Lakshmi Vilas Bank hikes lending rates by 25 bps

Lakshmi Vilas Bank has increased its base rate or the minimum lending rate by 25 basis points (bps) to 11.25 per cent (from 11 per cent).The private sector bank also hiked its fixed deposit rates from 75 up to 275 bps in select maturities ranging from 15 days to 270 days period.The revised rates will take effect from August 26, 2013.“RBI's tight liquidity and high interest rate in the shorter end of the rate curve needs suitable adjustment in deposit rates and to align with shift of operating policy rate from Reverse Repo to MSF rate,” said...

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V. Kannan to head Vijaya Bank

The Centre has appointed V. Kannan as Chairman and Managing Director of Vijaya Bank. Kannan, who is currently an Executive Director at Oriental Bank of Commerce, is expected to assume charge of his new role on January 1 next year.The Centre has also appointed Suresh N. Patel as Executive Director of Oriental Bank of Commerce.Patel will assume charge as ED of Oriental Bank on January 1 when Kannan moves over to Vijaya Bank.Patel is currently General Manager at Dena Bank. Source: thehindubusinesslin...

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Exim Bank to open Myanmar office in September

The Export Import Bank of India will open its eighth overseas office in Yangon, the capital of Myanmar, next month, a senior official said on Friday.This is being done as a follow up to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent visit to the neighbouring nation during which the two sides had signed MoUs worth $500 million for various projects.These include irrigation and railway projects worth $199 million and $100 million, respectively. “We have requested the Government to finalise the remaining projects at the earliest,” said David Rasquinha,...

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Axis Bank hikes NRE deposit rates by 50-75 bps

Axis Bank, India’s third largest private sector bank, has increased interest rates on Non-Resident External (NRE) fixed deposits for tenures above three years by 50-75 basis points (bps), with effect from August 24.The bank also increased interest rates on Foreign Currency Non-Resident (FCNR-B) deposits of tenures over three years by 100 bps, effective from August 17. Similarly, the rates for fixed deposits in other currencies have been hiked by one percentage point, the bank said.For NRE fixed deposits of three to five years, the interest...

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Manappuram moves to new corporate office

Manappuram Finance, one of the leading gold-loan companies in the country, has a new corporate office.On Friday, Maharashtra Governor K. Sankaranaryanan, formally opened the new corporate office at Valapad in Thrissur district. He noted that just because the value of the rupee has gone down recently the Indian economy would not collapse as some doomsday predictions had made out to be.He recalled that while hundreds of banks in the US and Europe had folded up in the wake of the global economic slowdown, none of the banks in India had closed,...

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Union Bank raises bar in retail loans push

In the backdrop of banks focussing on retail loans to ride out the current economic slowdown, Union Bank of India has pushed the envelope by extending the maximum age by when home loans can be repaid to 70 years.The move also comes in the wake of increased life expectancy coupled with senior citizens, especially former Government employees, drawing higher pensions, getting income from post-retirement employment or business.What this means is that you can decide on taking a home loan (it could be the first, second or third one during your lifetime)...

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HDFC hikes Retail Prime Lending Rate by 0.25 per cent

Home loan borrowers from housing loan major HDFC will now have to pay 0.25 per cent more on their floating loan monthly instalments.“HDFC has increased its Retail Prime Lending Rate, on which its Adjustable Rate Home Loans is benchmarked, by 0.25 per cent per year with effect from August 23, 2013,” the home loan provider said in a statement.Some banks had revised their interest rate upwards as their borrowing costs shot up after the Reserve Bank of India increased its effective lending rates to suck out liquidity from the system. Source: t...

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Banking services restored at Indian Overseas Bank

Banking services at Indian Overseas Bank, which had been hit across all its branches in the last few days due to a technical glitch in a server at the headquarters here, have been sorted out, bank sources said.Considered one of the largest public sector banks with 3,000 branches nationwide, the glitch “largely affected” transactions, hampering day-to-day operations, they said.IOB Chairman and Managing Director M Narendra said services were affected on Monday and restored on Tuesday.However, for the fourth day, banking as well as ATM services...

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IRDA slaps Rs 3.1 cr penalty on Bajaj Allianz Life

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has imposed Rs 3.1 crore penalty on Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company.The company was fined for violating various norms including those pertaining to payments to corporate agents and other third parties and not obtaining permanent account numbers (PAN) in policies above Rs 1 lakh, according to an order issued by the regulator on Wednesday.naga.gunturi@thehindu.co.in Source: thehindubusinesslin...

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HDFC Bank to almost double two-member branches

HDFC Bank is increasing focus on its two-member mini-branch model, with plans to increase the network from the existing 280 to 500 nationwide by the end of this fiscal.The two-member branch, which is a 250-350 sq ft facility with all the amenities available at other branches, provides the entire bouquet of its services, including phone and Net banking and international credit cards. This concept has been introduced as part of its target of bringing 10 million families (or 40 million Indians) within the banking fold.According to Madhusudan Hegde,...

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ICICI Bank, Vodafone launches mobile banking service in Mumbai

ICICI Bank and Vodafone India launched mobile banking service ‘M-pesa’ in Mumbai.M-Pesa provides access to financial services via the mobile phone to the unbanked and under-banked sections of the population.The service leverages Vodafone’s mobile services with its distribution and ICICI Bank’s security of financial transactions.This service will now be available through 1,400 authorised agents in Mumbai. Apart from Mumbai, the service has been rolled out in Kolkata, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Delhi/NCR.The service can help...

