Union Bank cuts home loan rates

Public sector lender Union Bank of India has cut home loan rates for new and existing floating rate customers. The interest rate cut ranges from 25 basis points (at the lowest loan slab of up to Rs 30 lakh) to 150 basis points (on loans above Rs 75 lakh and up to Rs 5 crore). One basis point is equal to 0.01 percentage points. Customers can get home loans up to Rs 30 lakh at the Base Rate (10.50 per cent). Interest rate on home loans above Rs 30 lakh and up to Rs 75 lakh will be 10.75 per cent (Base rate + 0.25 per cent). For loans above Rs 75...

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SBI to approach Moody's for review of rating

State Bank of India plans to approach global credit rating agency Moody's Investors Services for a ratings upgrade. The bank was downgraded in October last year on account of its low Tier-I capital ratio and deteriorating asset quality. SBI reported a Tier-1 capital of 7.60 per cent as of June 30, 2011. “Our Tier I capital has improved to 9.79 per cent as of March 31, 2012. We now plan to go back to them (Moody's) and seek a review and re-rating,” said Mr Pratip Chaudhuri, Chairman, SBI. The improvement in Tier-I capital was primarily on account...

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Syndicate Bank staff assn proposes campus recruitment to address manpower shortage

The Syndicate Bank Staff Association (SBSA) has suggested campus recruitment as a one-time measure in view of acute shortage of manpower in the banking industry. SBSA, an affiliate of Bharathiya Mazdoor Sangh, floated the suggestion at its meeting held here recently. Mr K. S. Bhat, secretary, SBSA told Business Line that shortage of manpower had forced unscientific recruitment practices in banks. Monitoring of loan accountsBank branches are unable to properly monitor and do regular follow-up of loan accounts at regular intervals as they used to...

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Union Bank to upgrade its overseas offices

Union Bank will look to upgrade its overseas representative offices into full-fledged branches, Mr Debabrata Sarkar, Chairman and Managing Director of the bank, said here on Friday. The bank has representative offices in Shanghai, Sydney and London. It also has a financial centre in Dubai. All these four offices will be upgraded, he said. Union Bank has one branch in Hong Kong and it had done business worth Rs 10,000 crore in 2011-12. “We are looking to upgrade them into full branches,” Mr Sarkar said on the sidelines of the ‘4th ICC Banking Summit,'...

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SBI posts record Rs 4,050-cr profit in Q4 on lower provisioning

Riding on the back of higher interest income and lower provisioning, State Bank of India posted a record jump in its fourth quarter net profits. The bank has recommended a dividend of Rs 35 a share of Rs 10 each. The profit after tax jumped 192 times to Rs 4,050 crore for the quarter ended March 31. SBI posted a profit of Rs 21 crore during the corresponding period in 2010-11. Profits took a beating in the previous year on account of higher provisioning towards bad loans, pension and gratuity. Sequentially, profits rose 24 per cent from Rs 3,263...

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RBI will weigh options to protect rupee

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday said that it was weighing several options, including extension of lending support, to help oil marketing companies negotiate foreign currency volatility. According to Dr Subir Gokarn, Deputy Governor, RBI, the apex bank does not want to do anything without measuring the benefits of its actions or their future impact. Adequate reserves“At this point all options are being actively considered. But we have to keep in mind the pros and cons. We do not want to do something that might end up being costly or destabilising,”...

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SKS Microfinance hopes new law to revive growth by easing loan recovery

SKS Microfinance, India's largest publicly-traded lender to the poor, says proposed legislation will spur a revival by easing loan recovery just as mounting losses force it to curtail operations. The draft law would let microcredit companies improve debt collection and may also help raise funds, chief financial officer S Dilli Raj said in an interview. The Hyderabad-based lender's loss last quarter widened almost fivefold, prompting it to cut jobs and shut branches. The stock is down 94% from a September 2010 peak. SKS, backed by Sequoia Capital,...

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SBI's Q4 results unlikely to throw up negative surprises

State Bank of India's fourth-quarter results are unlikely to throw up any negative surprises like last year when chairman Pratip Chaudhuri presents them on Friday afternoon. Analysts expect the country's largest lender to report a net profit of Rs 3,400 crore to Rs 3,550 crore and net interest margin (NIM) of about 4%, but concerns over asset quality are likely to remain. Last year, the bank was forced to make some exceptionally high provisioning to cover rising bad loans and create a counter-cyclical buffer that pulled down net profit to a mere...

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Oriental Bank cuts education loans rates

OBC has reduced lending rates on education loans after factoring in the market trend and customer feedback. Taken together with the latest reduction in base rate to 10.5 per cent, the overall reduction in interest rates for a borrower would range from 40 to 115 basis points, depending on the loan slab, Mr S.L. Bansal, Chairman and Managing Director, said. The revised lending rates will apply for new loans only. For loans up to Rs 4 lakh, the rate has now been pegged at bank rate plus 2.5 per cent against the earlier regime of bank rate plus 2.75...

