Postal Life Insurance setting up full-fledged investment division

Postal Life Insurance, the oldest life insurer in the country, is in the process of setting up a full-fledged investment division for generating optimal returns, according to the Department of Posts.This move is aimed at ensuring compliance with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority’s (IRDA) regulations which disallow outsourcing of the investment function by an insurance company.The Postal Life Insurance and Rural Postal Life Insurance corpus is currently being managed by SBI Funds Management Pvt Ltd and UTI Asset Management Company.The...

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‘Talking’ ATM machines for visually impaired in UK

New cash machines that can ‘talk’ to customers who have difficulty reading screens have been introduced in the UK.More than three quarters of Barclays cash machines across England and Wales have had audio technology installed so they can ‘talk’ to customers, the bank said.Blind and partially sighted people can listen to speech output on more than 3,000 of the ATMs by plugging in their earphones to listen to the options being read out, The Telegraph reported.Barclays said it is the first major high street bank to provide the facility on such...

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ICICI Bank offers cash-back for home loans

India's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank launched a new home loan product for new customers with ‘cashback’ offer on each loan instalment.Available with immediate effect, this product offers customers 1 per cent cash-back on every equated monthly instalment (EMI) for the entire loan tenure. As a part of this offer, customers will be provided the option of renewable fixed interest rates for the entire tenure, the bank said in a statement.The cashback will start accruing from the first EMI month onwards and will get credited into the...

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Postal Life Insurance setting up full-fledged investment division

Postal Life Insurance, the oldest life insurer in the country, is in the process of setting up a full-fledged investment division for generating optimal returns, according to the Department of Posts.This move is aimed at ensuring compliance with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority’s (IRDA) regulations which disallow outsourcing of the investment function by an insurance company.The Postal Life Insurance and Rural Postal Life Insurance corpus is currently being managed by SBI Funds Management Pvt Ltd and UTI Asset Management Company.The...

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Union Bank Q2 net rises 57% on better loan recovery

Union Bank of India reported a 57 per cent jump in net profit for the second quarter ended September 30, 2012, at Rs 554 crore due to lower provisioning.The public sector bank had posted a net profit of Rs 353 crore in the year-ago quarter. Provisioning during the quarter decreased by 22 per cent to Rs 487 crore from Rs 623 crore in the same quarter last year.Net interest income (the difference between interest earned and expended) increased by 11 per cent to Rs 1,850 crore as against Rs 1,661 crore in Q2FY12. Non-interest income rose to Rs...

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9 more PNB branches in Kerala

The Chairman and Managing Director of Punjab National Bank K R Kamath will inaugurate nine new branches and nine ATMs in Kerala on Friday.With this, the total outlets of the bank in Kerala will reach 309. The new branches are located at Maradu and Piravom in Ernakulam district, Aroor (Alappuzha), Kothanelloor, and Earattupetta (Kottayam), Varkala and Vizhinjam and Attingal (Thiruvananthapuram) and Wadakkanchery in Thrissur.K.V. Rajesh, deputy general manager and circle head of the bank said in a statement that the new branches are provided...

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ICICI Bank opens second branch in Hong Kong

India’s largest private sector lender ICICI Bank launched its first high street branch in Hong Kong.This is the bank's second branch in Hong Kong. The new retail branch will supplement the bank's seven-year-old presence here, the bank said in a statement.In July 2012, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority had approved the commencement of this branch.It will provide Hong Kong residents and Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) comprehensive access to the bank through products and services like term deposits, current accounts, remittance services and NRI services,...

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SBT net up 16% in Q2 on robust interest income

Kerala-based State Bank of Travancore (SBT) posted a 16 per cent rise in second-quarter net profit at Rs 135.63 crore (Rs 116.95 crore, a year ago) helped by an increase in net interest income.Net interest income (the difference between interest earned on loans and interest expended on deposits) grew 20 per cent to Rs 503 crore against Rs 413 crore a year ago.Net interest margin stood at 2.50 per cent in September 2012 against 2.63 per cent a year earlier and 2.48 per cent in June 2012.Total income grew 24 per cent to Rs 2,204 crore.The bank...

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MasterCard, Thomas Cook tie up for prepaid travel card

Thomas Cook (India), an integrated travel and travel-related financial services company, today launched its prepaid foreign exchange travel card in collaboration with MasterCard Worldwide.The ‘borderless prepaid card’ enables travellers with the option of loading eight currencies on a single card - US Dollars, British Pounds, Euro, Australian Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Swiss Francs, Singapore Dollars and Japanese Yen.It is a multi-currency card with a validity of five years, within which the cardholder can get the visiting country’s currency...

