive following the SC ruling yet, NPCI as an industry-level body has not blocked crypto transactions till now. 

According to some senior officials, each bank is deciding on the basis of its risk assessment and feedback from the respective SSM (Senior Supervisory Manager) which is assigned by RBI. If Banks will block crypto exchanges as NEFT/RTGS counter-party, or more and more banks would be switch off crypto trades, existing crypto holders may find it tougher to sell their digital assets. 

Crypto Currency: Crypto-currency is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange.

• It was firstly a decentralized crypto currency as bitcoin which was assumed to be created by Satoshi Nakamoto. 
• The total market cap of crypto currency is 2 trillion USD on 5 April 2021.

NPCI: National Payment Corporation of India

Founded: 2008

HQ: Mumbai

Chairman: Biswamohan Mahapatra

MD: Dilip Asbe