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 and general public to support the RRB employees as they are going on strike as the last resort after failing in all their attempts to resolve the issues amicably," BEFI said.

BEFI had also submitted a detailed memorandum to the finance minister to look into the "dangers" of the proposed amendments to the RBI Act, it added.



Source : Economic Times

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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 demanding introduction of compassionate appointment scheme in line with sponsor banks retrospective effect and uniform and equal gratuity payment scheme.



Source : Economic Times

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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 at Baa3 with a positive outlook.

ICICI Bank has "meaningful exposure" to large corporates, some of whom are showing weak debt servicing abilities, it said, identifying this as a "key source of risk" for the asset quality.

It said the bank's gross non-performing loans ratio increased to 4.21 per cent as of December 2015 from 3.29 per cent in March 2015, and acknowledged that the RBI's one time asset quality review may have resulted in the spike.

The bank had reported a 4.4 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit to Rs 3,122 crore in the third quarter of the fiscal on a three-fold increase in provisions. It had warned of NPA pains in the March quarter as well.

Moody's today said there has been a significant improvement in its core operating profitability over last few years, with its pre-provision income to average assets ratio increasing to 3.18 per cent for FY15 from 1.91 per cent in FY09.

This was possible on a structural improvement in its funding profile, as well as higher net interest margins and better cost-to-income ratios, it said.



Source : Economic Times

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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 said.


Source : Thehindubusinessline

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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 : Thehindubusinessline

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