73,000 villages to have banking facility

Raghunathganj, West Bengal: Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said 73,000 villages in the country would have banking facility by next year. "By March 31, 2012, banking facility will be available in 73,000 villages across the country going by the current pace of work," Mukherjee said after inaugurating a Punjab National Bank (PNB) branch at Talai under Raghunathganj police station area in Murshidabad district. Mukherjee said the government wants to enable every citizen of the country to avail banking facility in future. He said Talai...

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ICAI to question SBI on high provisions in Q4 FY 11

Mumbai: Taking a strong note of State Bank of India's huge profit erosion for March quarter due to higher provisions, accounting regulator ICAI said it will send a letter asking the country's largest lender to explain the reasons for higher provisions for bad loans. "We have decided to send a letter to SBI to enquire about the reasons which led to an increase in provisions, to explain a rise in provisions in the March quarter over that in December (2010) quarter," The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India's (ICAI) President, G Ramaswamy,...

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SBI breaks rules on loans to Reliance Ind

New Delhi: India's largest bank The State Bank of India (SBI) has breached RBI's credit exposure norms during three consecutive years with regard to its loans provided to Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL). The public sector lender, which also has significant exposures to troubled Air India besides certain telecom firms being probed in relation to the 2G scam, has now disclosed that its credit to RIL was in excess of the limits prescribed under the RBI's prudential credit norms. Detailing the cases where it breached prudential limits for...

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SBI to scrap annual interest rate reset clause on loans

MUMBAI: The State Bank of India, which shocked investors with a 99% plunge in quarterly earnings , will scrap the annual interest rate reset clause on all loans and move to uniform base rate-linked payments to smoothen out the fluctuations in its profitability. "Most term loans have one-year reset clause, which I think is cumbersome both for the company as well as for the bank," SBI chairman Pratip Chaudhuri told ET. "So, from now on, we will give term loans which will be linked to our base rate," the floor rate below which it won't lend to anyone....

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SBI to complete Rs 20,000-cr rights issue by December

State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest public sector lender, is likely to complete a proposed rights issue of Rs 20,000 crore by December. A rights issue is a capital raising instrument in which shareholders are offered additional shares at a discount to the market price, without diluting the promoter’s holding in the company. “Out of the proposed issue size of Rs 20,000 crore, government’s share would be Rs 12,000 crore. Currently, we are in talks with the government to get their share of the contribution. We have a very supportive stand from...

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'Citigroup card customers data hacked'

Banglaore: Computer hackers have breached Citigroup's computer network and have accessed data on hundreds of thousands of its card customers, the Financial Times said. Citigroup said the breach, which affected about 1 per cent of its card customers, was discovered in early May through routine monitoring, the newspaper said. According to the bank's annual report, Citi Cards has about 21 million customers in North America. The breach occurred at Citi Account Online, which holds basic customer information such as names, account numbers and e-mail...

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India among top 3 countries targeted by phishing attacks

New Delhi: India along with the US and UK accounted for 70 per cent of the brands targeted by phishing in April, says a global survey.RSA, the security division of EMC, in its May Fraud Report said the US accounted for 42.5 per cent of brands targeted by phishing, followed by UK (19 per cent) and India (8 per cent). Worldwide as many as 17,376 attacks were launched in April, a fall of barely 1 per cent as compared to March and the number of brands attacked also dropped by 12 per cent. However, with nearly identical number of attacks and fall in...

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Now, withdraw cash at Barista Lavazza

New Delhi: Restaurant chain Barista Lavazza today said it has tied-up with Visa to launch a new facility at its outlets which will enable customers to withdraw money. "As per Reserve Bank of India guidelines, Visa debit cardholders can withdraw an amount of up to Rs 1,000 in a day at any Barista Lavazza outlet," the company said in a statement. This will enable all Visa debit cardholders to not only pay for their coffee and snacks but also withdraw cash at over 170 outlets located across the country, it added. There will be no charges levied on...

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FDs still beat small savings schemes

New Delhi: Bank fixed deposits would continue to remain more attractive for savers than long-term deposits under small savings schemes of post office despite the hike in interest rates proposed by the government panel. At the current market condition, the term deposit rates are as much as 50 basis points higher than the returns offered by small savings scheme as recommended by the Committee headed by RBI Deputy Governor Shyamala Gopinath. For instance, five-year fixed deposit rate under small savings scheme will fetch 8 per cent if the government...

