Hearing again on July 1 on National Pension Scheme in SBI

The Kerala High Court has posted the ‘part-heard’ writ petition challenging the implementation of the National Pension Scheme in State Bank of India (SBI) to July 1.

The case was filed by A. Jayakumar, General Secretary of State Banks’ Staff Union, Kerala Circle, in February.

IMPORT OF ACT

Hearing in the case resumed on Monday, and had come for final argument on Wednesday.

Counsels Vaidyanathan S., H. Ganapathy and Jimmy George appeared for the union while George Thomas Mevada represented SBI.

Sources told Business Line that the counsels argued at length on the import of various provisions of the SBI Act, 1955, for three days from Monday.

The counsel appearing for the Union Government was directed to file a statement within two weeks on whether procedures enunciated under Sections 50 (1), 50 (2)(o) and 50 (4) of the Act have been followed by SBI while notifying the pension scheme.

THRESHOLD DATE

The writ had originally prayed for directions to revert those recruited on or after August 1, 2010, the threshold date fixed by the bank, back to existing pension scheme.

An interim order issued by the court had directed that amounts contributed by employees towards the pension fund be kept in a separate account and maintained with the trustee bank.

The petitioner had pointed out that the scheme was being implemented as part of the industry-level bipartite wage settlement.

As per this, Defined Contribution Pension Scheme (DCPS)/NPS would apply to those joining services on or after April 1, 2010.

But this settlement between Indian Banks’ Association and unions of other banks would not apply to SBI. It was not party to this settlement insofar as pension-related matters were concerned.

The Act did not empower the central board to amend pension fund rules, and that too with retrospective effect. Any regulation framed in this manner will have to be laid before Parliament.

It will take effect in the existing or modified form as decided by both the Houses of Parliament only.

In the present case, the central board of the bank had taken a unilateral decision to modify the pension scheme.

Legal recourse was also being sought on grounds that the pension scheme once framed could be modified without issuing notice.

vinson.kurian@thehindu.co.in

Source: thehindubusinessline

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Andhra Bank opens branch in Vijayawada

The Chairman and Managing Director, Andhra Bank, B.A. Prabhakar today inaugurated a new spacious premises of their Ring Road Branch at Vijayawada under its ‘Navshakti Project’.

This includes 24 hours/365 days anytime-banking centre with ATMs, self pass- book printing kiosk, Internet banking kiosk and cheque depositing machine.

The bank branch is specially designed to serve customers in separate zones for regular transaction customers and customers with special needs where interaction is required with the personal bank officers.

It has a jumbo size safe deposit locker room with a capacity of 2,500 lockers. Prabhakar said the branch is established in Vijayawada as a pilot project after two branches in Hyderabad.

He also said that the staff were specially trained to provide best service to customers. The plan is to transform nearly 250 branches of the bank like this in a period of 15 months.

G. Ravi Kumar, Deputy General Manager, Andhra Bank and Zonal Manager, Vijayawada Zone, has presided over the meeting.

Industrialists M. Rajaiah and D. Ramakrishna also participated in the meeting which was attended by about 300 customers of the bank, a press release said.

somasekhar.m@thehindu.co.in

Source: thehindubusinessline

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Axis Bank opens branch in rural Punjab

Axis Bank, India’s third largest private sector bank, has opened its 2,000th branch at Ahmedgarh in rural Punjab.

Shikha Sharma, MD and CEO, Axis Bank, said: “We have been one of the early banks in the very ambitious and innovative Pungrain Project undertaken by the Punjab Government for electronification of payments to farmers. We are excited about the potential to work closely with the government initiatives in finding banking solutions.”

The bank’s branch network includes 146 branches operating in rural unbanked centres, 135 branches in rural centres, 641 in semi-urban centres and the balance 1,078 branches operating in urban and metro centres.

Source: thehindubusinessline

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Exim Bank gets licence to open representative office in Myanmar

Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) has received a banking licence to open a representative office at Yangon in Myanmar.

Exim Bank has extended seven lines of credit (LoCs) worth $247.43 million to the Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank for projects or contracts such as upgradation of the railway system, setting up refinery projects, a manufacturing plant for assembly and manufacture of Tata vehicles in Myanmar and setting up of three transmission lines in Myanmar, among others.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) for LoCs worth $500 million was signed between Exim Bank and Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank. Under the MoU, 16 ongoing irrigation schemes, two irrigation projects, a project for procurement of rolling stock, equipment and upgradation of three major railway workshops in Myanmar are covered.

Exim Bank also offers medium and long-term buyers’ credit for project exports to Myanmar, thus enabling Indian project exporters to secure business while avoiding risk.

Source: thehindubusinessline

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RBI ED Bhaskar, IAS officer Krishnan join FPSB Board

The Financial Planning Standards Board India (FPSB) today appointed IAS officer K P Krishnan and Reserve Bank executive director P Vijaya Bhaskar on its board of directors.

The city-based FPSB, which is a public-private enterprise and a professional standards setting body, said the appointment will be till March 2015.

Krishnan, who is serving as Principal Secretary with Government of Karnataka, was earlier the secretary of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, while Bhaskar oversees Central Security Cell, Department of Banking Supervision and Department of Non-Banking Supervision at RBI.

Both of them join others like lawyer Cyril Shroff, professionals from mutual fund industry like Deepak Chatterjee (SBI MF), Milind Barve (HDFC AMC) and Rajan Ghotgalkar (Principal PNB), and journalists Monika Halan and Vivek Law.

Source: thehindubusinessline

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