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Corp Bank opens SME loan centre in Pune

Corporation Bank has opened an SME loan centre in Pune. A press release said here that Mr Amar Lal Daultani, Executive Director of the bank, launched the SME loan centre in Pune recently. Mr Ajay Mehta, Managing Director of Deepak Nitrites Ltd and Vice-President of Maratha Chamber of Commerce, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said that such partnerships with small and medium enterprises yields growth of such industries and business in the country. Corporation Bank’s effort in coming forward and organizing such meets could go a long way...

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SBI to lend Rs 1,400 cr to Damodar Valley

State Bank of India has decided to lend Rs 1,400 crore to Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) to part-fund its 500-MW Bokaro Thermal Power Station (A) Project. SBI's associate banks will also lend Rs 1,000 crore to the project, said a bank statement. The Rs 3,500-crore project will have a debt-equity ratio of 70:30. It would replace the old and abandoned 247-MW Thermal Power Plant which was built in 1953. The Bokaro Unit is expected to be commissioned in April 2014. Fuel for the project will come from Central Coalfields Ltd and the power generated...

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RBI staff appeal on coins, notes distribution

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) staff and officers’ unions have urged top officials to desist from abdicating public duty of delivering coins and currency notes. This comes in the context of the policy statement that henceforth the distribution of currency coins will be channelised only through currency chests and bank branches. This would mean closure of RBI in metro centres and state capitals which have been hitherto delivering this service. The RBI staff union has said that this move will deprive the public of the quality service delivered over...

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Oriental Bank scraps service charges on NEFT payments up to Rs 1 lakh

Taking the lead, Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) has done away with service charges on all NEFT payments up to Rs 1 lakh originating through its branches. This move will encourage retail customers to adopt electronic mode in a big way for their payments, Mr S.L. Bansal, Chairman & Managing Director, said here. Currently, under NEFT scheme, banks are allowed to charge from the remitter up to Rs 5 (plus service tax) for outward remittances up to Rs 1 lakh. National Electronics Fund Transfer (NEFT) is a nation-wide payment system facilitating...

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J&K Bank eyes Rs 1 lakh-crore business, Rs 1,000-cr profit in this fiscal

The Jammu & Kashmir Bank has set its sights on achieving two milestones in the current fiscal. It aims to clock a total business of Rs 1 lakh crore and earn a net profit of Rs 1,000 crore, said a top bank official. In the past fiscal, the 74-year-old private sector bank's total business (deposits and advances) grew by 22 per cent from Rs 70,864 crore to Rs 86,419 crore. Net profit was up 30.57 per cent to Rs 803 crore in the fiscal (Rs 615 crore in fiscal 2011). According to Mr Mushtaq Ahmed, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Bank,...

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Indian Bank to recast Rs 1,157-cr loans in Q1

Indian Bank is expected to restructure a further Rs 1,157 crore worth of advances in the first quarter of the current year. Half of this is on account of its loans to the Rajasthan Electricity Board, an analyst report from Angel Broking has said. In the last quarter of 2011-12, Indian Bank’s ‘restructured loans’ increased by Rs 3,330 crore to Rs 8,902 crore. The bank restructured loans worth Rs 800 crore given to Air India and Rs 1,200 crore to various companies in the power sector. Even after restructuring loans worth Rs 3,330 crore, Indian Bank’s...

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LIC hikes stake in Bank of Maharashtra

Life Insurance Corporation of India has picked up 4.63 per cent stake in Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) through the acquisition of about 2.76 crore shares. Post the acquisition, LIC’s stake in BoM has increased to 9.97 per cent. BoM scrip was down 0.6 per cent to Rs 47 per share today....

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Allahabad Bank plans to open four foreign, 250 domestic branches

Allahabad Bank plans to open 250 branches across the country, besides four foreign branches this year. “We have applied for four licences to the Reserve Bank of India, and we hope to get them shortly,” Mr J.P. Dua, Chairman and Managing Director, Allahabad Bank, said here on Wednesday. The four foreign branches will be located in Shanghai, Singapore, Dhaka and an additional branch in Hong Kong at Kowloon. The bank currently has a branch in Hong Kong and a representative office in Shanghai. Recruitments tooAllahabad Bank, which currently has over...

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Vijaya Bank to recruit 894 probationary officers

Vijaya Bank is recruiting 894 probationary officers for vacancies across the country. The bank has specified that candidates with graduation and a total weighted standard score of 138 and above in the common written examination conducted by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection are eligible to apply. The minimum age requirement is 20 years while the maximum is 30 years. Applications have been invited online and are open from May 16 till June...

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Federal Bank launches three cards

Federal Bank on Wednesday launched three cards -- two debit and a travellers card -- in partnership with MasterCard to address the needs of its varied customer base. The Kerala-based private sector bank is offering – Federal Bank Maestro Card, Premium Master Debit Card and the Cash Passport Card. Federal Bank Maestro Card is a debit card with a daily transaction limit of Rs 1.25 lakh (up from Rs 50,000 limit per day on other cards). Targeting high net-worth Individuals, the bank said it will offer a Premium Master Debit Card with a daily transaction...

