IDFC gets shareholders nod to launch bank

Infrastructure financing firm IDFC Ltd today said it has received shareholders approval to its demerger scheme to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary IDFC Bank.The scheme was earlier approved by the Reserve Bank and board of directors of IDFC Ltd."The...shareholders have unanimously approved the scheme of arrangement among IDFC Ltd and IDFC Bank Ltd and their respective shareholders and creditors under Section 391 to 394 of the Companies Act, 1956", IDFC Ltd said in a BSE filing.In April last year, IDFC Ltd bagged a licence from the RBI to set...

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HDFC cuts home loan rates by 20 bps to 9.9%

HDFC, country’s leading housing finance firm, reduced its home loan rate by 20 bps to 9.9 per cent on Friday. The rate cut will benefit its new and existing borrowers in the form of lower EMIs (equated monthly instalments).Housing Development Finance Corporation or HDFC’s move comes two days after the RBI announced a status quo in its monetary policy review and Governor Raghuram Rajan prodded banks and lending institutions to pass on the previous two policy rate cuts effect since January this year.The company said the reduction in the RPLR...

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IndusInd Bank to buy RBS India's diamond, jewellery financing business

Private sector lender Indusind Bank has announced to buy RBS's Diamond & Jewellery Financing business with a loan book of Rs. 4,500 crore its and related deposit portfolio.The deal is subject to regulatory approvals. Until ownership of the loans is transferred to te Hinduja-promoted IndusInd Bank, day to day management of the loan portfolio will remain with Royal Bank of Scotland N.V. (RBS) employees within diamond and jewellery clients in India will also move to IndusInd Bank Ltd and will ensure seamless transition of the customer base.“IndusInd...

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Mobile banking set to get a boost

Public sector banks plan to step on the gas to get their customers to use mobile banking over the next one year. Steps such as automatic on-boarding of all new customers on mobile banking and enrolling 10 lakh merchants to accept mobile payments are in the works.In a bid to deepen mobile banking penetration, public sector banks will download the mobile banking app for new customers alongside the account opening process.Bank employees may be made responsible for educating customers on how to transact seamlessly on mobiles at the time of opening...

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Andhra Bank not to operate ATMs in TN at night

Andhra Bank has decided to keep its ATMs in Tamil Nadu closed during nights till normalcy returns, said a senior official of the bank.Following protests over the police encounter near Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, in which 20 woodcutters from Tamil Nadu were shot dead by the police on Tuesday, protests swelled across Tamil Nadu condemning the brutal incident.Police protection has been given to all branches, but we do not want to take a chance and hence decided to close all our ATMs in Tamil Nadu after office hours, said the official. Source : ...

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Moody's raises outlook for 15 banks inlcuding ICICI, HDFC to 'positive'

Credit rating agency Moody's today revised upwards the outlook to positive, from stable, for 12 state-owned banks and financial institutions including SBI, PNB, Canara Bank, REC and PFC.Moody's also revised to positive the outlook on the long- term ratings of private sector lenders, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank."We have affirmed the long-term ratings and changed the outlook to positive from stable for 12 Indian government- owned financial institutions," the US-based agency said."The rating actions (on 12 public-sector entities) are in...

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Axis Bank cuts base rate by 20 bps to 9.95%

Axis Bank followed other top banks to cut its base rate by 20 basis points to 9.95 per cent from 10.15 per cent on Wednesday. The revision comes into effect on April 13, 2015."Accordingly, the effective rate applicable to various fund-based credit limits which are linked to the bank's base rate will reduce by 20 basis points," Axis Bank said in a statement.On Tuesday, State Bank of India and HDFC Bank cut their base rates by 15 bps to 9.85 per cent, while ICICI Bank reduced its base rate by 25 bps to 9.75 per cent post-monetary policy.ICICI...

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SBI delists shares from non-operating Madras Stock Exchange

Country’s largest bank State Bank of India (SBI) today said it has voluntarily delisted its equity shares from the now non—functional Madras Stock Exchange (MSEL).State Bank of India has submitted a copy of the letter issued by the Madras Stock Exchange informing the removal of the name of the bank from Listed Securities of the bourse, according to a BSE filing by the bank.“We (Madras Stock Exchange) write to inform you that the admission granted to dealings on the Exchange for the equity shares of your company has been withdrawn and the name...

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MUDRA to help 5.7 crore very small businesses access cheaper finance

Babita, 37, from Hapur, and Pushpa, 43, from Muradnagar, are happy. So are Rajesh Jindal (Hapur), Samiruddin (Trans Hindon, Ghaziabad) and Mahesh Chaudhry (Dadri).All of them run very small businesses such as tailoring shops, barber shops and cosmetic shops. So far they were forced to take loans from the unorganised sector at an exorbitant annual rate of interest, sometimes even 100 per cent. But now they have got loans of up to Rs 50,000 from banks at much lower rates.They are the first set of five very small or micro entrepreneurs to have...

