Kotak Bank says seeing fall in home loan book growth

Private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank is witnessing a sizable reduction in its home loan book growth in the current fiscal at 10-15% levels on poor consumer sentiment, a senior official has said."For the past two years, our home loan book has been growing at 30-40%, but this year it has grown by only 10-15%," executive vice-president and head of retail assets Sumit Bali told PTI.He said the poor market sentiment is the prime reason for the slowdown in home loan growth and the same trend is being witnessed by the realty sector as well where...

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PSU banks raise over Rs 15,000 cr through QIPs

State-run lenders including SBI and IDBI Bank have lined up more than Rs 15,000 crore worth of share-sales to institutional investors to shore-up their capital base.Apart from State Bank of India and IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Dena Bank and Allahabad Bank has also evinced interest in raising funds through qualified institutional placement (QIP). Some more public sector banks are in the process of taking approvals from their boards for QIPs.These banks are collectively planning to rake in over Rs 15,000 crore through the proposed share-sale...

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Pradeep Kumar takes charge as MD Corporate Banking, SBI

State Bank of India has appointed P Pradeep Kumar as its Managing Director (Corporate Banking).Kumar, as one of the four managing directors, will look after the corporate banking portfolio of the bank.“ ...with effect from December 27, as per notification of government of India, P Pradeep Kumar will be the Managing Director & Group Executive (Corporate Banking) of State Bank of India (SBI),” the bank today said in a statement.Kumar, a post graduate in statistics, joined SBI in 1976 as a probationary officer and held several key assignments...

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Banks' loans up 14.9 per cent y/y in two weeks to December 13: RBI Read more at: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/28012658.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst Read more at: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/28012658.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Banks' loans rose 14.9 per cent from a year earlier in the two weeks to December 13, while deposits grew 17 per cent, the Reserve Bank of India's weekly statistical supplement showed on Friday.Outstanding loans rose 363 billion rupees to 57.01 trillion rupees in the two weeks to December 13.Non-food credit rose 329.6 billion rupees to 55.94 trillion rupees, while food credit rose 33.4 billion rupees to 1.08 trillion rupees.Bank deposits rose 462.9 billion rupees to 75.24 trillion rupees in the two weeks to December 13.Source: Economic Time...

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Canara Bank to expand overseas over next 2 years

Canara Bank is expanding its overseas presence and plans to add around 14 new branches in overseas locations over the next two years.It also wants to increase the share of overseas business from about six per cent currently to 15-20 per cent over the next two to three years. New branches The bank, which currently has five branches and three representative offices overseas, is opening a branch in Johannesburg in the next three months, followed by those in New York, Dubai and Frankfurt by September 2014.Another ten branches in Sao Paolo, Dar-es-Salaam,...

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Arun Tiwari is new CMD of Union Bank

Public sector lender Union Bank of India said Arun Tiwari assumed charge as its new Chairman & Managing Director.Tiwari, who has over 30 years of experience, started his banking career with Bank of Baroda and was an executive director at Allahabad Bank prior to his new job.An MSc in chemistry, Tiwari set up the operations of Bank of Baroda in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and played a key role in the bank’s Project Navnirman and Project Sparsh initiatives.As an executive director at Allahabad Bank, Tiwari was a member of audit, customer service,...

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Corp Bank to open 10 branches in North-East

Corporation Bank will open 10 branches in the Northeastern part of the country by March. Of this, four branches will be opened in Guwahati.S.R. Bansal, Chairman and Managing Director of the bank, said this while inaugurating a branch of the bank at Nalbari in Assam recently. Quoting Bansal, a bank statement said that the bank is also considering of opening its zonal office in Guwahati in the next year.He appealed to the people of Nalbari to support the branch.Vibhash Modi, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Nalbari, was the chief guest on the...

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No shortage of life insurance products from January 1: IRDA

There will be no shortage of life insurance products from January 1 when new norms come into effect, according to T. S. Vijayan, Chairman, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA).“Every life insurer has a minimum 10 to 15 products ready to be launched or already launched. We have cleared about 500 products so far,” Vijayan told newspersons on the sidelines of an interactive session organised by the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry here on Friday.Life insurers have been barred from hawking old products...

