Yes Bank savings account interest rates cut; turns 5th lender to do so

Mid-sized private lender Yes Bank on Wednesday became the fifth bank to reduce interest rates on savings accounts. With effect from September 1, savings accounts with balances under Rs 1 lakh at the bank will now earn 5%, against 6% so far. Accounts with balances of Rs 1 crore and above will earn 6.25%, compared with 6.5% earlier. In the last two weeks, State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda (BoB) and Axis Bank have all reduced interest rates on savings accounts by 50 basis points (bps) to 3.5%. While the cut at SBI applies to accounts with...

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Bank unions firm on strike as talks with IBA fail

Talks between the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) and the unions held in Mumbai on Wednesday, to avert a nationwide strike on August 22, have failed.DT Franco of the All-India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) and CH Venkatachalam of the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) said the IBA insisted that it was for the government to make a decision on most of the unions’ demands.But they were appreciative of the fact that, for the first time, the IBA took the initiative to call the unions for talks. The unions will now meet with the...

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Jan Dhan accounts may be losing their momentum

Jan Dhan is probably the most aggressive scheme undertaken by any government for financial inclusion. Between December 2014 and December 2016, the number of accounts increased from 104 million to 262 million and further to 288 million by May 2017. However, the challenge is to get people to use these accounts and get into the banking habit, so that they could move up the ladder and use a credit facility or remittance or third-party product offered by banks. How successful has this scheme been?The thrust was on numbers to begin with and, hence,...

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