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Regional rural banks' staff to go on strike on June 8

Close to 70,000 officers and employees at 82 regional rural banks (RRBs) across the country will go on strike on June 8. Some of the key demands of these employees working across 17,000 branches of RRBs include parity of pension, formation of National Rural Bank of India, regularisation and absorption of part-time workers in RRBs. According to Mr Dilip Kumar Mukherjee, Secretary General, All India Regional Rural Bank Employees' Association (AIRRBEA), the employees have also been demanding for the withdrawal of government order on HR policy and...

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Airtel, Axis Bank tie up to provide mobile banking

Bharti Airtel, through its wholly owned subsidiary Airtel mCommerce Services Ltd, on Wednesday partnered with Axis Bank for extending banking and payment services on mobile platform. No-frills savings account of Axis Bank will be opened for customers on the Airtel Money platform called ‘airtel money Super Account powered by Axis Bank’ offering customers banking transactions including cash deposit, money transfer and withdrawal. These accounts will provide convenient, safe and secure savings avenue to financial inclusion customers’ paying them savings...

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Canara Bank launches new payment facilities

Canara Bank launched technology products and facilities for easy and secure banking on Monday. A press release from the bank said that the products and facilities would enable customers to avail themselves of the service from anywhere, anytime. Dr Thomas Mathew, Director, Canara Bank, and Joint Secretary (CM), Ministry of Finance, Government of India, launched the products and facilities. Some of the facilities include Internet banking — bill payment; funds transfer by corporate account holder up to Rs 50 lakh per day; welcome kit – provision of...

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J&K Bank profit up 50%; declares Rs33.50 dividend

Jammu & Kashmir Bank posted a 50 per cent jump in fourth-quarter net profit at Rs 208 crore compared with Rs 138.50 crore in the year-ago period. For the year ended March 31, the bank earned a net profit of Rs 803 crore compared with Rs. 615 crore a year ago. For the January to March quarter, the bank's interest earnings jumped 34 per cent to Rs 1,358 crore (Rs 1,014 crore in fourth quarter of FY11). As at March-end 2012, the private sector bank had a capital adequacy ratio of 13.36 per cent (13.72 per cent as on March-end 2011). Gross NPA...

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Dena Bank opens 30th branch in TN

Dena Bank has opened its 30th branch in Tamil Nadu at Kotagiri. The Chairperson and Managing Director, Ms Nupur Mitra, inaugurated the branch on Sunday. The bank is planning to open its 31st branch in the state at Ambattur in Chennai soon. The Chennai region of the bank achieved a business of around Rs 3,270 crore in 2011-12 out of the total of Rs 1,34,326 crore. Dena Bank plans to roll out innovative schemes and increase its business in this region, says a bank release, without specifying the target. Dena Doctor loan scheme, a product designed...

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Moody's downgrades 3 private sector banks

Moody's Investor Services has downgraded the standalone bank financial strength rating of the top three private sector banks — ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank. The global credit rating agency also downgraded the Life Insurance Corporation of India's foreign currency insurance financial strength rating. Credit Negative for RelianceFurther, the agency commented that the downward revision in Reliance Industries Ltd's assessment of its proved natural gas reserves and developed reserves are credit negative for the company. The downward revision...

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BoB 2nd most profitable bank in India

State-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB) has pipped PNB to become the country's second largest public sector lender in terms of annual profit. Mumbai-based BoB's net profit crossed Rs 5,000 crore during 2011-12, a rise of 18 per cent from the previous year. Punjab National Bank's (PNB) net profit rose by 10.2 per cent to Rs 4,884 crore for the fiscal ended March, 2012. The country's largest bank State Bank of India in the first nine months of 2011-12 has posted a net profit of Rs 8,243.64 crore. Its profit in 2010-11 stood Rs 8,264.5 crore . BoB Chairman...

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Central Bank needs Rs 14K cr for Basel III norms

Central Bank of India has said it will be requiring over Rs 14,000 crore of fresh capital to meet the Basel-III guidelines which will kick in from next fiscal. “Our bank will require Rs 14,067 crore in order to meet the Basel-III requirements,” the bank’s chairman and managing director Mr M V Tanksale said. When asked how the bank, which posted a net loss of Rs 105 crore for the March quarter due to a jump in stressed assets, will fund it, Mr Tanksale said it will depend a lot on the proposed follow-on offer. As of March 31, the government had...

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Compliance with Basel-III should be a breeze: PNB chief

Public sector lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) does not see any large pressure or problems in its transition to Basel-III, the new international standards for capital requirements of banks. This is despite India venturing into over-compliance with Basel-III with higher and more stringent requirements. The Reserve Bank of India came out with final guidelines on this on May 2. Large bufferThe Basel-III capital standards require the banks world over to hold thicker buffers of capital to absorb losses. Under the new regime, banks will have to hold...

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