SEBI to launch toll-free investor helpline

Chennai: Market regulator SEBI would launch a toll-free helpline as part of educating investors on the securities market, Chairman U K Sinha a said today.

With the launch of helpline, an investor can ask any question regarding the securities market which will be answered. "The reason why we are launching is that we have identified that self-help mechanism could be more useful for investor," Sinha told reporters.

Besides, SEBI would launch in association with the Central Board of Secondary Education a course curriculum on financial markets at the secondary school level as part of educating the younger generation (about the financial market).

"We are trying to make all the students aware about the basics of financial market. (Before launching), the curriculum will be tested. It will be built in to the senior secondary curriculum to begin with..", he said on the sidelines of a conference.

Asked why it has been launched through the CBSE mode than targeting the State government run schools, he said once this experiment was successful, it would be expanded into other areas.

Source: Financial Express

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State-run banks told to discard fast-track promotion policies

NEW DELHI: The finance ministry has directed state-run banks to do away with their separate promotion policies, a move strongly opposed by the officers' unions. The fresh guidelines aim at removing the anomalies across public sector banks and addressing severe manpower shortage by creating a common pool of managers.

This spells the end of fasttrack and super fast-track promotions at managerial levels in some public sector banks, including the country's largest lender, State Bank of India. The new guidelines will allow lateral movement across banks without any remuneration issues, a finance ministry official said.

"The guidelines will also ensure that there are eligible candidates across all verticals in all 21 state-run banks, which is a big advantage when it comes to succession planning," said a human resources head at a Mumbai-based bank. The 2.5 lakh strong All India Bank Officers' Confederation has, however, slammed the revised guidelines.

"The government should realise the situation is different in each bank and it cannot force its policies," said TN Goel, senior vice-president of the confederation. As per the guidelines, an employee will have to work in all verticals of a bank before being promoted to the middle management level.

"Specialists recruited in banks will however have to spend at least five years in their area before being moved to other functions," the finance ministry official said. Further, in a case where a relaxation has been provided on the basis of merit, the same officer will not be eligible again, the official said.

The guidelines run contrary to the recommendations of a panel, set up to look into human resource issues at state-run banks, which had recommended that the banks should develop mechanisms for identifying star performers and to track their performance for fast-track growth. Headed by former Bank of Baroda chairman AK Khandelwal, the panel had suggested that such a move will act as a motivational and retention tool, besides creating a leadership pipeline.

Source: EconomicTimes

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Govt to interview 10 EDs for banks CMD post on January 4

MUMBAI: The appointments committee will interview executive directors of ten public sector banks on January 4, 2012 for CMD post in six banks.

The ten candidates called for the interview include S.S. Mundra from Union Bank of India, R V Iyer and Rajiv Dubey from Central Bank of India, Ashwini Kumar of Corporation Bank, Archana Bhargava from Canara Bank, V Kannan from Oriental bank of Commerce, Ravi Chatterjee from Syndicate Bank, Rajeev Rishi from Indian Bank, Ashwani Kumar from Corporation Bank and Rakesh Sethi from Punjab National Bank.

The candidates are being selected to fill vacancies in fiscal year 2012-13 in Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Dena Bank, Allahabad Bank and United bank of India.

Meanwhile, the government has yet to issue notification for the post of executive director in bank like Indian Overseas Bank and Andhra Bank, Even as the candidates names have been cleared.

Source: EconomicTimes

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Government wants common strategy from PSU banks on lending & debt recast plans for 4 troubled sectors

NEW DELHI: Amid rising concerns over bad debt, the government has finally got all state-run banks on board to push a common strategy on lending and debt recast plans for four sectors - aviation, power, telecom and textiles - that are facing stress.

Sources said that in a first of its kind meeting, financial services secretary D K Mittal met heads of top public sector banks in Bangalore last Sunday to chalk out a plan in the wake of fears of the situation worsening due to slowing pace of economic activity.

The move comes at a time when several banks have restructured their loans to power companies and state utilities, or have stopped lending, and a debt recast package for the textiles sector is in the works. Similarly, in case of aviation, loans to Air India have been restructured, while a request for fresh funding assistance from Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines has been submitted to lenders led by State Bank of India. For telecom, there are worries of loan repayment as several banks had provided funds to service providers to pay the spectrum fee of nearly Rs 67,000 crore. Already, telecom companies are under strain due to falling average revenue from subscribers and the fate of some is unclear due to the 2G scandal.

Bank executives, however, said that the meeting was "usual discussion" and not focused on any particular steps. A government official said that the idea was to get all the public sector players, who control nearly three quarters of the lending in the country, on the same page. "It is important that there is better coordination between these banks even if they are not part of the same consortium that lends," the official said.

Another official pointed out that there have been instances in the past where a borrower has defaulted in loan repayment to one public sector bank but has managed to get a fresh loan from another state-owned lender.

Sources said that going forward, the finance ministry is planning to hold quarterly meetings with bankers for better coordination.

On Friday, the Reserve Bank of India too stuck a note of caution on non-performing assets of banks, which are rising three times faster than the five-year average. It had made a special mention of the power sector and said: "With losses among state electricity boards and coal supply issues faced power projects, high concentration of bank credit in power generation is a matter of concern," the regulator had said in the Financial Stability Report.

RBI's stress test showed that if bad loans were to increase 150%, 20 banks representing 46% of bank lending in India would be forced to seek capital support as their core capital adequacy would fall below the prescribed 6%.

Considering that gross NPAs of banks were at 2.01% in March 2011, a 150% increase would translate to a gross NPA ratio of 5.02%.

Source: EconomicTimes

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Punjab National Bank raises NRE deposit rates to 9.25 per cent

MUMBAI: The second largest public sector lender Punjab National Bank today increased the interest rates on NRE term deposits ranging one to five year period to 9.25 percent. The rates will be effective from January 1, the bank said in a filing to the BSE.

Last week, many other banks HDFC Bank, Yes Bank, Federal Bank, Allahabad Bank and Dhanlaxmi Bank among others had steeply increased the interest rates on select maturities of NRE deposits.

HDFC Bank increased the interest rates on NRE deposits of Rs one crore and above with a maturity of one to two year to nine percent against 3.82 percent earlier. It has, however, left the NRO deposit rates unchanged.

The state-run Allahabad Bank has also raised its NRE deposits up to 7.5 percent. The Kolkata-based bank will now offer 7.5 percent for one to two years tenor (against 3.82 percent earlier), 7 percent on deposits of two to three years (from 3.51 percent), and 6.75 percent for those above three years (from 3.64 percent).

Also, the Kochi-based Federal Bank and Laxmivilas Bank have also increased its interest rates on NRE deposits for various slabs in order to attract non-resident deposits. Another private sector lender IndusInd Bank also increased pricing 9.25 percent among the state-run banks Dena Bank offers the highest pricing at 9.6 percent. Similarly, Yes Bank came out with a 15 month-and-15 days to 16-month NRE deposit offer, promising depositors 9.60 percent interest.

Source: EconomicTimes

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