SBI associate merger proposal irks employee's unions, strikes to follow

Even as the State Bank of India management starts deliberating mergers of its associate banks with the parent, the employees' union is planning a series of bank strikes protesting against such a move.More than 50,000 employees did not work on Thursday at about 6,000 bank branches of five SBI group banks as All Associate Banks of SBI, the employees' union, called a strike.The union will again observe the same on June 24 as the conciliation meeting with the SBI management fizzled out in New Delhi at the Central Labour Commissioner a few days...

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United Bank of India cuts fixed deposit rates by up to 0.5% on select maturities

State-owned United Bank of India today slashed interest rates on fixed deposits by up to 0.5 per cent on select maturities, a move that is being seen as precursor to a cut in lending rate.The bank has revised its interest rates on its retail term deposits for 1 year to 8 per cent and above 1 year to 7.75 per cent, UBI said in a statement.Currently, the interest rate on fixed deposits above 1 year is pegged at 8.25 per cent.The new rates will be effective from June 8, it said. PNB and Axis Bank had yesterday reduced fixed deposit rates.The decision...

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Andhra Bank cuts lending rate by 25 bps

Andhra Bank has reduced its base rate by 25 basis points from 10.25 per cent to 10 per cent with effect from June 11, 2015.The Benchmark Prime Lending Rate (BMPLR) has also been reduced from 14.50 per cent to 14.25 per cent with effect from the same date, Andhra Bank said in a statement.Source : Thehindubusinessline...

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SKS Microfinance cuts interest rate by 1.55%

SKS Microfinance Ltd on Thursday announced a 1.55 per cent reduction in the interest rate charged to the borrowers.It cut the interest rate from 23.55 per cent to 22 per cent with effect from July 1, 2015. ``With the present reduction, SKS Microfinance charges the lowest rate among the Non-Banking Finance Company – Micro Finance Institutions.(NBFC-MFIs) on its core income generating loans which are unsecured micro loans,’’ the company said in release issued here today. Source : Thehindubusinesslin...

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Deutsche Bank to launch tech labs

Deutsche Bank will launch three innovation labs this year, partnering with big development firms to speed creation of financial technology for its own uses and will spend up to €1 billion on digital development in the next 5 years.German bank said it would work with three technology partners for the labs, including Microsoft in Berlin, HCL in London and IBM in Silicon Valley."These labs will act as a bridge between start-ups and different parts of the bank, enabling it to apply innovative technology to enhance service to clients and internal...

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Axis Bank cuts deposit rates by up to 20 bps

A day after the Reserve Bank’s policy announcement, country’s third-largest private sector lender Axis Bank announced a deposit rate cut of up to 0.20 per cent.“We have cut the deposit rates between 0.10 per cent to 0.20 per cent across all tenors,” a bank official told PTI.The revision in deposit rates, which generally precedes a lending rate cut, is applicable June 9, the official said.However, the bank has not taken a call on lending rate, the official said.It had cut its base rate or the minimum rate of lending, by 0.20 per cent in April...

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SBI associate banks' staff to strike on June 4

A section of employees of five associate banks of SBI will go on strike tomorrow to protest against the proposal for merger of associate banks with the parent bank.Bank employees under the banner of State Sector Bank Employees Association (SSBEA) will go on nationwide strike tomorrow, S K Gautam, the Secretary of SSBEA, said today.SSBEA comprise unions in the associate banks of State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Hyderabad and State Bank of Patiala.“On June 2, with intervention of...

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PNB cuts fixed deposit rates by 0.25%

State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) today slashed the interest rate on fixed deposits by 0.25 per cent on select maturities, a move which could be seen as precursor to a cut in lending rate.The reduction will be effective June 8, PNB said in a statement.The decision to cut interest rate on fixed deposits comes a day after the Reserve Bank of India reduced the key policy rate.As part of its second bi-monthly monetary policy review, RBI had yesterday cut the repo rate (short-term lending rate) from 7.5 per cent to 7.25, but had left other...

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South Indian Bank to raise FDI limit by 10%

The board of directors of South Indian Bank has decided to increase the FDI limit by 10 per cent subject to shareholders/FIPB approval.With the proposed increase, the foreign shareholding can go up to 59 per cent against the maximum permissible limit of 74 per cent prescribed under FDI policy in the case of private sector banks.According to V G Mathew, Managing Director & CEO, the bank plans to raise further capital from the market to support its growth plan and the change in FDI cap is expected to catalyse the capital augmentation programme.Meanwhile,...

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SBI cuts base lending rate by 15 bps

State Bank of India (SBI), country's largest bank, on Tuesday decided to cut its base or minimum lending rate by 15 basis points (bps) to 9.7%, effective June 8.Other peer banks ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank are likely to follow suit.SBI's base rate cut comes the same day when the RBI cut its key interest rate or repo rate by 25 bps to 7.25% in it bi-monthly monetary policy of 2015-16.SBI had previously cut its base rate by 15 bps on April 7 after the RBI's first bi-monthly policy where RBI had maintained a status quo keeping the repo rate unchanged...

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RBI not a cheerleader for markets: Rajan

Doing some plain-speaking, Governor Raghuram Rajan today said the RBI is not a ‘cheerleader’ and he may have “erred a bit” in lowering the policy rate to push investments as growth was not happening at the ground level.He said GDP growth might be weaker than what the headline number suggested and questioned why an economy needed rate cut when it was growing at 7.5 per cent.There is a “contradiction” in the higher GDP growth numbers and poor corporate earnings while there was no visible pick—up in the consumer demand, he added.“In some sense...

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Future rate cuts are data dependent: Karnataka Bank MD

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Karnataka Bank Ltd, P Jayarama Bhat, has said that the Reserve Bank of India has delivered the much expected 25 basis point cut in the repo rates.Bhat said the statement on inflationary expectations, lower monsoon predictions and upward expected movements in oil prices will pose uncertainty in future actions on rates. “Any future cuts in rates are more data dependent,” he said.He said the Karnataka Bank has already lowered the base rate by 25 basis points with effective from June 1. Source...

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Corporation Bank eyes CASA ratio of 25%

Corporation Bank is keen to raise its current account savings account (CASA) ratio to 25 per cent by end March 2016, its Chairman and Managing Director S R Bansal has said.The CASA ratio of the bank is now pegged at 17 per cent. "Our CASA ratio needs to go up further. The aim is to take it to 25 per cent by March this fiscal". Bansal told Business Line.On Tuesday, Bansal inaugurated the 2300th branch of Corporation Bank at Gurgaon in Haryana.This public sector lender plans to open atleast 500 new branches across the country this fiscal, Bansal...

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