Indian Bank pays interim dividend of Rs 125.06 crore

Indian Bank paid an interim dividend of Rs 125.06 crore to the Finance Ministry for the third quarter ended December 31.Indian Bank Chairman and Managing Director T M Bhasin handed over the cheque of Rs 103.15 crore to Finance Minister P Chidambaram in New Delhi today, the city-based state-owned bank said in a statement."The Bank paid the Dividend Distribution Tax of Rs 21.91 crore and thus the exchequer received Rs 125.06 crore, comprising equity dividend of Rs 103.15 crore and dividend distribution tax of Rs 21.91 crore", it said.The global...

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RBI tightens guidelines to deal with loan default; suggests timeline to restructure loans

The Reserve Bank of India on Thursday laid out rules for early detection of loan default and suggested a timeline to restructure loans in a move that will end decades of promoters gaming the system.Removing promoters who are wilful defaulters, selling off units that dragged a company down before recasting debt, mandatory equity investments by founders and the transfer of promoter holdings to a security trustee until the company turns around are among the final guidelines.The central bank has also put an end to the infighting among lenders in...

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Postal banks globally effective as payment banks: Nachiket Mor

Nachiket Mor, a member of the central board of the Reserve Bank of India, today supported the role of postal banks in promoting the availability of financial services."I don't want to speak specifically about India Post (which has applied for a commercial banking licence) itself. What I am saying is that worldwide, they (postal banks) have been very effective as payment banks," said Mor, who recently submitted a report on financial inclusion to the RBI.Mor, a former executive director of ICICI Bank, is also a member of an external panel that...

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SKS Microfinance completes securitisation deal of Rs 55.56 crore

SKS Microfinance, India's only listed micro-lender, today said it completed a securitisation deal of Rs 55.56 crore though a private sector bank.SKS said in a statement this is the fifth micro-finance securitisation deal that the company has completed during the current financial. With this, the total securitisation during FY'14 (YTD) stood at Rs 727.37 crore.The previous four substantial securitisation were Rs 321 crore (on September 30), Rs 80.81 crore (on December 11), Rs 215 crore (on December 19) and Rs 55 crore (on December 30), SKS said."SKS...

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State Bank of India rallies over 1% on fund raising plans

State Bank of India (SBI) rallied as much as 1.6 per cent in trade on Wednesday, after the largest public sector bank launched mega share sale through qualified institutional placement (QIP) route, which is aimed at raising up to Rs 9,500 crore, on Tuesday.At 09:20 a.m.; SBI pared some of the morning gains and was trading 0.5 per cent higher at Rs 1604. It hit a low of Rs 1601.90 and a high of Rs 1621.90 in trade today.Though the exchange filing from the state-run bank did not mention the amount it plans to raise, the country's largest lender...

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Banks may not raise home and car loan rates immediately

Retail home and car loan borrowers may have little to worry despite a hike policy rate by the Reserve Bank of India to control inflation. Chief executive of large commercial banks have indicated that they are not in a hurry to raise lending rates yet.The RBI on Tuesday raised repo rate - the rate at which they lend customers- - by 25 basis points to 8% signalling that rates would remain at elevated level for sometime."Yes, of course, there will be a little bit of rise but how much of that rise can be passed on I have to see the capacity of...

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Prizm Payment launches white label ATM Money Spot

Prizm Payment Services has launched Money Spot, a white label ATM under licence from the Reserve Bank of India. Prizm Payments plans to deploy at least 10,000 Money Spot ATMs across India in the first phase of rollout, with a large portion of these being in semi-urban and rural areas.Loney Antony - Managing Director Prizm Payments said that, "This is a very positive decision by RBI to allow non-banking organisations like Prizm to deploy ATMs and bring convenience to cardholders who did not have access to an ATM or any other electronic media...

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‘Owlish’ RBI hikes repo rate by 25 bps on inflation worry

The Reserve Bank of India sprang a surprise on Tuesday by increasing the interest rate banks pay to borrow short-term funds to 8 per cent from 7.75 per cent.Despite the economic slowdown getting increasingly worrisome, the central bank chose to increase interest rates to tame rising prices.RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan emphasised that the best way to create sustainable growth was by bringing down inflation.“Elevated levels of inflation erode household budgets and constrict the purchasing power of consumers. This, in turn, discourages investment...

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SBH profit down 63% in Q3

State Bank of Hyderabad’s net profit decreased 63 per cent to 119 crore in the third quarter ended December 31, 2013 compared with 322 crore in the year-ago period. Net interest income marginally increased to 989 crore (976 crore) while staff expenditure and provisions and contingencies went up considerably. The general economic slowdown combined with the political situation in Andhra Pradesh impacted business and industry, which in turn affected the bank’s asset quality. As a result, gross non-performing assets rose from 3.46 per cent to 5.77...

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India Post to install 3000 ATMs,1.35 lakh micro-ATMs by September 15

Even as its application to start a commercial bank is pending, India Post has drawn a massive plan to install as many as 3,000 ATMs and 1.35 lakh micro-ATMs at the ubiquitous post offices across the country for savings account holders by September 2015, a top official has said."We will be starting with three ATMs to be installed in New Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore on February 5 and then ramp it up gradually," postal department secretary Padmini Gopinath told a select group of reporters here over the weekend.She said 1,000 ATMs with the India...

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Rs 500 notes can be freely swapped at banks, says RBI

As the common man went on speculating frantically on what to do with banknotes printed before 2005, Reserve Bank of India on Friday tried to calm the nerves by saying that public may initiate the process of exchanging notes at bank branches at their convenience.RBI said its move to withdraw currency notes printed before 2005 is to check counterfeit notes and these notes will continue to be legal tender even after the July deadline. It said that after July 1, 2014, public can exchange any number of these old series notes from the bank branches...

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Vakrangee gets RBI licence for ATMs

Vakrangee Ltd has received Reserve Bank of India’s final authorisation of the White Label ATM licence. Under this licence, Vakrangee is entitled to set up and run minimum 15,000 ATMs across the country in next three years, sources close to the development said. White label ATMs are those that are not run by banks but by a non-banking entity in its own brand name (like Vakrangee ATM) after passing through all stringent qualification and due-diligence process undertaken by RBI. These ATMs will have all functionalities of bank-run ATMs. For the...

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