CBS enabled banks should issue only payable at par cheques: RBI

The Reserve Bank has asked all CBS ( core banking solutions) enabled banks to issue only 'payable at par' or 'multi-city' cheques to their customers to bring about more efficiency in cheque clearing.This is after taking into consideration the availability of processing infrastructure for clearing outstation cheques at all clearing locations across the country and to bring about further efficiency in cheque clearing, it said."... All CBS enabled banks are hereby advised to issue only 'payable at par'/ 'multi-city' CTS 2010 Standard cheques to...

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ICICI Bank plans $1 billion bond sale

ICICI Bank, the nation's second biggest lender, will join the State Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank in raising funds from overseas bond sale in the next few weeks with a billion dollar issue as credit markets ease after the European Central Bank pledge to save the Euro.The bank is negotiating with a few global investment banks on the interest rate range that it could pay on those bonds, two people familiar with the matter said. If the bank manages good rates it may raise the size of offering, they said. This would be the first bond issue...

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Central Bank to seek Rs 700-cr infusion from Govt: CMD

Central Bank of India will need capital to the tune of Rs 1,200 crore to fund its growth needs this year. The bank aims to achieve 20 per cent credit growth in 2012-13.According to Chairman and Managing Director M. V. Tanksale, the bank will approach the Centre for infusion of Rs 700 crore this year.  “We will need Rs 1,200 crore worth of capital. We will be requesting the Government to infuse Rs 700 crore and the rest will be by way of internal accruals. We also have headroom in Tier-II for raising capital,” Tanksale told newspersons...

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RBI to issue new 5 rupee coin soon

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will shortly issue five-rupee coins in their new shape and size.The obverse of the coin shall bear the Lion Capital of Ashoka Pillar with the legend ‘Satyamev Jayate’ inscribed below, a RBI release said here today.On its left periphery it will bear the word “Bharat” in Hindi and on the right upper periphery the word “India” in English.It shall also bear the denominational value ‘5’ below the Lion Capital, the release said....

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Andhra Bank expects Rs 300-cr loans for recast in second quarter

Andhra Bank expects loans aggregating about Rs 300 crore to come up for restructuring in the current quarter, according to a top official. In the April-June quarter, 29 loan accounts of the public sector bank required restructuring. The amount involved aggregated Rs 751 crore. Of the 29 loans accounts, three large loan accounts alone amounted to Rs 530 crore. The bank hopes to recover about Rs 400 crore from these accounts by September. As on June-end 2012, 39,225 loan accounts aggregating Rs 6,769 crore were restructured by the bank. According...

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SBI net jumps 137% to Rs 3,751.6 cr

Despite a general slowdown in the economy, State Bank of India has posted a 137 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 3,751.56 crore in the April-June quarter against Rs 1,583.55 crore in the corresponding year-ago period. In the reporting quarter, India’s biggest bank posted a 17 per cent increase in total income at Rs 32,415.49 crore (Rs 27,731.67 crore), according to a filing made by the bank with the BSE.Notwithstanding the robust bottomline performance, the bank’s shares were trading at Rs 1,920 per share, down 2.63 per cent, on the BSE at...

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No proposal of SBI to raise funds via FPO pending: Govt

No proposal of State Bank of India to raise funds through public offer is pending and the government is committed to keep public sector banks adequately capitalised, Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said on Wednesday.“At present, there is no proposal pending with the Government to mobilise money by SBI by issue of shares,” Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.He also said the Centre is fully committed to keep PSBs, including SBI adequately capitalised.The government had infused...

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New GM for Syndicate Bank, Kolkata region

S. Ramachandran has taken charge as the general manager of Kolkata region of Syndicate Bank effective from Monday. Prior to his elevation as the general manager, Mr Ramachandran was heading the Ernakulam region as regional manager and deputy general manager....

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Coming soon, flexi-timings for RBI officers

Come January, the Reserve Bank of India will become a tad flexible. No, not with the banks and institutions it oversees, but with its own staff.The RBI plans to offer flexi-timings, MNC-style, for its 3,000-odd officers in the rank of Manager and above in phases. The central bank has about 18,000 employees across the country.In keeping with the adage ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’, the central bank seems to want its employees to have a work-life balance.Flexi-time does not mean that the officers grappling with the nitty-gritty...