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KVB sustains growth momentum in tough quarter

The private sector Karur Vysya Bank (KVB) has registered growth in deposits and advances in a difficult market environment during the second quarter of the current fiscal.While its gross NPA ratio declined in Q2 of this year compared with the corresponding quarter last year, the net NPA edged up marginally.According to K. Venkataraman, MD and CEO, the second quarter income during 2012-13 FY had gone up by 32.70 per cent to Rs 1,123.64 crore as against Rs 846.76 crore in the same period last year. The net profit also witnessed a sizable increase...

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IDBI Bank slashes interest rates home loan, cuts deposit rates too

IDBI Bank on Wednesday slashed interest on home loans by 0.25% and the deposit rates in select brackets by up to 0.50%. Home loans of up to Rs 75 lakh will be available at par with its base rate at 10.50% while those above Rs 75 lakh will have 0.25% more in interest over the base rate, the bank said in a statement. A slew of lenders, led by State Bank of India have cut home loan rates as the bankers shift their focus on the retail segment following a slowdown in the corporate segment. The lender also cut its deposit rate by up to...

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Higher provisions drags IDBI Bank Q2 net down 6.3%

Higher provisioning, increase in non-performing assets (NPAs) and slower credit growth tempered the net profit for IDBI Bank by 6 per cent in the July-September quarter at Rs 484 crore.The public sector bank had posted a net profit of Rs 516 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.Provisioning during the quarter increased by 59 per cent to Rs 495 crore against Rs 312 crore in the corresponding period last year.Net interest income (the difference between interest earned and expended) grew 11 per cent to Rs 1,249 crore (from Rs 1,122 crore)....

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HDFC Bank hires three vertical heads

HDFC Bank today appointed heads for infrastructure finance, financial services, healthcare and pharmaceutical verticals.Former civil servant Ajay Gupta will head the infrastructure finance, while Askhay Dixit will be driving financial services and Abhishek Sharma will look after healthcare and pharma, the bank said in a statement.“The appointments have been made keeping in mind the larger objective of growing our investment banking business,” Rakesh Singh, Head (Investment Banking), HDFC Bank said.According to a recent report, the appointments...

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Karnataka Bank chief calls for alternate delivery channels

Karnataka Bank Managing Director has asked the regional heads to market alternate deliver channels.Presiding over the review conference of regional heads of the bank here on Wednesday, he said the bank has an array of technology-based products. These products will attract the new group of customers and enhance the convenience to the customers.These channels should be marketed aggressively through branches to enhance customer service, convenience and comfort. These channels will enable the bank to increase the clientele base and improve CASA...

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Corporation Bank eyes Rs 20,000 cr loans to SMEs

Corporation Bank is looking to reach Rs 20,000 crore loans to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by March 2013.Recently, the public sector bank launched a credit scheme that charges 11.10 per cent (from 11.60 per cent) on loans up to Rs 1 crore to the SME sector. This is to encourage SME lending and fulfil the 40 per cent priority sector lending target.“SMEs are covered under priority sector lending and direct lending, and this scheme will help us increase our effort to achieve the target mandated by the Reserve Bank of India. In addition,...

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PNB to roll out self-service counters in 500 branches this fiscal

Nearly 500 branches of Punjab National Bank (PNB) will be known as ‘PNB Pragati’ branches by the end of the fiscal.Speaking to newspersons on the sidelines of the inauguration of a self-service counter of a ‘PNB Pragati’ branch of the bank here on Wednesday, K.R. Kamath, Chairman and Managing Director, said that the bank has taken up a transformation exercise with its stakeholders.The aim is to infuse fresh energy and initiatives for business excellence.The introduction of self-service counters is an effort to empower customers.He explained...

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Insurance premium collection down 4.2%

The total premium collections of the life insurance industry in the country have gone down by 4.2 per cent in the first six months of the current fiscal to Rs 46,963 crore.The premium collected during the April-September period of last fiscal was Rs 49,046 crore, according to the statistics supplied by the industry regulator— Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA).The total premium collections of Public sector insurer LIC has gone down by 3.75 per cent to Rs 35,342 crore in the first half from Rs 36,721 crore for the corresponding...

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IDBI Bank approves merger of Stock Holding Corpn

The board of IDBI Bank has given itsapproval to the merger of Stock Holding Corporation of India with the bank.“Valuation is yet to be done,” said a senior official of SHCIL. “Further, approval from the Bombay High Court is also required,” he added.“IDBI shares will be issued to SHCIL shareholders in an all-stock deal after the valuation is worked out by our merchant bankers.“They will also work out the scheme of amalgamation in the next few days. We expect approvals from the RBI, SEBI, court and the Government to be finalised in the next 4-6...

