Demonetisation: Currency recall could cost India a massive Rs 1.28 lakh crore, says CMIE

The cost of withdrawing high-denomination currency notes to wipe out black money from the country will be about Rs 1.28 lakh crore during the 50-day window till December 30, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said.The overall cost could be much higher, the private economy watcher estimated. The demonetisation invalidated 86% of the Rs 17.8 lakh crore of currency that was in circulation on October 28. “A steady stream of news reports of empty mandis, low footfalls at malls and drop in business in restaurants, stressed factories...

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No more over-the-counter exchange of old notes

Facing severe attack in the wake of difficulties thrown up by demonetisation, government tonight extended till December 15 the facility of using old Rs. 500 notes in public utilities and included more services like mobile recharge but stopped the over-the-counter exchange of defunct currencies and use of Rs. 1,000 notes.From now on payment of fees up to Rs. 2,000 per student has been allowed in schools and colleges run by central and states governments, municipalities and local bodies.Payment towards pre-paid mobile top-up to a limit of Rs....

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60 per cent of SBI ATMs are calibrated, operational

As of Wednesday, State Bank of India has managed to calibrate 60 per cent of its ATMs.The rest would be done within the next five days, the bank's Chairperson, Arundhati Bhattacharya, said on the sidelines of SBI's Community Service Banking organised at the bank's Administrative Office premises in Coimbatore.She also admitted that though 60 per cent of the ATMs were calibrated, most of these automated teller machines were loaded with the new Rs. 2,000 currency, because the new Rs. 500 note was not available in the first few days. “It has just...

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SBI, associate banks merger on track

State Bank of India Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya on Thursday said that the merger of associate banks with SBI is on track and remains unaffected because of the demonetisation move.“There is a separate team working on this and they are not into demonetisation exercise,” she told reporters in Coimbatore.She said the demonetisation exercise has impacted branch working. “But this has not impacted any other team working alongside. So the merger exercise is on track. We have to receive the Government approval, there are several steps along the...

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ATMs in rural areas are still a far cry

Remember the long queues at bank branches and spending hours to do a simple transaction such as cash withdrawal?Most of you may not, because the advent of ATMs changed that trend a long time ago, providing customers access to money any time. But after the Centre announced the demonetisation scheme a fortnight ago, people in cities and metros were seen queueing up outside ATMs to do a simple cash withdrawal. And this, when over 80 per cent of the 2.15 lakh ATMs as of June 2016 are in metro, urban and semi-urban areas.With only 40,000-odd ATMs...

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Passwords compromised in majority of debit card fraud transactions

Amid reports of widespread debit card security breaches, a senior State Bank of India official on Saturday said the passwords were compromised in majority of cases."I strongly believe password is being compromised and most cases are of false transactions," Chief General Manager of State Bank of India, Bengal circle, Partha Pratim Sengupta told IANS.SBI, the country's largest commercial lender, has advised its customers to use the bank's own Automated Teller Machine (ATM) network after the security breach of around six lakh debit cards issued...

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Govt to set up Rs 1,000-cr cyber security R&D fund

With the recent escalation in threats from neighbouring countries and incidents of ATM/debit card data breach, the Centre is setting up a cyber security research and development fund of Rs.1,000 crore to be spent over five years.According to senior officials, this will be administered by a high-power committee headed by National Security Advis0r Ajit Doval.Focus on critical infraOne of the salient features of the proposed scheme is the emphasis on technology for protection of critical infrastructure needed by law enforcement agencies, sources...

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We use 1% of profits for CSR annually, says SBI chief

The State Bank of India annually contributes around 1 per cent of its profits to socially relevant and corporate social responsibility projects. SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya shares with BusinessLine details of the projects and strategies the bank adopts. Edited excerpts:What kind of projects has the SBI take up under its Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, especially on education, empowerment, financial inclusion and Swachh Bharat?We have been working on all of these areas. For instance, under Swachh Bharat, last year, , we...