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More SBI branches in Hyderabad

State Bank of India has launched two new branches in the Hyderabad city.The Chief General Manager of the Hyderabad Circe Rakesh Sharma inaugurated the branches. The branches are located at Liberty centre in Himayathnagar and D.D. Colony at Amberpet.Speaking at the launch events, Rakesh Sharma said the two branches were equipped to cater to the personal banking and needs of NRI customers. They will have ATM, Internet and mobile banking services to suit individual customers.The branches will provide full-fledged services, including locker facility....

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HDFC ERGO General introduces add-ons in motor insurance scheme

Private insurer HDFC ERGO General Insurance on Wednesday said it has incorporated add-ons in its motor insurance scheme aimed at catering to the growing needs of customers.With the introduction of add-ons, the customers can now claim expenses incurred towards repair or replacement of internal parts of gear box and labour cost to overhaul the damaged engine and gear box.“With growing needs and dynamic external factors, the regular motor insurance is no longer sufficient. Keeping this in mind, we have designed the motor insurance add-ons, which...

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J&K Bank Q1 net up 35 per cent to Rs 246 crore

Jammu Kashmir Bank reported a 35 per cent growth in net profit to Rs 246 crore for April to June quarter on higher interest income and lower provisions.The bank had posted a net profit of Rs 182 crore in the year-ago period.Net interest income (difference between interest earned and interest expended) rose by 23 per cent to Rs 536 crore from Rs 437 crore in the same quarter lat year. Non interest income increased by 41 per cent to Rs 422 crore (from Rs 299 crore in Q1FY12).Provisions during the quarter stood at Rs 50 crore as compared with...

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IDBI Bank launches IDBI Samriddhi online portal

IDBI Bank launched an online portal - IDBI Samriddhi - to facilitate investors to invest in certificate of deposits issued by IDBI Bank. Both individual and institutional investors can avail of this facility.The portal is launched by Anand Sinha, deputy governor, Reserve Bank of India at an event held at IDBI Bank's head office at Mumbai."Banks need to fully leverage on the potential of technology," says Anand Sinha, deputy governor, Reserve Bank of India who commended the initiative. He further added that technology provides great opportunities...

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StanChart refutes US charges on Iran deals; share tanks in London

Standard Chartered has rejected New York regulators’ accusations of the bank scheming to hide $250 billion worth of transactions with Iran, generating “several hundreds of millions of dollars” of fees for itself and leaving the US financial system “vulnerable to terrorists, weapon dealers, drug kingpins and corrupt regimes.” But this did little to halt the steep slide in its share price, down over 24 per cent in early afternoon trading in London on Tuesday. On the BSE, the StanChart IDR tumbled 20 per cent on Tuesday. The bank said it “strongly...

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Chidambaram to meet public sector bank chiefs on August 18

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram will meet public sector banks and financial institutions chiefs on August 18 in the Capital. This will be his first meeting with PSU bank chiefs after assuming charge as Finance Minister on August 1. This meeting is significant as it comes in the backdrop of the banking industry facing a crisis-like situation on several fronts, including rising bad loans and human resource problems. There is also the threat of drought in several parts of the country, adversely impacting bank balance-sheets in the second quarter. Chidambaram...

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Muthoot Finance to raise Rs 500 cr via NCDs

Muthoot Finance Ltd intends to raise Rs 500 crore by way of an issue of non-convertible debentures.The company will issue NCDs to raise Rs 250 crore, but will accept up to Rs 500 crore if the issue is over-subscribed, Managing Director George Alexander Muthoot told Business Line on Saturday.The interest rates will be decided closer to the date of the issue.“We are seeing some softening of interest rates,” he said, but stressed that the company would not wait for further softening of rates.If the rates come down further, there could be another...

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Dhanlaxmi Bank posts Rs 12-cr net loss

Dhanlaxmi Bank reported a net loss of Rs 11.81 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2012.However, the bank had posted a profit of Rs 3.4 crore in the same quarter last year.Total income during the quarter stood at Rs 365.08 crore, down from Rs 370.50 crore in the year-ago period, the bank said in a filing to the BSE.Shares of the bank were trading at Rs 52.25 apiece on the BSE, up 0.67 per cent from their previous close....

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IRDA to finalise whistleblower policy soon: Hari Narayan

In light of the recent ICICI Lombard controversy, the insurance regulator said that it will soon finalise the whistleblower norms akin to what the Reserve Bank of India has.J. Hari Narayan, Chairman, Insurance Regulatory Development Authority, said that it will come out with the new exposure draft for investments for insurance companies in a couple of days. This was one of the key demands of some insurance companies.The draft will contain guidelines for option on buying swaps and hedging operations. IPO norms in a week The regulator also...

