LIC’s higher stakes in banks a concern: Mundra

Country’s largest financial institution Life Insurance Corporation’s (LIC) higher stakes in a clutch of state—run and private banks could potentially create a contagion effect on the system, Reserve Bank deputy governor S S Mundra said today.“LIC’s stake is more than 9 per cent for the banking system as a whole. So, from the point of inter-connectedness and contagion, as a probability, it is something that affects financial stability. It’s not that it’s affecting today or it’s going to affect tomorrow, but these are probabilities,” he said...

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Karnataka Bank Q4 net jumps 65.5%; to pay Rs. 5/share dividend

Karnataka Bank Ltd has recorded a net profit of Rs.134.42 crore in the fourth quarter of 2014-15 against a net profit of Rs.81.21 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, recording a growth of 65.52 per cent.Net interest income of the bank during the period under review stood at Rs.291.32 crore (Rs.249.93 crore) and the other income stood at Rs.111.69 crore (Rs.113.98 crore).Net profit for 2014-15 stood at Rs.451.45 crore against Rs.311.03 crore in 2013-14.The board of the directors of the bank has recommended a dividend of...

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SBI Q4 net profit surges 23% to Rs. Rs.3,742 cr; to pay dividend of Rs.3.50 per share

State Bank of India has reported an approximate 23 per cent increase in net profit to the tune of Rs.3,742 crore, for the quarter ended March 31, 2015. Standalone net profit for the corresponding period last year stood at Rs.3,040 crore.Total income (net interest income and other income) increased by nearly 15 per cent to Rs.48,616 crore from Rs.42,443 crore. Segment Results In terms of segment results for the fourth quarter (January-March 2015), losses were contained in the wholesale or corporate banking operations to the tune of...

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SBI ties up with Snapdeal to offer seller finance

State of Bank of India (SBI) on Thursday entered into a seller financing scheme with e-com major Snapdeal.Under the scheme, SBI will provide loans to small and medium enterprises at easier interest rates. Data regarding the sellers will be provided by Snapdeal."Rates of interest will be determined by the credit worthiness of the seller," Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman, SBI, said after signing the MoU with Snapdeal.The country's biggest lender (SBI) had an MSME loan book of approximately Rs. 170,000 crore as on December 31, 2014.The seller...

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RBI discussion paper on cashless transactions soon

To promote more cashless transactions, the Reserve Bank of India is in discussions with the Government on ways to reduce cash usage in the system and will soon be coming out with a paper on the same, RBI's Executive Director G Padmanabhan said."We are looking at various ways to incentivise cashless transactions, and various aspects are being considered like looking at charges for card payments," Padmanabhan told reporters on the sidelines of a National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) event.As black money has been a burning debate in the...

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SBI ties up with PayPal to enable cross-border transactions

State Bank of India (SBI), on Thursday, entered into a strategic partnership with digital payments company, PayPal, to facilitate cross-border trade and payments.The service will be extended to SBI and PayPal users both in India and abroad and is targeted at small and medium enterprises (SMEs). SBI currently, has over 900,000 SME customers.According to B Sriram, Managing Director &Group Executive (National Banking), SBI, attempts are also being made to extend the services for domestic transactions."Currently the tie-up will be for cross-border...

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Vijaya Bank reduces base rate by 25 bps

Vijaya Bank will revise its base rate with effect from June 1.The bank in a release said it has reduced base rate by 25 basis points to 10 per cent per annum.The revised rates will be applicable to housing loans also.Due to reduction in rates, equated monthly instalments related to retail loans including housing loans shall come down proportionately. Source : Thehindubusinesslin...

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LIC Jeevan Sangam plan to be available up to June 1

The close-ended Jeevan Sangam (Plan 831) introduced by the Life Insurance Corporation will be available in the market for subscription up to June 1.Jeevan Sangam is a participating, non-linked, savings-cum-protection, single-premium plan that provides for a high-level risk cover.The proposer has an option to choose the maturity sum assured, said Shaji M Shankar, Senior Divisional Manager, LIC, Thiruvananthapuram.The single premium payable (exclusive of service tax) will depend on the chosen amount of maturity sum assured and age of the life...

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UBS to pay $545 mn in fines to settle forex probe by US authorities

UBS said on Wednesday it has settled a probe by US authorities over alleged rigging of currency markets by agreeing to pay $545 million in combined fines and pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud in a separate matter.The Swiss bank's disclosure comes as part of what is expected to be a combined bill of more than $5 billion and criminal charges for five of the world's biggest banks in a settlement with US and British authorities over the foreign exchange probe.UBS said its settlement includes a $203-million penalty for pleading guilty to...

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IndusInd Bank inks pact with payment processing company Worldpay

The UK-based payment processing giant Worldpay has partnered with IndusInd Bank to offer acquiring services in India.The association will assist both the companies in processing customers’ payments and marks the first step for Worldpay in entering the Indian market — a result of the growth in eCommerce across the country, IndusInd Bank said in a filing to the BSE.“We are delighted to offer eCommerce acquiring services in India in association with Worldpay. We are confident that the association will help both organisations to contribute to the...