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Canara Bank to raise Rs 1,500 cr through bonds

Canara Bank said it plans to raise Rs 1,500 crore from bonds to augment its capital base.The bank has decided to raise additional capital of Rs 1,500 crore through the issue of Basel-III complaint Tier-II bonds, Canara Bank said in a filing to the BSE.This capital raising would be over and above Rs 500 crore that the Government has decided to infuse in the bank before March 2014.To take shareholders approval for issuance of preference shares to the government, the bank will hold an extraordinary general meeting on December 30.Capital infusion...

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Banks look to ‘ad’ to ATM security

Banks are looking at advertising of insurance, mutual fund, and bond products in ATMs to pay for making the booths secure.After the brutal attack on a woman inside an ATM in Bangalore last month, States, including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, have told banks to beef up the security infrastructure or face closure of booths.As at November-end 2013, there were about 1.40 lakh ATMs connected to the National Payments Corporation of India’s National Financial Switch. Banks have been asked to place surveillance cameras, both inside and...

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Allahabad Bank gets shareholders' nod for preferential issue, QIP

City-based nationalised Allahabad Bank has got the shareholders’ approval for a preferential issue of Rs 400 crore and a Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) of Rs 320 crore for shoring up the equity base of the lender.At an extra-ordinary general meeting of the bank held here yesterday, the shareholders approved the preferential issue of Rs 400 crore to government against capital infusion.The bank also sought nod of the shareholders to access the market for issue of equity shares through Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) aggregating...

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IRFC tax-free bond issue to open on Jan 6

Indian Railway Finance Corp will hit the market on January 6 to raise more than Rs 8,660 crore through tax-free bonds.The issue of tax-free and secured non-convertible bonds, worth around Rs 8,663 crore, will close on January 20, IRFC said in the prospectus filed with market regulator SEBI.“Public issue by Indian Railway Finance Corporation of tax-free, secured, redeemable, non-convertible bonds of face value of Rs 1,000 each in the nature of debentures having tax benefits...for an amount of Rs 1,50,000 lakh with an option to retain oversubscription...

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RBI red-flags use of Bitcoins

If virtual currencies such as bitcoins and litecoins have caught your fancy, beware. Here’s note of a caution from the Reserve Bank of India.The central bank has warned users, holders and traders of virtual currencies (VCs), including Bitcoins, about the potential financial, operational, legal, customer protection and security related risks they are exposing themselves to.In its advice, the RBI said it has been looking at the developments relating to “Decentralised Digital Currency” or VCs, such as Bitcoins, litecoins, bbqcoins, and dogecoins,...

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Paresh Sukthankar elevated as Deputy MD of HDFC Bank

Possibly preparing the ground for him to take on the mantle of leadership from the doughty Aditya Puri, HDFC Bank has elevated its current Executive Director, Paresh Sukthankar to the position of Deputy Managing Director.Sukthankar has been with the bank since its inception in 1994. He has direct or supervisory responsibilities for the bank’s credit and risk management, finance and human resources functions and for various strategic initiatives of the bank. Adity Puri has been the MD of India’s second largest private sector bank since 1994.Sukthankar’s...

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LIC Housing looking to raise $300 m from overseas market

LIC Housing Finance Company is awaiting the Reserve Bank of India’s nod to raise $300 million from overseas markets for lending to customers wanting to buy affordable houses.Sunita Sharma, Managing Director and CEO, LIC Housing Finance, said: “We applied to the RBI about two months back.”The housing finance arm of the state-run insurance major, Life Insurance Corporation of India, said it will raise the money through external commercial borrowing (ECB).Money borrowed from overseas is usually cheaper as the interest rates in countries such as...

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UBI to get Rs 700-cr capital infusion

The Centre will provide Rs 700 crore to the United Bank of India (UBI) as a part of its capital infusion programme for FY14. UBI on its part will allot 18 crore shares.The Centre’s capital infusion is expected to be to the tune of Rs 14,500 crore across all state-run banks.The capital infusion will help UBI pursue its growth strategies and comply with the Basel-III norms, Archana Bhargava, CMD of the bank, said in press releaseSource: thehindubusinesslin...

