United Bank of India opens office in Myanmar

United Bank of India has commenced operations at its representative office at Yangon in Myanmar.

United Bank is the first bank from India to open an office in Myanmar. The setting up of a representative office is likely to give a boost to the Indo-Myanmar trade, said a press statement issued by the bank.

No financial transactions

Though the representative office will not handle any financial transaction, officials will maintain liaison with the Government, banks and traders and will extend help and cooperation toward resolving all issues relating to settlement of trade-related transaction between both the countries, the release said.

shobha.roy@thehindu.co.in

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Karnataka Bank eyes Rs 1-lakh cr biz in 3 years

Karnataka Bank is targeting a business of Rs 1-lakh crore by March 2015, according to its Managing Director.

Inaugurating the new premises of the Balmatta branch of the bank in Mangalore on Friday, P. Jayarama Bhat, Managing Director, said that the bank, which achieved 20 per cent growth in business in the last fiscal, is targeting 25 per cent business growth during the current fiscal.

“We have plans to achieve 30 per cent business growth in the next fiscal. We want to achieve a business of Rs 1-lakh crore by March 2015,” he said.

The bank, which has 514 branches, will take the total number to 550 branches by March 2013, he said.
Takeover rumours

Denying the takeover rumours in the market, he said: “Many rumours are doing rounds in this regard. There is no need for panic in this matter. Your Karnataka Bank will remain as yours.”

Bhat said that Karnataka Bank is not promoted by any individual institution or promoter.

vinayak.aj@thehindu.co.in

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Education loan scheme a top priority for UPA: Chidambaram

Education loans are one of the highest priorities of the UPA government, which is committed to making it an even greater success, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has said. The Government is also confident of achieving the target of allocating 15 per cent of all bank loans to minorities, Chidambaram told Lok Sabha during question hour. Chidambaram reeled out statistics to show how education loans have been a success. 

In a span of three years, the banking system’s education loan portfolio has grown to Rs 52,480 crore. As many as 24.62 lakh accounts have been opened so far towards education loans. On loans to minorities, Chidambaram said that banks have already achieved a level of 14.8 percent and that it should be easy to achieve the 15 per cent target.

Srivats.kr@thehindu.co.in

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RBI extends deadline for new format cheques

Bank account holders can continue to use their old format cheques for another three months as the Reserve Bank of India has extended the deadline for banks to issue new format cheques with uniform security features till March next year.

The RBI, in a notification today, said: “Taking into consideration representations, it has been decided to extend the time up to March 31, 2013 for banks to ensure withdrawal of non-CTS 2010 Standard cheques and replace them with CTS-2010 Standard cheques.”

While most of the banks have confirmed that they are issuing only multi-city or payable at par CTS-2010 standard cheques at present, representations have been received from various stakeholders requesting an extension beyond December 31, it said.

As per earlier direction to all banks, the RBI had fixed December 31 as the last date for phasing out non-CTS (Cheque Truncation System) 2010 Standard cheques.

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RBI may cut rate by FY-13 end, says Uday Kotak

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is likely to slash the lending rate by about 0.5 per cent by March and inflation is likely to be trend down to around 7 per cent levels by 2012-13 fiscal end, Kotak Mahindra Bank Managing Director Uday Kotak said.

“My view is that between now and March, we should see about 50 basis points drop in repo (rate). That will happen in two stages. My sense is one, either in December or January and one before March,” Kotak said on the sidelines of Delhi Economics Conclave here.

Repo is the rate at which RBI lends money to the banks, which is at 8 per cent currently.

The RBI will announce its mid-quarter monetary policy review on December 18. The third quarter review of monetary policy is slated for January 29.

The RBI has so far resisted a widespread call for the growth-propping rate cuts for some time now, citing the elevated inflation.

Kotak also expected that inflation may come down to 7 per cent by March.

“I would believe that by March, we should see inflation around 7 per cent on the wholesale. But consumer price index is still pretty high and we should see more positive moves on that,” he said.

Inflation, as measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), came down to 7.24 per cent in November from 9.46 per cent in the same month a year ago.

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