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LIC Housing Q2 net zooms as provisioning drops steeply

LIC Housing Finance posted a more than two-fold increase in second quarter net profit at Rs 243.05 crore against Rs 98.39 crore last year.The company earned higher interest income on housing loans and made lower provisions in the quarter.The Mumbai-based lender earned an interest income of Rs 1,808 crore, which is 24 per cent more than that of the year-ago period.Total provisions dropped to about Rs 7 crore from Rs 204.69 crore a year earlier. This is primarily because of an absence of a one-time provision that it made in the last fiscal to...

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Banks can't lend to jewellers for purchase of gold: RBI

After putting curbs on non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) lending against gold, the Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday banned banks from lending for purchase of gold by jewellers."No advances should be granted by banks against gold bullion to dealers or traders in gold if, in their assessment, such advances are likely to be utilised for purposes of financing gold purchase at auctions or speculative holding of stocks and bullion," the RBI said in its half-year review of the monetary policy. The RBI has been concerned over banks' exposure to...

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SBI hints at reducing lending rates soon

Within hours of RBI slashing the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) by 0.25 per cent, State Bank of India (SBI) today hinted at a likely reduction in lending rates soon.“Our bank, it’s for ALCO to take a view. But we would prefer a more secular rate cut with the adjustment in the base rate because we have almost (done) rebalancing of the portfolio... but it is for ALCO to take a final view,” SBI Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri said at the press meet after RBI unveiled half-yearly review of credit policy.“I think our ALCO (asset liability committee) would meet...

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StanChart operating profit grows by mid single digit

Standard Chartered Plc today said the group’s operating profit has grown at a mid single digit rate in the first nine months of this year driven by good momentum across its businesses and geographies.However, the company did not provide details.According to its Interim Management Statement, the year to date income grew at “a mid single digit rate”, maintaining the trajectory seen in the first half of 2012 driven by the strength of the dollar against Asian currencies.“Standard Chartered has continued to perform strongly in the third quarter...

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Muthoot Finance raises Rs 286 cr from NCD issue

Gold loan company Muthoot Finance has raised Rs 286 crore from its just concluded non-convertible debenture (NCD) issue, a top company official has said.The company had tapped the market in September with a Rs 250-crore NCD issue with an option to retain oversubscription of up to Rs 250 crore.Of the Rs 286-crore mobilised, as much as Rs 146 crore came from institutional investors and Rs 140 crore from retail investors, Oommen Mammen, Chief Financial Officer, told Business Line.This is the first NCD issue for the company this fiscal and the...

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RBI maintains status quo on policy rates; cuts CRR by 0.25%

The RBI maintained status quo and left its key repo rates unchanged. The repo rate remains at 8 per cent, at the same level that it has been for the past six months. This was in line with the hint thrown in its review of macroeconomic and monetary developments released yesterday evening, that it may cut policy rates 'down the line'. In doing so, the RBI chose to not oblige the Government expectations that it would cut rates in response to policy measures unveiled over the past month as well as the 5-year fiscal consolidation plan released...

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Smart ATMs to count cash, read cheques and credit in real time

New smart ATMs that can count your cash, read the cheques and credit it to your account immediately at any hour are on the way.“We’ve already rolled out 40 ATMs that can do that and we’ll have 150 of that type out by the end of this financial year,” the Commonwealth Bank’s executive general manager of retail products, Michael Cant, said.“You deposit your cash or a cheque into an ATM that’s smart enough to count the cash, read the cheque ... and credit that immediately to your account,” Cant said.Australian Bank ANZ is also set to introduce...

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SKS Micro pares net loss in Q2 to Rs 262 cr

SKS Microfinance reported a net loss of Rs 262.15 crore for the quarter ended September 30, as against a net loss of Rs 384.54 crore in the year-ago period.Total income from operations was Rs 77.56 crore, as against Rs 121.83 crore in the second quarter of last fiscal.India’s only listed microfinance firm said its loan disbursement in non-Andhra Pradesh States rose 25 per cent to touch Rs 690 crore during the quarter. Andhra Pradesh’s microfinance sector has been facing a crisis since October 2010.Its core interest income in non-Andhra Pradesh...

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RBI cautions on fake notes, SMS

The Officials of Reserve Bank of India have advised people to be vigilant about fake notes and fake SMSes. Talking to a gathering on financial literacy aspects, they explained the features of genuine currency notes.A.S. Rao, Regional Director, RBI, in his remarks at an RBI’s urban financial inclusion-cum-outreach programme recently said the apex bank was making efforts to inform the general public about financial literacy aspects through these efforts.Syndicate Bank, which organised the event, mopped up 2,000 new savings bank accounts as part...

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IOB recasting lending strategy to tackle bad loans

Faced with rising bad loans, Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) is changing its lending strategy.The public sector bank will place more thrust on loans to the retail, small and medium enterprises and agriculture segments even as it goes slow on corporate loans, said a top official.The bank, which added bad loans aggregating of Rs 1,854 crore in the July-September quarter, has revised its credit growth target for this fiscal from 20-22 per cent projected earlier to 16-18 per cent.Narendra said the economic slowdown could see overall accretion of Rs...