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HDFC Bank launches 11 mini branches in rural areas of Andhra Pradesh

HDFC Bank Ltd announced the launch of 11 mini branches in rural locations across Andhra Pradesh.Each mini branch, comprising two persons, will complement the bank’s existing traditional branch set up in the state, allowing it to reach out to more people in rural geographies, HDFC said in a statement.A mini branch is one of the formats introduced by the bank to take formal banking experience to people in unbanked and under-banked areas. It augments the bank’s efforts towards achieving its financial inclusion goal.HDFC Bank has a board mandated...

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Bank of India plans 2-day home loan mela in Coimbatore

Bank of India in association with Springfield Shelters and event management company VG Ads is organising a Home Loan Expo at Suguna Kalyana Mandapam on August 24 and 25.At least 45 builders, promoters and car dealers from various districts in and around this region are said to have confirmed their participation in this mela. The bank has indicated that it would offer concession on processing charges, easy instalment and spot approval based on the applicant’s eligibility during this two-day expo.To avail spot sanction of loan, the applicants...

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Bombay High Court to decide on jurisdiction of YES Bank case

The Bombay High Court will continue its hearing on Thursday to decide if it has the jurisdiction to hear the suit filed by Madhu Kapur against YES Bank.YES Bank, in its argument on Wednesday, said the court must first determine if it has the jurisdiction in the matter before it hears the case. The private sector lender has argued that appointment of directors by the bank’s board cannot be questioned in a court of law.It further said the appointment of directors was “duly” held as mandated by the Banking Regulations Act.Also, the YES Bank counsel...

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RBI left key rates unchanged based on majority view of advisory panel

Reserve Bank of India Governor D. Subbarao chose to go with the majority opinion of the external members of the monetary policy advisory panel to maintain status quo on interest rates at the first quarter review of monetary policy last month.Four of the seven members recommended maintenance of status quo in the policy repo rate (the interest rate at which banks borrow short-term funds from RBI by pledging government securities). Currently, the repo rate is at 7.25 per cent,The minutes of the meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee on Monetary...

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ICICI Bank raises fixed deposit rates by up to 0.75%

ICICI Bank has raised fixed deposit rates by up to 0.75 per cent across select maturities due to a series of steps taken by the RBI, leading to a tightening of the liquidity condition.The private sector bank has raised the interest rate on term deposits with 46-60-day maturity by 0.75 per cent to 7 per cent. For 61-289 days as well, the increase is by similar percentage points to 7.75 per cent, according to the ICICI Bank Website.At the same time, the bank raised interest rates by 0.5 to 7.75 per cent as compared to 7.25 per cent for fixed...

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PNB officers’ plea

The fourth State conference of Punjab National Bank Officers’ Association (Kerala) has demanded regulation of the working hours of bank officers, introduction of five-day week, and recruitment of sufficient staff.It also appealed to the government to stop mergers and consolidation of banks and take effective measures to combat price rise.The conference was inaugurated by T. R. Verma, general secretary, All India Punjab National Bank Officers’ Federation. K.C. Mohandas, Chairman, PNBOA (Kerala), presided. Source: thehindubusinesslin...

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Technical glitch in IOB’s core banking system hits service

A technical snag in Indian Overseas Bank’s core banking system (CBS) on Monday affected services across the country.According to M. Narendra, Chairman and Managing Director of the bank, following a usual maintenance work, a complex technical malfunction cropped up in the system that restrained banking services to its customers. While the transactions were carried out on the basis of account holders’ Saturday balance in some branches across the country, the bank’s ATM network could not transact any business on Monday.However, Narendra explained...

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Axis Bank hikes base rate by 25 bps to 10.25%

Axis Bank, India’s third largest private sector bank, today hiked its base rate or the minimum lending rate to 10.25 per cent from 10 per cent earlier.The new base rate will be effective from August 19, 2013. One basis point is one hundredth of one per cent (0.01 per cent).Base rate is the rate below which banks cannot lend.The private lender had increased its short term deposit rates by up to 50-400 bps in select tenures ranging from 7 days to one year.Recently, YES Bank and HDFC Bank also hiked their base rate after the Reserve Bank of India...

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IDBI Mutual launches tax saving fund

IDBI Mutual Fund launched an open-ended equity-linked savings scheme (ELSS), ‘IDBI tax saving fund’, with an aim to provide capital appreciation to investors along with tax benefit.The new offering which will be open for subscription from tomorrow, will close on September 3 and the scheme will re-open for continuous sale from September 17.“We feel this is the right time for equity investors to enter into the market as the valuations are attractive in many stocks following the recent market crash. Apart from capital appreciation, the new fund...

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All women bank to have 25 branches by fiscal-end

Government plans to set up about 25 branches of the proposed public sector Bharatiya Mahila Bank, India’s first all women bank, by the end of this fiscal.“The Bharatiya Mahila Bank proposes to complete the first six branches at Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Indore and Guwahati by October 15 and take the total to 25 by March 31, 2014,” an official said.The government has already approved Rs 1,000 crore seed capital for the women focused public sector bank, announced by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his budget speech.The government is...

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