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SBI ties up with Amazon

Amid a wave of e-commerce and surge in online payments, State Bank of India has partnered with global e-commerce firm Amazon to serve its customers and small businesses."SBI and Amazon will develop trusted, frictionless payments and commerce solutions for customers and small businesses, capitalising on the exponential growth in internet penetration to drive the adoption of ecommerce and m-commerce in India," SBI said in a statement."We are working on ways to enrich customers' patent experience and opening up windows of e-commerce to our SME...

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YES Bank recruits 94 from top B-Schools

Yes Bank has emerged as one of the top recruiters in the BFSI domain at India’s top business schools this year, extending a total of 94 offers.The bank extended 14 offers at IIM-A and 38 offers were made across the other IIMs. Premier schools Other premier B-Schools Yes Bank visited this year include XLRI, FMS, SJMSOM, IIT Bombay, SPJIMR, JBIMS, MDI, MICA, NITIE, SCMHRD, NMIMS, IRMA, XIMB and NIBM. The new hires (popularly known as Y-PEPs) will be joining the bank’s training cum mentoring programme ‘YES Professional Entrepreneurship Programme’...

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IDBI Bank to roll out e-huts to connect with rural population, Goa gets two more branches

IDBI Bank has decided to roll out e-huts to connect with the rural populace, a senior bank official said here today."We will be launching e-huts across the country. It's a concept that is widely accepted in the West, but in India, it's yet to pick up," IDBI's Deputy Managing Director M O Rego said.He said e-huts will be located at a relatively populated place."The bank has currently introduced e-lobbies which are next to the branches. The e-hut concept will be completely unmanned units... to help the customer understand technology," Rego said.The...

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Not eyeing acquisitions for growth, says Federal Bank chief

Federal Bank Limited is not looking to reorient its strategy towards "inorganic growth" for now, Shyam Srinivasan, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, has said.This private sector bank will continue to focus on ‘organic growth’ even as competition was adopting merger route for growth, Srinivasan told Business Line here.He was responding to a question on whether Federal Bank would now look at acquisitions for growth instead of relying only at organic growth.Srinivasan’s remarks are significant as it came on the heels of Kotak Mahindra...

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Bank of India ties up with returns filing portal

Bank of India (BoI) has tied up with income-tax returns filing portal myITreturn.com to facilitate e-filing of returns.The tie-up enables Bank of India customers and employees to e-file their income-tax returns through the website.Customers can also avail of various tax services by downloading the myITreturn app on their mobile phones. At present, several free features are being given to app users such as calculation of tax liabilities, e-filing status, and others. So far, more than 40,000 users have downloaded this app.Saakar Yadav, MD of...

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SBI launches online facility for overdraft against FDs

State Bank of India on Tuesday launched an online facility for Overdraft against Fixed Deposit, whereby customers holding fixed deposits in a single name can avail of up to 90 per cent of the FD amount as an overdraft to meet emergency and other needs.As an introductory offer, SBI is charging an interest rate of only 0.5 per cent more than the linked FD. This is among the lowest in industry.While the core product has been available at SBI branches for a while now, the online facility is part of SBI’s endeavour to take products and services...

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Syndicate Bank to raise Rs2,000 crore from capital market

Syndicate Bank has planned to raise Rs.2,000 crore from the capital market.However, the timing of the issue has not been specified by the bank.In a communication to the stock exchanges, the public sector bank headquartered in Manipal in Karnataka said that its board today (May 19) approved raising of equity capital of Rs.2,000 crore including premium by way instruments like Qualified Institutional Placement (Domestic & Foreign Financial Institutions)/ rights issue /Follow on Public Offer (FPO) /or any other mode approved by the RBI / Government...

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HDFC Bank launches medical prepaid card

HDFC Bank, the country’s second largest private lender, launched medical benefits prepaid card for corporates to disburse medical benefits to their employees.HDFC Bank has partnered with Apollo Hospitals for this prepaid product that allows corporates to load the specified allowance onto the card each month, which can be used by employees for medical expenditure at pan-India VISA/ MasterCard outlets, the bank said in a statement.The card also offers employees access to a wide range of additional benefits such as free accidental insurance of...

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HDFC Bank hikes e-funds transfer charges

HDFC Bank customers will now have to pay almost 43 per cent more for sending up to Rs.10,000 using the instant real time inter-bank electronic fund transfer service — Immediate Payment Service (IMPS).India’s second largest private sector bank has upped the service charge for sending up to Rs.10,000 from Rs.3.50 to Rs.5 with effect from May 15. Unchanged brackets This charge is excluding taxes. The bank has, however, left the service charges for the remaining two slabs – Rs.10,001 to Rs.1 lakh (service charge: Rs.5) and Rs.1,00,001 to Rs.2 lakh...

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SBI Foundation for group CSR activities

The nation’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has created a separate company, SBI Foundation, to carry out its massive CSR initiatives and hopes to get it “running” from July.“We have been spending over 1 per cent of our profit on CSR even before the new law on corporate social responsibility (CSR), mandating every company to spend 2 per cent of its profit on such activities, came into effect. This is despite the fact that we are not legally bound to do so as we are not governed by the Companies Act.“So, in order to streamline our CSR...

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