Union Bank opens fourth office in Kerala

Union Bank of India on Wednesday opened its fourth regional office in Kerala. The other three are at Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode.The office will be the 58th regional office at Kottayam, Kerala.It will cater to the branches in three districts namely Idukki, Kottayam and Pathanamthitta. The public sector bank has 46 branches spread over in these 3 districts, while a total of 221 branches in the State....

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Corporation Bank enables transaction-based banking on tablet PCs

Corporation Bank has enabled transactions through tablet PCs and iPads, according to Ajai Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director of the bank.Delivering the T.A. Pai Endowment Lecture on the theme ‘Digital Banking’ at Mangalore University here on Thursday, he said that Corporation Bank is the first public sector bank to introduce transaction-based banking in tablet PCs and iPads.He said that the prospect of mobile banking is all set to get better in the foreseeable future with the advent of smart phones and tablet PCs. Modern smart phones are...

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United Bank gets board nod to raise Rs 750 crore

United Bank of India plans to raise Rs 750 crore through a mixture of debt and equity instruments in this fiscal.Of the total, Rs 500 crore will be raised through private placement of debt instruments, within a month. This will be followed by a rights issue of Rs 250 crore later this year.According to Chairman and Managing Director Bhaskar Sen, the Board of Directors of the bank approved its capital-raising plans at a meeting on Wednesday.The fund infusion will boost its capital-adequacy ratio and fund its growth needs. The bank aims 17 per...

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Banks must tell reason for rejecting education loan

Banks have been asked to assign reasons for rejecting any educational loan applications, Parliament was informed today.“Banks have been advised that rejection of education loan applications has to be with the approval of controlling authority of the branch concerned and the reason for rejection should be communicated to the applicants in writing,” Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told Rajya Sabha in a written reply.“Indian Banks’ Association has advised the banks to give wide publicity to their grievance redressal mechanism on education loans...

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Canara Bank observes Founder’s Day

Canara Bank should play a lead role in furtherance of the financial inclusion movement in the country, said Union Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena.Speaking at the bank’s Founder’s Day function here, Meena said, “There is still persisting problem of inadequate outreach of institutional credit to the rural poor and the bank should work towards it.”Union Minister of State for MSMEs K.H. Muniyappa said on the occasion that banks need to make inclusive growth a reality.Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka R. Ashoka highlighted...

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Subir Gokarn gets extension till Dec 31

The government today extended the term of Reserve Bank Deputy Governor, Subir Gokarn till December 31, 2012.His term was due to end on November 24. He was appointed in November 2009 for a period of three years.Subir Gokarn got extension up to December 31 this year, the Financial Services Secretary, D K Mittal said here.Deputy Governors can be appointed for a maximum of five years or till the age of 62, whichever is earlier.Gokarn looks after key portfolios including monetary policy and economic analysis and policy departments at RBI....

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LIC allowed to buy up to 30% equity in a company

Hard pressed to meet the Rs 30,000 crore disinvestment target, the Finance Ministry on Wednesday permitted the state-owned Life Insurance Corporation to invest up to 30 per cent in a company as against the earlier ceiling of 10 per cent.“LIC can invest up to 30 per cent of a company’s paid-up capital. Earlier it could invest up to 10 per cent,” Financial Services Secretary D K Mittal told reporters here.The notification relaxing investment norms for LIC has been issued, he added. The new norms will enable the cash-rich LIC, which invests around...

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Nagpur: Bank clerk accused of Rs 96 lakh fraud

The city police has registered a case against a clerk with Bank of Maharashtra for a fraud to the tune of Rs 96,43,599.Dewanand Nichwani, who works with BOM’s Jaripatka branch, is accused of diverting cheques. Police said between November 2007 and May 2008, he deposited 48 cheques handed in by the bank customers in 13 accounts, most of them belonging to his relatives or friends, instead of depositing them in the customers’ accounts.No arrest has been made yet...

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Sudha Krishnan appointed nominee director on Canara Bank

The government has nominated Sudha Krishnan, who is joint secretary in the expenditure department, as its nominee director on the board of Canara Bank.“...the central government, nominated Sudha Krishnan, Joint Secretary, Department of Expenditure, as government nominee director on the board of directors of Canara Bank with immediate effect and until further orders,” Canara Bank said in a filing to the BSE.Krishnan would replace Thomas Mathew of the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, it added...

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Banks can open administrative office in large cities sans RBI permission

Banks need not seek permission of the Reserve Bank to open administrative offices in large cities (Tier-I), the central bank said today.“With a view to further increasing operational flexibility of banks, it has been decided to permit domestic scheduled commercial banks (other than RRBs) to open offices exclusively performing administrative and controlling functions in Tier-I centres without the need to obtain prior permission,” it said in notification today.Currently, banks (excluding RRBs) are permitted to open branches in Tier-II to Tier-VI...