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ATM compromise: Yes Bank says vendors need to do more

In wake of a system-wide security scare triggered by a malware attack on systems of its vendor Hitachi Payment Systems, Yes Bank sought to distanceitself from the breach and stressed on need to police service providers in a better way. "There needs to be a lot more vigilance where there are outsourcing partners to make sure they don't endanger the delivery and system risk, and there's a fair amount of policing as far as outsourcing risks are concerned," its managing director and chief executive Rana Kapoor told reporters here. According ...

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Airtel Payments Bank to begin operations from Q2

Airtel M-Commerce Services, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel (Airtel), on Tuesday said it has been renamed as Airtel Payments Bank after receiving the necessary approvals from all concerned authorities.The company also unveiled a new logo to reflect its new identity. The company plans to start rolling out its banking network in the second quarter of the current financial year, it said in a statement.On April 11, Airtel Payments Bank received a payments bank licence from the Reserve Bank of India. It plans to leverage on Airtel’s national distribution...

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YES Bank cuts lending rate

YES Bank has reduced its marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) by 10 basis points across all tenors. The MCLR for one year now stands at 9.5 per cent, against 9.6 per cent earlier. The MCLR cut is effective from May 1. On Monday, State Bank of India, the country’s largest bank, announced a five basis points cut in its MCLR across maturities. After the cut, SBI’s one-year MCLR now stands at 9.15 per cent, against 9.20 per cent earlier. Once the MCLR is pared, all loans linked to it, including home, car, personal, and education, become...

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BEFI extends support to strike call by RRB employees

The Bank Employees' Federation of India (BEFI) today came out in support of a two-day national strike by employees and officers of regional rural banks ( RRBs) protesting against the government's move of alleged privatisation on March 10-11."The union supports the genuine demands of RRB employees and appeals to the central government to stop privatisation moves and resolve the long pending issues of the employees," said P Venkataramaiah, General Secretary, BEFI, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, in a statement here."We appeal all the bank employees...

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RRB employees call two-day strike on Thursday and Friday

Regional rural banks (RRB) employees and officers have called for a two-day all India strike on Thursday and Friday to protest against the government's plan to privatise these entities and outsourcing of banking services. They are also demanding pension-provident fund facilities in line with mainstream commercial banks.All India Rural Bank Employees' Association said that rural banking services would come to a halt on these two days as employees of 56 RRBs will join the strike.RRBs have about 2000 branches across the country. They are also...

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Moody's affirms ICICI Bank's ratings on strong capital buffers

Moody's Investors Service today affirmed its ratings on ICICI Bank due to the healthy capital adequacy of the country's largest private sector lender despite some reverses on asset quality."Moody's expects asset quality for ICICI Bank's corporate loans will remain under pressure, even beyond the quarter ending March 2016...the bank has significant buffers to withstand a meaningful deterioration in asset quality," the international ratings agency said in a note.The bank's long-term local and foreign currency bank deposit ratings have been affirmed...

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Axis Bank’s forex prepaid card

Axis Bank on Wednesday announced the launch of a forex prepaid card, issued in conjunction with Diners Club International. The card will run on the Discover Global Network, the third-largest payments network in the world, providing cardholders global acceptance. The bank said cardholders will have access to more than 35 million merchant locations and more than one million ATM and cash access locations across 185 countries. Corporate and leisure cardholders travelling abroad, especially to the US, China, Japan and Korea, will benefit, the bank...

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Allahabad Bank organises roadshow on NPAs

State-run Allahabad Bank, on Tuesday, organised a country-wide road show to create awareness among the public about recovery in non-performing asset (NPA) accounts.Bank’s staff along with top executives carrying placards gathered near the residence/offices of select large NPA borrowers during the road show to silently impress on the urgency of repayment and regularisation of loan accounts, Allahabad Bank said in a release. Source : Thehindubusinesslin...

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Bank of India’s accounting change saves over Rs 1,000 crore

At a time when most public sector banks (PSBs) have taken a huge hit on their books, mainly because of provisioning for bad loans, Bank of India (BoI) appears to have escaped with a lesser knock in the December quarter. A close look at the bank's financials shows that a small change in the accounting practice — which is within the rules — helped it save over Rs 1,100 crore in the third quarter.The government-owned bank posted a loss of Rs 1,505 crore in the third quarter of this fiscal as its provisions to cover bad loans more than doubled...