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H R Khan likely to succeed Gopinath as RBI deputy guv

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) executive director H R Khan has emerged as the front runner for the post of deputy governor in the central bank. Khan would replace Shyamala Gopinath who retires on June 20, after a seven-year stint as deputy governor. According to sources, the finance ministry has cleared Khan's appointment for the deputy governor’s post. The proposal would now be referred to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), which is headed by the prime minister. A search committee to select a new deputy governor, headed by RBI Governor...

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Citigroup sells private equity assets to Axa unit

Citigroup has agreed to sell a portfolio of private equity assets to Axa Private Equity for $1.7 billion, the French insurer said on Wednesday. The portfolio comprises 207 stakes in various buyout funds as well as some direct stakes in companies, Axa said, adding that Citi, which has been looking to focus on its core businesses, was financing the purchase. Source: Business Stand...

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RBS to grow India private banking staff by 50%

MUMBAI: The Indian private banking arm of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) plans to raise its headcount by 50 percent to 120 by mid-2012, but fewer investment avenues for wealthy clients in India is a challenge for the sector, a top official said. The unit, which plans to triple its assets under management to $3 billion in India over the next four-to-five years, sees strong long-term growth in wealth management business in the country, said Shiv Gupta, head of India private banking at RBS. Asia, home to more than 3 million millionaires, has become...

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Indian banks to grow fast, but margins pressured: S&P

MUMBAI: Indian banks will grow at a fast clip in the next 3-5 years, but their margins will remain under pressure this fiscal as lenders are unlikely to pass on all funding costs to borrowers in a high interest rate environment, Standard & Poor's said on Wednesday. "There is a fairly high amount of pressure on the funding costs. There is a broad upward movement of the interest rates, which is putting an upward pressure on the funding rates," analyst Geeta Chugh told reporters in a teleconference. Net interest margin -- that shows the difference...

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ICICI drives $10 mn gain for Gaddafi

New Delhi: ICICI Bank has emerged as the single Indian entity considered worth investing by Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and the investment has given an impressive return of over 25 per cent in past one year alone. As per the investment portfolio of Libyan Investment Authority, a sovereign fund controlled by Gaddafi, it had invested $29.6 million in the ICICI Bank ADRs (American Depository Receipts), the US-listed securities of India's largest private sector bank. The portfolio has been made public by an independent campaign group Global Witness...

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Swings in banks' earnings is not reflective of best practices: RBI

MUMBAI: Violent swings in banks' earnings whenever there is a change of guard, known as the new broom syndrome, is not reflective of best practices, said a central banker in a veiled caution to local lenders to end accounting jugglery to dress up performance. "Financial reporting should not be as per the minds of bank chairmen," said KC Chakrabarty, deputy governor at the Reserve Bank of India . "When bank chairmen change, profits tend to fall. Things should not turn topsy-turvy if bank chairmen change." The regulator's comment comes less than...

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India to be third largest domestic banking sector by 2050: PwC

Mumbai: India is poised to become the third largest domestic banking sector by 2050 after China and the US, a survey by a leading global accounting and consultancy firm, said. China could overtake the US in terms of the size of their domestic banking sector around 2023, while India's rate of growth, by contrast is expected to overtake that of China's in the long run, as it has more catch-up potential and its working-age population growth will be much stronger in the long-term, the survey by PriceWaterHouse Coopers said. The combined domestic banking...

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Silicon Valley Bank parent eyes India, China

California-based SVB Financial, the parent of Silicon Valley Bank, is eyeing banking licences in China and India, Asia's No1 and No3 economies, as part of its international expansion, its chief executive said. The bank, which focuses on lending to the technology, life sciences, venture capital and premium wine industries, has moved into Israel, China, India and Britain as it looks to take its venture capital business model overseas. The bank, valued at close to $2.5 billion, has a joint venture, which is subject to regulatory approval, in China...

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RBI wants more banks to launch mobile banking

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) wants more and more banks to launch services on mobile, its Deputy Governor Shyamala Gopinath said here today. Launching Canara Bank's CanMobile, a mobile banking product, she said RBI has already enabled mobile banking and issued guidelines in this regard. "...And we do hope that more and more banks now join in the launch of this product," she said.According to Canara Bank's Chairman and Managing Director S Raman, the product is user-friendly, safe, secure and swift. It facilitates customers to conduct transactions...

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RBI monitoring economy, liquidity before policy action

Ahead of its mid-quarterly policy review, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today said it is monitoring the economic data and also the liquidity situation, and would take a forward-looking view while deciding on the policy action. "We would monitor various data...and take a forward-looking view and take action," RBI Deputy Governor Shyamala Gopinath told reporters here when asked how the central bank plans to arrest the economic slowdown. The central bank has raised key policy rates nine times since March 2010, to check inflation, which is hovering...

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