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Canara Bank rolls out ATM cards for joint account holders

Canara Bank has launched a payment product, whereby each joint accountholder will be issued an ATM-cum-debit card. The new service, launched by R.K. Dubey, Chairman and Managing Director, Canara Bank, is enabled for all accounts operated by two joint accountholders.While one accountholder is designated as ‘primary’, the other will be ‘secondary’.A transaction is initiated by the primary cardholder by inserting the card in the ATM and keying in the PIN. The transaction is authorised only after validation by the secondary cardholder, using the...

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Kotak Bank slashes home loan rates by 0.25%

Private sector lender Kotak Mahindra today followed State Bank of India and mortgage major HDFC by announcing a rate cut of up to 0.25 per cent on their housing loans for a limited period.Accordingly, new home loans under Rs 75 lakh will be available at 10.25 per cent per annum, down from the earlier 10.50 per cent, while ones above Rs 75 lakh will cost 10.75 per cent as against the earlier 10.90 per cent.The reduced interest rates will be applicable till January 31.“The rate cut is driven largely by the scenario in the market place, a reduction...

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M.S.Sahoo nominated to Oriental Bank of Commerce board

The Finance Ministry has nominated M.S.Sahoo as a part-time non-official director in Oriental Bank of Commerce.Sahoo, who is currently Secretary of the Company Secretaries Institute, will have a tenure of three years as a Board member of this public sector lender.A Fellow Member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, Sahoo has over three decades of work experience including the role of SEBI wholetime member from 2008-11.The Centre currently holds 58 per cent stake in OBC.srivats.kr@thehindu.co.in Source: thehindubusinesslin...

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Bank staff plan to strike work on Jan 20-21

Upset over the offer of a mere 5 per cent increase in salary and delay in wage settlement, employee unions of public sector banks have decided to strike work for two days next month.They have been demanding about 30 per cent increase in wages; in the last revision in 2007, the hike was around 17 per cent.“At a meeting with all nine major bank staff unions here today, we have decided to call for strike on January 20-21, 2014,” A. K. Ramesh Babu, President, Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI), told Business Line.Given the increasing per...

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HDFC Mutual to acquire all 8 schemes of Morgan Stanley

India’s largest mutual fund by assets, HDFC Mutual Fund, has decided to acquire all the eight schemes of Morgan Stanley Mutual Fund in India.However, HDFC Mutual Fund did not disclose the deal size.“We are pleased to announce the signing of a definitive agreement for HDFC Mutual Fund to acquire all the eight schemes of Morgan Stanley Mutual Fund in India,” HDFC Mutual said in a statement.The agreement is subject to regulatory approvals as required, it added.The average combined assets under management of the eight schemes for the quarter ended...

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New IRDA norms promise challenging year for life insurers

The new year promises to be a challenging one for life insurers. They will need to phase out various old products in keeping with new norms.From January 1, only products that conform to the new guidelines announced by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) in the first half of 2013 are allowed for sale.This means insurers need to re-file all their products for approval.“We have cleared over 500 products in line with the new design norms which are being introduced by the insurers in a progressive manner,” IRDA Chairman T.S....

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United Bank of India opens 50 branches in Assam

United Bank of India has recently inaugurated 50 branches in Assam. The branches were inaugurated by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.UBI was also looking to add six more branches in the region to take its branch tally there to 250, Archana Bhargava, the Bank’s Chairperson and Managing Director, was quoted as saying in a press release. Its current branch strength in Assam stands at 244.According to her, the bank would open one more regional office at Tezpur in addition to the five existing ones at Guwahati, Nagaon, Sibsagar, Dibrugarh and Cachar.abhishek.l@thehindu.co.in...

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ICICI bank cuts home loan rates to 10.25%

ICICI Bank, India’s largest private lender reduced interest on home loans by 15 basis points at 10.25 per cent.The bank has introduced a 'special scheme' that will offer home loans up to Rs 75 lakh at 10.25 per cent rate. The rates for home loans above Rs 75 lakh will be at 10.50 per cent, an ICICI official said confirming the news.For existing ICICI bank customers, interest rates remain at 10.40 per cent for upto Rs 75 lakh and 10.65 per cent for loan above Rs 75 lakh.The offer will be available till January 31, 2014 with immediate effect.The...