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SBI gets shareholders nod to raise Rs 15,000 cr

Country’s largest lender SBI on Friday said it has got shareholders’ approval to raise up to Rs 15,000 crore by public issue or overseas issuance of shares.The bank had convened a general meeting today to obtain shareholders’ approval to raise the said amount.Earlier in January, SBI had informed about its plans to raise this sum of Rs 15,000 crore by March 2017.“The General Meeting was convened to obtain the shareholders’ approval, to create, offer, issue and allot such number of equity shares of Re 1 each, not exceeding Rs 15,000 crore or...

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Bharatiya Mahila Bank opens branch in Vizag

The Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) is making all efforts for the economic empowerment of women, especially those from the economically disadvantaged sections of the society, and that is the specific mandate given to the bank, according to Executive Director S MSwathi.She was speaking here on Thursday morning after inaugurating a BMB branch, the first in the city and the fourth in Andhra Pradesh. She said the bank was in expansion mode and it would aim to cross the hundred-mark soon in the country.Swathi said the bank, established in 2013 with...

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Corporation Bank inks pact with Universal Sompo for accident death coverage

Corporation Bank has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Universal Sompo General Insurance Co Ltd for providing accident death coverage to its savings bank account holders under Corp Signature, Corp Super and Corp Saral category.A press release by the bank said here on Saturday that the bank provides free personal accident death cover of Rs.10 lakh to its Corp Signature and Rs.5 lakh to its Corp Super account holders.The MoU was signed in the presence of Jai Kumar Garg, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Corporation...

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Dinabandhu Mohapatra takes charge as Canara Bank ED

Dinabandhu Mohapatra, the new Executive Director of Canara Bank, is a post-graduate with a degree in Law, CAIIB and Diploma in Computer Application.Mohapatra, who took charge as ED of Canara Bank recently, started his banking career with Bank of India as Probationary Officer in 1984. Source : Thehindubusinesslin...

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Vijaya Bank net up 43% in Q3

Vijaya Bank reported a 43 per cent increase in net profit at Rs.53 crore in the third quarter ended December 31, 2015, as against Rs.37 crore in the year-ago quarter.The Bengaluru-headquartered public sector bank logged a 33 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) increase in net interest income at Rs.738 crore from Rs.555 crore in the year-ago period. According to a bank statement, fee-based income increased by 31 per cent to Rs.122 crore (Rs.93 crore in the year-ago period).Net interest margin improved to 2.44 per cent from 1.88 per cent, it added.Gross...

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Govt to infuse about Rs. 5,000 cr in PSU banks this quarter

Government will infuse about Rs. 5,000 crore of capital in the public sector banks in the current fiscal to strengthen the balance sheet.“As committed, banks will get fund infusion in the fourth quarter. Banks will get about Rs. 5,000 crore,” Financial Services Secretary Anjuly Chib Duggal said on the sidelines of an event here.Funds would be infused after Parliament approves the third Supplementary Demand for Grants in the upcoming Budget session.Last year, the government announced a revamp plan ‘Indradhanush’ to infuse Rs. 70,000 crore in...

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Bandhan Bank to scale up retail lending from next fiscal

Kolkata-based Bandhan Bank is on course to introducing new products and scaling up its presence in the retail lending segment. The offerings are expected to be introduced next fiscal onwards.According to Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Founder, MD and CEO of Bandhan Bank, “teams are being readied”, with offerings targeting micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), housing reconstruction or “smaller value” home loans, vehicle financing and loans against property.The teams, he said, will consist of members across verticals that include those with microfinance...

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New SBI home loan product offers interest moratorium

The newly-launched SBI FlexiPay Home Loan will help working professionals fulfil their aspirations of owning homes, Badal Chandra Das, Chief General Manager, SBI Kerala Circle, has said.The new product was unveiled at 14 circle offices of SBI along with the formal launch at the hands of Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya in Mumbai on Monday.Flexible optionIt is targeted at the salaried employees aged between 21 and 45 years with a required loan amount of not less than Rs.20 lakh, Das told newspersons here.It allows borrowers to get higher loan...

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