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Why getting the account number right is very necessary while transferring funds online

When was the last time you went to a bank to transfer money?Though the option is still open, banks say 80-85% of their NEFT and RTGS transactions are happening through net-banking or mobile apps. Online transfer is the preferred choice not only because it is convenient but because it is faster and there are no additional charges. All you have to do is register a person as a 'beneficiary' by giving his/her account number and bank IFSC code and you can transfer money real-time. But what if you accidentally send money to a wrong bank account?...

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ICICI Bank to roll out voice authentication

When a customer calls up ICICI Bank in coming weeks, in the 10 seconds that he introduces himself the bank's servers will identify his account details and authenticate his identity by picking a voice sample and matching it with the database. Not just that, in future voice data would be analyzed to identify whether the caller is agitated, irate or in a hurry to avoid cross-sell pitches.ICICI Bank has become the first in the country and among the few in the world to deploy voice-recognition technology for biometric authentication. The new facility...

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Dena Bank, LIC tie up for insurance on Aadhar-linked savings A/Cs

Public sector lender Dena Bank has partnered with government-owned LIC (Life Insurance Corporation) of India to provide insurance cover to all Aadhaar-linked savings account holders."Under the Prime Minister's Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJBY) scheme, a risk of Rs 2 lakh will be covered in case of death of any reason and a premium sum of Rs 330 per annum will be auto debited to the account holder's account," Dena Bank said in a statement.The premiums will be reviewed every year.As per the terms of rush coverage, a person has to...

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RuPay card holders can now shop online

RuPay card holders of all public sector banks are now e-Commerce enabled. They can now conveniently purchase rail, road and air tickets by logging into the websites (IRCTC, Cleartrip, Make My Trip, KSRTC etc.) of travel companies or buy goods and services from retail chains like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Jabong etc.“For the first time user, registration happens as the transaction gets done. The only additional step for first time user is to choose a picture password which the customer has to identify in subsequent transaction. This gives...

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IDBI Bank may raise capital in FY16, says CMD Raghavan

IDBI Bank may look to raise further capital this fiscal and is not averse to tapping the market with a follow-on-public offering (FPO), its Chairman & Managing Director M.S. Raghavan has said."We definitely need capital. I am not ruling out tapping the market with FPO for this purpose this fiscal", Raghavan told Business Line when asked about capital raising plans for 2015-16.Raghavan said that he would look to tap the market the day the Bank’s share price equalled its book value."Current price-to-book (P/B) of the bank is around 50 per...

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P.G. Jayakumar lays down office as MD and CEO of Dhanlaxmi Bank

P.G. Jayakumar has laid down office as Managing Director and CEO of the Kerala-based Dhanlaxmi Bank on Monday. He took charge as MD & CEO three years ago.G. Sreeram, who was Chief General Manager, Canara Bank, Mumbai Circle, is succeeding him.Jayakumar rose from the cadre to the highest office and served the bank for more than 37 years in various capacities including Branch Head, Zonal Head, and General Manager in charge of HR, Administration, Credit, Risk Management, and Treasury.He assumed charge as MD & CEO at a crucial juncture...

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Government mulls steps to encourage use of Jan Dhan accounts

Having opened over 12 crore Jan Dhan bank accounts under its flagship financial inclusion programme, the government is now mulling over ways to step up the utilisation of these accounts, including through POS transactions and the Business Correspondents.A meeting has been called by the Finance Ministry on Tuesday, April 7, of representatives from public sector banks and the business correspondents (BCs) of the banks, who can help in last-mile implementation of the inclusion efforts.Among other matters, the meeting would deliberate on issued...

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Dena Bank plans lower price to sell around Rs 500 cr NPAs

State-run lender Dena Bank, which did not receive good response for its non-performing assets (NPA) sale last fiscal, is now planning to auction again but at a lower price.The bank, which is still fighting high bad loans, had put on auction Rs 400-500 crore of stressed assets in the last quarter for asset reconstruction companies (ARCs)."We had put on auction our NPAs but were able to sell very minimal amount of bad loans as the prices offered to us were much lower than our reserve price," a senior bank official told PTI.Out of the Rs 400-500...

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Central Bank of India tops list with highest bad loans among PSU banks

Central Bank of India has topped the list of public sector banks with maximum bad loans including restructured assets as a percentage of total advances.According to the data provided by the RBI to the Finance Ministry, Central Bank of India’s 21.5 per cent assets are either bad or have been restructured to save them turning non-performing assets (NPAs).The other banks which have significant amount of gross NPAs and restructured loans include, United Bank of India (19.04 per cent), Punjab & Sind Bank (18.25 per cent) and Punjab National...

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