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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