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IDBI Bank opens 1,000th branch at Kannangudi

Union Minister of Finance P. Chidambaram inaugurated the 1,000th branch of IDBI Bank in Kannangudi, in Sivaganga district on Sunday. On the occasion, the bank announced the launch of an attractively priced education loan scheme, encompassing both non-vocational and vocational courses designed largely in line with the model education scheme circulated by Indian Bank Association. Speaking at the inaugural, Chidambaram said that he was happy that the bank has transformed itself into a full-service commercial bank and is actively focusing on expanding...

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ICICI Bank launches money transfer service in Germany

ICICI Bank UK today launched money transfer service for Indians living in Germany.‘Insta Netexpress’ will be offered through its online platform with an assured exchange rate and faster transfer time for users who wish to send money to India.Money2India.eu is a web-based online money transfer tracking platform which facilitates tracking of money transfers from 17 Euro zone countries to beneficiaries in India, the bank said in a statement.This service will offer competitive exchange rates, no processing fee or service charges, faster transfer...

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Oriental Bank bond issue to open tomorrow

Oriental Bank of Commerce’s issue of subordinated lower Tier II bonds of Rs 10 lakh each for cash at par aggregating Rs 1,000 crore is slated to open on November 21 and will close on November 27.The public sector bank has an option to retain oversubscription of up to Rs 200 crore. In a notice to the BSE, the bank said the bonds, which have a 10-year tenure, have been rated ‘AA+’ by credit rating agencies ICRA and CARE and bear coupon rate of 8.93 per cent....

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HDFC Bank launches mobile banking in Hindi

Targeting 560-million Hindi-speaking population, the second largest private sector lender HDFC Bank on Tuesday launched a mobile banking application in the national language.Mobile banking services is part of the bank’s overall strategy to use convergent communication platform to engage with customers, Senior Executive Vice-President for Direct Banking Channels and Premier Banking Birendra Sahu said here.Today 82 per cent of all customer-initiated transactions happen on electronic channels, he said, adding therefore the bank has launched mobile...

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Karnataka Bank raises Rs 250 cr through tier-2 bonds

Karnataka Bank Ltd has raised Rs 250 crore through the issue of 10-year lower tier-2 bonds.The bank informed BSE on Monday that it has raised Rs 250 crore by issue of non-convertible subordinated debt instruments in the nature of debentures (lower tier-2 bonds) on private placement basis. The issue of bonds with a tenor of 10 years opened for subscription on October 22 and closed on November 12.It said the Rs 125-crore issue, with a right to retain oversubscription to the extent of Rs 125 crore, received a huge response from investors. It resulted...

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Don't give loan for buying gold, RBI tells banks

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today directed banks not to give loans for purchase of gold in any form, including primary gold, bullion and jewellery, to dissuade people from indulging in speculative activity.“...it is advised that no advances should be granted by banks for purchase of gold in any form, including primary gold, gold bullion, gold jewellery, gold coins, units of gold Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) and units of gold mutual funds,” the RBI said in a notification.No advances should be granted by banks against gold bullion to dealers...

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Sebi relaxes MF exposure limit for HFCs

Providing more leeway for housing finance companies (HFCs), market regulator Sebi today relaxed the investment limit for such entities in debt mutual funds.The decision to relax the investment limit for housing finance companies (HFCs) was taken by Sebi at its board meeting held in October.“In light of the important role played by the Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) in the housing sector, it has been decided that an additional exposure not exceeding 10 per cent of net assets of the scheme shall be allowed only to HFCs as part of financial...

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IOB plans perpetual bond issue

Indian Overseas Bank is mulling to raise funds through a perpetual bond sale and will soon seek approval from its board for the same, a top bank official said.“We are planning to raise some funds through perpetual bond issuance and had already got the approval from our Alco (asset-liability committee). We will soon seek board approval for this,” Chief Financial Officer T S Srinivasan told PTI over the weekend.He, however, didn’t divulge how much the bank is planning to raise. Perpetual bonds are quasi-equity in nature and are considered as...

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Home, auto loan rates may drop as competition hots up

Home and auto loan seekers might soon be able to borrow at relatively lower rates of interest.The rising competition amongst public sector banks to shore up their retail portfolio is likely to drive down interest rates on such advances.Hit hard by slowdown in credit demand from the corporate segment and the rise in stressed assets (from the sector), banks are looking to boost their retail portfolio, which includes home, auto, personal and education loans.According to Saday Sinha, Vice-President, Equity Research, Kotak Securities, banks will...

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