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Govt ups stake in Corporation Bank

The Central Government has increased its stake in Corporation Bank to 63.33 per cent.The bank informed BSE on Friday that the Securities Allotment Committee of the board of the bank at its meeting on December 20 has allotted 1,46,27,486 equity shares of Rs 10 each at a premium of Rs 297.64 a share to Government of India on a preferential basis.With this, the bank’s issued and subscribed capital has expanded to 16,75,41,877 equity shares, and Government’s holding in the lender moved up from 59.82 per cent to 63.33 per cent.The allotment was...

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Vijaya Bank bonds fully subscribed

Public sector lender Vijaya Bank’s Tier-II bond issue has been fully subscribed.The bank raised Rs 250 crore through private placement of bonds.The issue opened on December 17 and closed on December 20.Brickwork Rating had assigned a stable outlook (AA+) for the bank’s bond issue. Source: thehindubusinesslin...

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E-lounge at Canara Bank

The first Canara Bank Pune Circle’s e-lounge was recently inaugurated by V.S. Krishna Kumar, Executive Director of the Bank, at Deccan Gymkhana. This is among 50 e-lounges across India, and many more will be opened shortly, he said.Observing that the Bank provides advanced technological facilities for its clientele, Krishna Kumar requested the customers to make best use of the technology products including online opening of SB accounts.The security guarded e-lounge is provided with Cash Deposit machine, Cash withdrawal machine, Cheque deposit...

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NHB tax-free bonds issue to open on Dec 30

National Housing Bank’s tax free bonds issue will open on December 30, R.V. Verma, Chairman & Managing Director, has said.The issue size including greenshoe option will be Rs 2,100 crore, Verma told Business Line adding that the formal prospectus is likely to be filed with SEBI on Monday.The coupon rates that will be offered for these tax-free bonds will be decided soon, Verma added.NHB has already mobilised Rs 900 crore through private placement of tax free bonds this fiscal.The proposed issue will be the first public issue of tax-free...

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Canara Bank to open New York branch

Canara Bank has received licence to open a branch in New York. According to R. K. Dubey, Chairman and Managing Director, Canara Bank, the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve has approved the proposal of the bank to open a branch. The bank, he said, could get the approval of US regulators in a record 20 months from date of filing the application. The bank is taking steps to hasten the process of opening the branch in New York and commence operations, he added. Source: thehindubusinesslin...

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Bank strike hits financial transactions in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh

Financial transactions came to a halt in banks in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh as employees of public sector banks went on a day-long strike to press for various demands including wage revision.Much to the inconvenience of harried customers, protesting bank employees under the banner of United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) even locked some branches from outside here in UT Chandigarh and Punjab not to allow any banking transaction to take place.Due to strike, cheques worth several crore of rupees remained uncleared while transactions like cash...

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HDFC Bank seeks change in criteria for giving ranks in Punjab

Expressing displeasure over not being in Punjab government's top 10 banks list, private lender HDFC Bank sought tweaking in criteria for giving ranks to banks for alloting government business."The state (Punjab) government should bring competition among banks (for ranking purpose) which will help the state... we want those parameters which should encourage banks to focus on the state," HDFC Bank Branch Banking Head (North) Govind Pandey told reporters here.HDFC Bank, which has 400 branches in Punjab, will seek from state government consideraion...

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One-day strike criples banking operation

Banking operation was crippled on Wednesday as bank employees observed a one-day strike demanding early wage settlement and opposing banking sector reforms.The impact of the strike was more prominent in the eastern and southern sectors. ATMs remained closed in Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.The bank unions called the strike after rejecting Indian Banks' Association's offer of a 5% salary hike and they would chalk out future plans on December 23 in Hyderabad to intensify pressure on the managements' body. The wage revision for government...

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Oriental Bank welcomes policy announcement

Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) has hailed the RBI’s mid-quarter policy announcement on Wednesday, stating that keeping the policy rates unchanged was a “positive surprise’’.This public sector lender has no immediate plan to revise both the lending and deposit rates, S.L. Bansal, Chairman & Managing Director, OBC, told Business Line.“Our rates will be stable for sometime.’’Bansal pointed out that food and vegetable prices had nothing to do with monetary policy and it was from the perspective of core inflation (which is about 7 per cent)...