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Bank of Baroda plans to expand branch network in Karnataka

Bank of Baroda, which has 80 branches in Karnataka, will open another 20 by March-end, according to an executive. M. D. Mallya, Chairman and Managing Director of the bank, said with the opening of the new branches, the total number will cross 100 in Karnataka.Added to this, the bank has 33 onsite ATMs and 19 offsite ATMs in the State. Financial inclusion In its financial inclusion efforts, the bank has engaged 13 business correspondents in the villages allocated to it in Karnataka.He said the bank sees Karnataka as a potential industrial...

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Bank of India net falls 38.5%

Bank of India has reported a 38.53 per cent drop in its second quarter net profit at Rs 301.85 crore against Rs 491.11 crore in the year-ago period.Total income of the public sector bank increased 15 per cent to Rs 8,899.55 crore (Rs 7,728.16 crore).Shares of the bank were trading at Rs 276.10 per share at 2.45 pm on the BSE, down 3.78 per cent from the previous close...

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RBI must not dither over issuing new bank licences

In the history of Indian banking, possibly no other developments have had as much fundamental and revolutionary impact as the overnight nationalisation of banks in 1969. And, then, some 25 years later, pursuant to the Narasimham Committee recommendations, the RBI giving out licences to set up new commercial banks in the private sector.At their respective times, both these momentous steps, had phenomenal positive impact and rewrote the rules of the game for Indian banking. The structure and the system that we have today is, unarguably, the result...

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Muthoot Finance net rises 25% in Q2

Muthoot Finance Ltd’s net profit rose 25 per cent to Rs 268 crore in the second quarter of this fiscal from Rs 215 crore in the corresponding period last year.The retail loan assets under management increased by Rs 405 crore to Rs 23,743 crore in the quarter.For the half year ended September 30, the net profit rose 27 per cent to Rs 514 crore from Rs 406 crore in the year-ago period.The total income in H1 FY13 stood at Rs 2,610 crore (Rs 2,024 crore in H1 FY12), a growth of 29 per cent. Public shareholding The board at a meeting on Monday...

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HDFC Life to launch immediate annuity plan in Dec

HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Ltd (HDFC Life) will launch an immediate annuity plan in December, a top company official has said.HDFC Life has got insurance regulator IRDA’s approval for this product — HDFC New Immediate Annuity Plan — last week, said Sanjay Tripathy, Executive Vice-President, Marketing & Direct Channels.He said that the new product will offer 11 annuity options for single and joint lives.“Annuities are an established category in international market. We feel there is a lot of potential for growth in this category...

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Religare plans to launch travel insurance product

Religare Health Insurance, a standalone health insurer, plans to launch travel insurance product before the close of the current fiscal, Anuj Gulati, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, has said.“We do have plans to launch a travel insurance product for outbound overseas travel. We will approach it in a phased manner and do it before the fiscal year ends,’’ Gulati said.Religare Health Insurance is a recent entrant to the health insurance market and formally started its commercial operations last fortnight. Health insurance is the...

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Central Bank banks on property expos to boost home loans biz

In a bid to grow its home loan portfolio, Central Bank of India plans to bring residential project developers and prospective home buyers under one roof by organising property expositions across the country.The public sector bank plans to ramp up its home loan portfolio from Rs 6,800 crore as on September 30 to Rs 10,000 crore by March 31 next year.Pointing out that the size of the bank’s home loan portfolio was not commensurate with its network of 4,100 branches, Chairman and Managing Director M.V. Tanksale said the idea behind the property...

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Sundaram BNP Paribas Home net jumps 60%

Sundaram BNP Paribas Home Finance’s net profit jumped 60 per cent in the second quarter of the current financial year compared with the corresponding quarter in the previous year.For the quarter ended September 30, it reported a net profit of Rs 34 crore (Rs 21 crore) on disbursements of Rs 682 crore (Rs 454 crore). Assets under management stand at Rs 5,070 crore (Rs 3,493 crore).Rapid increase in market reach, stable real estate sentiments in the South and “close to customer” strategy contributed to the growth, said Srinivas Acharya, Managing...

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Corp Bank aims to sanction Rs 7,000 cr loans in festive season

Seeking to aggressively expand business in the retail segment, Corporation Bank today said it aims at providing Rs 7,000 crore loan in the ongoing festive season.“The bank aims for total disbursement of Rs 7,000 crore pan-India, including Rs 1,000 crore in Delhi and NCR region, this festive season,” S M Swathi, General Manager (Delhi Circle), Corporation Bank said.She also said the bank expects to achieve 40-48 per cent growth in retail portfolio, including home and car loans during the year.“We have already achieved 24 per cent of growth in...

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