Federal Bank to recruit 3,000 in next three years

Federal Bank plans to recruit about 3,000 employees and add 300 branches in the next three years, a top official today said. The bank presently has about 10,126 employees on its rolls. Since the last three years, around 3,000 employees have been recruited and plans are on to employ another 3,000 in the next three years, Federal Bank Managing Director and CEO Shyam Srinivasan told reporters here. In the last three years, 340 branches were added across the country. “We could like to repeat it. However, if economic environment is not robust, we will have to be careful. The aim is to add 80—100 branches every year,” he said. On proposals to levy charges for ATM transactions, he said the private...

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BoM launches savings bank deposit scheme

Bank of Maharashtra has launched a savings bank deposit scheme — Mahabank Royal Savings Account — exclusively for high net worth Individuals having a minimum monthly average balance (MAB) of Rs 1 lakh in their account.The slew of benefits offered to the accountholder under the product includes assistance of a relationship manager, free accident death insurance cover (Rs 50 lakh personal air accident death insurance and Rs 10 lakh personal accidental death insurance), higher transaction limit on ATM-cum-debit card on merchant point of sale terminals, and free national electronic funds transfer/real time gross system transactions through Internet banking, the bank said in a statement.Other benefits...

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Overseas loans dent margins of HDFC Bank

At first glance, the strong loan growth of 23 per cent in HDFC Bank in the December quarter is heartening; as it is almost eight percentage points higher than the overall credit growth in the banking sector. But there are many weak links in the chain.One, HDFC Bank raised $3.4 billion through FCNR deposits under the special swap facility offered by the RBI.This is almost 10 per cent of the entire amount raised by all banks through this facility.To sweeten the deal for the depositor, banks offered a leveraged product under this scheme.This meant extending an overdraft to the NRI depositor, with a lien on his deposit.This leveraged product drove HDFC Bank’s growth in overseas loans. Excluding...

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Unions want banks to go slow on ATM expansion

Bank trade unions want banks to go slow on ATM network expansion and encourage customers to return to bank branches for transactions and use the ATM sparingly. This, according to them, is good for the customers, employees and banks’ bottomlines.“The current furious expansion of the ATM network is not good for the banking industry’s health,” says M.V. Murali, convenor of the United Forum of Bank Unions, which is a collective of nine major all-India bank trade unions. “ATMs enormously increase the cost of operation of banks, particularly in view of the demand for mandatory 24-hour security at ATMs following the attack on a woman at a Bangalore ATM a few months ago.”Murali’s comments come in...

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Average age of IOB staff will fall further: CMD

At Indian Overseas Bank, promotions are happening thick and fast. Officers can become managers in less than two years. Apart from a conscious attempt at fast-tracking talent, the rapid expansion of its branch network is helping youngsters grow fast.Speaking to Business Line, M. Narendra, Chairman and Managing Director of the bank, said the bank has opened more than 1,200 branches and recruited some 11,000 people in the last three years.The bank recruited around 4,500 people in the current fiscal alone. Of them, around 2,600 are officers. The attrition level is minimal, he added.Narendra said the new recruits become managers within one-and-a-half years because of the opportunities thrown up...

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‘Merchanting’ eligible for short-term credit: RBI

The Reserve Bank of India on Friday said short-term credit either by way of suppliers’ credit or buyers’ credit will be available for intermediary trade transactions or merchanting. Merchanting or intermediary trade transaction involves purchase of goods by Indian residents from non-residents and then reselling them to another non-resident directly without the goods touching Indian ports. The merchanting transactions will include the discounting of export leg Letter of Credit by a bank authorised to deal in foreign exchange, as in the case of import transactions, the central bank said. Norms revised According to the revised guidelines on merchanting transactions, the RBI said the entire...

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Vijaya Bank EGM to be held on Feb 19

The board of directors of Vijaya Bank at its meeting held on January 17, 2014 has approved that an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of the shareholders of the bank will be held on February 19, 2014. The EGM is being held to seek approval for conversion of perpetual non cumulative preference shares held by the Government of India into equity shares. The board has fixed January 20, 2014 as ‘Relevant Date’ for the purpose of pricing of issue of equity shares to the Government of India in terms of SEBI (ICDR) Regulations, 2009. Further, it has declared an interim dividend of 10 per cent (Re 1) per equity share for the financial year 2013-14. anil.u@thehindu.co.in Source: Thehindubusines...

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Syndicate Bank allots 2.26 cr shares to Govt

Syndicate Bank upon receipt of funds from the Government today has allotted 2.26 crore equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each for cash at a premium of Rs 78.36.The bank recently received Rs 200 crore from the Centre.The bank’s note to the exchanges said the allotment has been determined in accordance with Regulation 76 (1) of the SEBI (ICDR) Regulations aggregating to Rs 199,99,99,971.36 on preferential basis to Government of India. Source: Thehindubusinesslin...

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BoB gets excellence award

Bank of Baroda (BOB) was conferred with the best bank award for the MSME sector. This award was instituted by the chamber of Indian micro small and medium enterprises. D. K. Garg, General Manager, BOB received this award from Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission at an event in the Capital. Source: Thehindubusinesslin...

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IRDA fines 12 insurance cos in 2012-13

IRDA slapped a fine of nearly Rs 5 crore during 2012-13 on 12 insurance companies, including market leaders HDFC Life and ICICI Prudential Life.HDFC Life paid a fine of Rs 1.47 crore, while ICICI Prudential Life had to shell out Rs 1.18 crore for failure to comply with various provisions of the Insurance Act 1938.The insurance regulator had imposed a fine of Rs 76 lakh on PNB Metlife for violation of various guidelines. Tata AIA had to pay a penalty of Rs 49 lakh during 2012-13.In all, penalties were levied on 10 life insurance companies and...

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RBI to look into limiting free ATM transactions

The Reserve Bank will consider reducing the number of free ATM withdrawals, as recommended by the Indian Banks’ Association, in an effort to cut down on cash transactions in the economy.“We will examine that (IBA recommendation of cutting down number of free ATM transaction to 5 per month). Many other proposals have come. The whole idea is that people are using too much of cash and adding to the costs. We will examine all those issues,” RBI Deputy Governor, H.R. Khan, told PTI.The RBI has been taking measures to cut down on cash transactions...

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SBI chief says ATMs in losses, can’t subsidise forever

Stating that its ATM operations are making losses, the nation’s largest bank SBI has said it is all for charging customers for transactions.It also said a commercially viable model is needed for ATM network expansion.“Whatever services we give, ultimately it has to be a win-win situation.... We just want a commercially viable model, I cannot afford to lose month after month,” State Bank of India Chairperson, Arundhati Bhattacharya, told PTI in an interview.SBI has the largest network of ATMs.Bhattacharya also said barring in a few States, the...

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