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RBI for removal of restrictions on gold import

Advocating removal of restriction on gold import as it encourages smuggling, Reserve Bank today said efforts should be made to maintain the present level of Current Account Deficit (CAD) without any significant curbs on inward shipments."I would be much happier if we had the kind of CAD we have without significant curbs on anything, including gold. We should aim to have a CAD without any distortions, removing the incentives for smuggling, that is what we will be working for,” he told a press conference here.CAD, which is the difference between...

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Kotak Bank rolls out financial inclusion plan for Amul workers

Mumbai-headquartered Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd on Tuesday rolled out a financial inclusion programme for 75 milk co-operatives of Amul in the Burdwan and Hooghly districts of West Bengal. The programme called ‘Kotak Samriddhi’, will help ensure farmers getting paid for their daily produce through direct transfer of money on the same day. At present, it takes three days for farmers to get paid for their produce.Amul is a brand owned by Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.“Approximately, 8,000 farmers supplying milk to Amul through...

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PSU banks themselves responsible for NPAs, not government: FM P Chidambaram

Blaming "tardy" state-run banks for high level of non-performing assets, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said banks' boards and not the government should be held responsible for the situation."If the bank boards cannot perform their duty, blame should stop with the bank boards and not with the government," he said at a panel discussion at an event to commemorate NSE's 20th anniversary here.He acknowledged that the government has a nominee director in every public sector bank, but pointed out the roles of the independent directors, full-time...

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LIC Housing Finance will meet bank licence norms: Sunita Sharma, MD & CEO

LIC Housing Finance's first woman MD & CEO, Sunita Sharma, is confident of the company meeting all of Reserve Bank of India's criteria for a bank licence. According to Sharma, the company is prepared to transfer various businesses under a holding company as required by RBI.If successful in its bid, LICHF will convert into a bank and come under a holding company which will also own LICHFL Care Homes and LIC Financial Services — a distribution company. Both of these are at present subsidiaries of LICHF."LICHF is a separate private company...

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IOB to open 400 more branches this fiscal

Indian Overseas Bank is opening branches in Bangkok and Dubai. The bank Chairman and Managing Director M. Narendra told reporters here on Friday that the bank was in an expansion mode and had set itself the target of opening 400 more branches during the current financial year. At present, the bank has 3,059 branches. Financial inclusion “Our focus is on opening more rural branches and taking banking to villages. We have covered 3,000 villages under the financial inclusion scheme. There is a lot to be done on that count. Till now all the banks...

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RBI on course to issue new bank licences, says Rajan

The Reserve Bank of India will start issuing new banking licences from early next year.RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said the apex bank is ‘primarily on course’ to hand over the licences. “We are largely in line with our target date, may be a few weeks this way or that way. We hope to start handing out the licences by early next year,” Rajan told reporters here.He, however, did not peg on the number of licences that would be handed out. The decision to issue licences would be taken by a committee. “That will be based on what the committee recommends...

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RBI offers borrowing under MSF on Saturday

In anticipation of liquidity tightening due to outflows on account of advance tax, the Reserve Bank of India has decided to extend borrowing facility under the MSF window on Saturday.“As the liquidity conditions are expected to tighten on account of advance tax payments commencing from mid-December 2013, Reserve Bank has decided to offer funds to the Banks for two days through Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) on Saturday,” RBI said in a statement.The MSF window will remain open between 5.00 p.m. and 5.30 p.m. and the due date of repayment will...

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C.V.R. Rajendran appointed CMD of Andhra Bank

After being headless for more than three months, Andhra Bank has a new Chairman and Managing Director in C.V.R. Rajendran.Prior to this elevation, Rajendran was executive director at Bank of Maharashtra.Rajendran will be Chairman and Managing Director of Andhra Bank for a period of five years or until superannuation, whichever is earlier. He is due to superannuate in April 2015.srivats.kr@thehindu.co.in Source: thehindubusinesslin...

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