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Corporation Bank presents Rs 177.7 cr dividend warrant to Centre

Corporation Bank has presented a dividend warrant of Rs 177.71 crore to the Centre. A bank release said here on Monday that Ajai Kumar, CMD of Corporation Bank, presented a dividend warrant of Rs 177.71 crore to P. Chidambaram, Finance Minister, in the presence of Namo Narain Meena, Minister of State for Finance, and D. K. Mittal, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, in New Delhi on Monday. The amount pertains to the dividend declared by the bank for 2011-12, it said....

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SBT to recruit 2,500 for clerical posts

State Bank of Travancore (SBT) has invited applications for 2,500 vacancies in the clerical cadre at its branches all over the country.This is the largest ever recruiting drive by this State Bank of India-associate, an official spokesman said.He reminisced the heavy recruitment drive during the mid-seventies when thousands joined the bank.Their retirements are expected to happen over the next couple of years. “Bunching up” of these retirements is what has principally triggered the need for an encore now. Also, a number of existing employees...

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Muthoot Finance to recruit 2,000 people this year

Muthoot Finance will recruit about 2,000 people this year, Managing Director George Alexander Muthoot told Business Line .The current year marks the beginning of a “consolidation phase”, when the company will slow down branch expansion. It will open not more than 250 new branches this year compared with 1,000 in each of the last two years.He said the company prefers to recruit graduates from the same area.Muthoot Finance is a non-banking finance company that specialises in giving loans against pledged gold. Today, it manages gold loan assets...

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Andhra Bank Q1 net down 6% as credit offtake slows

Muted credit off-take and higher provisioning towards non-performing assets dragged down Andhra Bank’s net profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, by about six per cent.The bank reported a net profit of Rs 361.83 crore during the quarter, as against Rs 385.71 crore in the year-ago period. Its total income was Rs 3,357.22 crore, up from Rs 2,851.18 crore.The bank’s Chairman and Managing Director B.A. Prabhakar said credit offtake, especially corporate loans, has been tardy during the quarter. He expected credit growth to touch 17-18 per...

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UCO Bank to raise funds under MTN after India rating improves

State-owned UCO Bank is waiting for an improvement in the country’s credit rating outlook before it hits the market with a $500 million foreign currency debt issue for fuelling its overseas business.“We will raise not less than $500 million through Medium-Term Notes issue. But, we are waiting for the country rating to improve,” UCO Bank Executive Director S Chandrasekhran told PTI here.The rating of not just the bank, but the country rating impacted the coupon rate and it could go for the issue in the later part of the year with the hope that...

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Bangalore-based public sector lender Vijaya Bank has said it is hopeful of raising its credit growth to 18-20 per cent in the current financial year.“We have posted 16 per cent growth in credit offtake in the first quarter. But as third and fourth quarter witness more credit expansion, we are hopeful of clocking 18-20 per cent growth for the whole fiscal,” the bank’s Executive Director Shubhalakshmi Panse told PTI.However, she said, concerns regarding patchy monsoon and the overall gloomy economic environment may have adverse impact on credit...

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IOB likely to cut lending rates

Indian Overseas Bank is likely to cut interest rates on housing, vehicle and other retail loans after the RBI pared down SLR rate by one percentage point in its latest quarterly monetary policy review.SLR or statutory liquidity ratio is the proportion of deposits that banks have to maintain in the form of investments in cash, gold or government paper. A cut in SLR rates injects fresh liquidity into the banking system.“IOB will get an additional liquidity of Rs 1,800 crore after the SLR cut. This has given us room to cut lending rates in the...

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UCO Bank net up 24% at Rs 362 cr

Riding on the back of a growth in core operations, UCO Bank posted 24 per cent rise in net profit during the first quarter of this fiscal. Net interest income grew by 29 per cent to Rs 1,044 crore for the quarter ended June 30 compared with Rs 808 crore in the same period last year. Other income, however, dipped by 15 per cent during the quarter. According to Arun Kaul, Chairman and Managing Director, the bank had registered a high profit from treasury trading during the first quarter of 2011-12. “This year our treasury trading profit was...

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Mobile Banking Security Lab launched

The Reserve Bank of India Governor, D. Subba Rao, on Friday inaugurated a mobile banking security lab set up by the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology.The institute, established by the RBI, supports the Indian banking industry through innovative technology initiatives and interventions.The security lab will explore solutions to the emerging challenges in mobile banking and security through research and development. Apart from providing guidance to banks in this regard, it will train participants from banks and financial...

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