PNB officers’ plea

The fourth State conference of Punjab National Bank Officers’ Association (Kerala) has demanded regulation of the working hours of bank officers, introduction of five-day week, and recruitment of sufficient staff.

It also appealed to the government to stop mergers and consolidation of banks and take effective measures to combat price rise.

The conference was inaugurated by T. R. Verma, general secretary, All India Punjab National Bank Officers’ Federation. K.C. Mohandas, Chairman, PNBOA (Kerala), presided.

Source: thehindubusinessline

Read more »

Technical glitch in IOB’s core banking system hits service

A technical snag in Indian Overseas Bank’s core banking system (CBS) on Monday affected services across the country.

According to M. Narendra, Chairman and Managing Director of the bank, following a usual maintenance work, a complex technical malfunction cropped up in the system that restrained banking services to its customers. While the transactions were carried out on the basis of account holders’ Saturday balance in some branches across the country, the bank’s ATM network could not transact any business on Monday.

However, Narendra explained that while customers of other banks could withdraw money from IOB ATMs, IOB customers were able to transact their business on other banks’ ATMs. “Our technical team is working on this, and we hope to get the system back in order by tomorrow,” he said.

The bank has 3,000 branches and a little over 2,000 ATMs.

Meanwhile, the bank has appointed EY (formerly, Ernst & Young) as consultant to shift its core banking system “from an individual platform to Oracle base” in order to align with other banks’ CBS, said Narendra. Since most banks are on the Oracle platform, the rest of the banks were asked to migrate to it. Currently, some banks, including IOB, Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank, are using individual platforms.

ravikumar.r@thehindu.co.in

Source: thehindubusinessline

Read more »

Axis Bank hikes base rate by 25 bps to 10.25%

Axis Bank, India’s third largest private sector bank, today hiked its base rate or the minimum lending rate to 10.25 per cent from 10 per cent earlier.

The new base rate will be effective from August 19, 2013. One basis point is one hundredth of one per cent (0.01 per cent).

Base rate is the rate below which banks cannot lend.

The private lender had increased its short term deposit rates by up to 50-400 bps in select tenures ranging from 7 days to one year.

Recently, YES Bank and HDFC Bank also hiked their base rate after the Reserve Bank of India tightened the liquidity from the banking system making it expensive for the banks’ short term borrowings.

The RBI had kept the key policy rate unchanged in its first monetary policy review in July. However, its liquidity tightening measures taken in July has impacted the short-term rates.

On July 15, the RBI capped banks' borrowings under liquidity adjustment facility and increased the marginal standing facility rate by 200 basis points to 10.30 per cent. The move has led to an increase in cost of funds for the banks if the steps are not rolled back, soon their margins would get affected, bankers said.

beena.parmar@thehindu.co.in

Source: thehindubusinessline

Read more »

IDBI Mutual launches tax saving fund

IDBI Mutual Fund launched an open-ended equity-linked savings scheme (ELSS), ‘IDBI tax saving fund’, with an aim to provide capital appreciation to investors along with tax benefit.

The new offering which will be open for subscription from tomorrow, will close on September 3 and the scheme will re-open for continuous sale from September 17.

“We feel this is the right time for equity investors to enter into the market as the valuations are attractive in many stocks following the recent market crash. Apart from capital appreciation, the new fund will also offer tax savings to the investors,” Debashish Mallick, Chief Executive, IDBI Mutual Fund said here.

He also said the fund house expects to garner around Rs 100 crore during the NFO period.

“We will majorly focus on retail investors for this new scheme,” Mallick said.

When asked about the timing of launch, Mallick said equity funds tend to do well when valuations are at an attractive level as investors benefit in the long run.

Talking on the distribution penetration, Mallick said the fund house is planning to increase the strength of its representative offices.

IDBI MF, promoted by public sector lender IDBI Bank, has a total AUM of around Rs 5,500 crore at the end of June quarter.

Source: thehindubusinessline

Read more »

All women bank to have 25 branches by fiscal-end

Government plans to set up about 25 branches of the proposed public sector Bharatiya Mahila Bank, India’s first all women bank, by the end of this fiscal.

“The Bharatiya Mahila Bank proposes to complete the first six branches at Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Indore and Guwahati by October 15 and take the total to 25 by March 31, 2014,” an official said.

The government has already approved Rs 1,000 crore seed capital for the women focused public sector bank, announced by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his budget speech.

The government is also on look out for locations to set up the branches, including at Kolkata, Guwahati, Chennai, Bangalore, Jaipur, Lucknow, Mysore and Indore. The proposed bank, to be headquartered at Delhi, is likely to be operational by November this year.

Reserve Bank of India gave its in-principal approval for the Bharatiya Mahila Bank in June and the banking company is being set up, the official added.

One of the key objective of the Bank is focus on the banking needs of women and promote economic empowerment.

Earlier in the month, the Finance Ministry had said it will seek Parliament in the first Supplementary to be approved in the ongoing Monsoon Session.

Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said had the initial capital of Rs 1,000 crore for the bank has been so decided that it is not capital constrained for expansion of normal business.

Source: thehindubusinessline

Read more »