RBS India to shut 7 branches and restructure retail, commercial banking business

Royal Bank of Scotland on Friday said it will shut seven bank branches to consolidate its retail and commercial banking business in the country. The winding down of the bank's retail and small and medium enterprises business was announced in November 2012.The bank's retail and commercial banking assets could be to the tune of Rs3,000 crore. As a apart of the restructuring exercise the bank is also considering sale of these assets to some domestic and foreign banks. Romesh Sobti-led IndusInd Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and Axis Bank are among...

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SBI ties up with Spanish bank

State Bank of India has entered into a tie up with Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, SA (BBVA) to develop business operations in Latin America and Spain.BBVA is the second largest bank in Spain. Present in India since 2007, the foreign bank has major franchises in South America and Mexico.At present, the India’s largest bank has no physical presence in Latin America and Spain.The memorandum of understanding signed between the two banks covers investment banking products such as transaction banking, trade finance, bonds, foreign...

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IFC to extend credit guarantees to YES Bank

Private sector lender YES Bank has ties up with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, to boost international trade opportunities.Through this programme, IFC will extend credit guarantees to YES Bank to cover its payment risks under trade instruments issued by the bank in favour of participating correspondent banks.Moreover with a wider access to a global network, the programme will enable YES Bank to facilitate transactions in challenging markets, promoting competitive financing and building correspondent...

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Karur Vysya Bank net up 8% in Q4

Karur Vysya Bank Ltd has reported 8 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 158.58 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2013, against Rs 146.79 crore in the comparable previous year quarter.The total business during the quarter grew a little over 21 per cent to Rs 1,284 crore from Rs 1,059 crore last year.Gross non-performing assets stands at 0.96 per cent against 1.33 per cent last year, and net non-performing assets were at 0.37 per cent (0.33 per cent). The company’s earnings per share at the end of the quarter under consideration moved...

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Good financial health, track record must for insurers setting sights abroad: IRDA

Indian insurance companies can now go global. They require a minimum of three years of operation, among other criteria, to be eligible to apply for opening offices overseas.According to the guidelines issued by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), the life and general insurers should have a net worth of Rs 500 crore and Rs 250 crore respectively.In the case of reinsurers, the minimum net worth required has been fixed at Rs 750 crore.They should be in good financial health and should have posted profits for three years...

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How the money is siphoned off

Explaining the modus operandi, a senior bank official said, it all starts with floating of bogus companies and opening current accounts in the name of such companies. “The people who operate in such gangs get hundreds of companies registered with the Registrar of Companies, open current accounts in the name of each such company, and carry on multiple transactions by switching funds from one account to another, thereby leading to circular movement of cash,” he explained.Once these accounts have a reasonably good transaction history, the company...

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To curb frauds, banks plan more checks on e-transfer of funds

Electronic fund transfer from one account to another and opening of current accounts may soon become a little more difficult.Taking a cue from the recent frauds in West Bengal, bankers are set to introduce a new set of security measures on current account operation. Savings bank accountholders may also face the heat as banks are planning to add a few more security checks on the electronic fund transfer or RTGS (real time gross settlement) channel.In the second week of March this year, West Bengal Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation...

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