Nabard staff to join Sept 2 strike

All-India Nabard Employees’ Association, the recognised trade union of workmen employees of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, has decided to join the call for nationwide strike on September 2 given by 16 Central trade unions. VK Bhosale, General Secretary of the Association, served the strike notice to the Chairman of Nabard, a spokesman said. The unions are demanding, among others, , enforcement of labour laws, fixation of minimum wages at Rs.15,000, revised gratuity, and removal of ceiling for bonus and provident fund.


Source : Thehindubusinessline

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RBI to transfer 25% more to Govt

The Reserve Bank of India will transfer 25 per cent more by way of surplus funds to the government for the year ended June 30, 2015. The central bank, in a statement, said its Central Board of Directors, at its meeting held on Thursday, approved the transfer of surplus funds amounting to Rs.65,896 crore to the Government of India. The surplus amounts were Rs.52,679 crore and Rs.33,010 crore for the years ended June 30, 2014 and June 30, 2013, respectively.


Source : Thehindubusinessline

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Axis Bank set to roll out contactless card payments

Axis Bank, India’s third-largest private sector bank, will soon facilitate contactless payment for its premium debit, credit and multi-currency forex card customers.

The bank plans to cater to about 1.70 lakh premium segment customers, accounting for about 1 per cent of its total customer base of 1.7 crore. “The industry has seen about Rs.12,000-13,000 crore worth debit card transactions that are below Rs.2,000. So, we are piloting with 100 merchants in a couple of cities to facilitate the tap-and-go payments,” said Jairam Sridharan, President of Consumer Lending at Axis Bank. At present, about 70 per cent of transactions through debit cards are below Rs.2,000 value across the banking industry.

"We need to create a culture of customers getting to know how to use the tap-and-go payment system. Changing this behaviour will take time. So, we are first trying to aim at the segment which will be quicker to adapt," Sridharan explained.

Globally, near-field communication (NFC)-based payments are popular in, among others, quick-service restaurants, department stores, and campuses.


Source : Thehindubusinessline

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Bank of Maharashtra Q1 net drops 50% to Rs 59 cr on higher provisioning

Bank of Maharashtra has reported a 49.55 per cent fall in net profit at Rs 59.44 crore for the quarter ended June 30, hurt by a sharp increase in bad loans and higher provisions.

The bank had reported a net profit of Rs 117.82 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

The bank’s total income in the quarter under review stood at Rs 3,526.13 crore, up 7.30 per cent against Rs 3,286.12 crore in the same period a year ago.

Provisions and contingencies in the quarter more than doubled to Rs 483.91 crore as against Rs 236.25 crore in the same quarter in previous year.

Net non-performing assets (NPA) of the bank during the first quarter increased sharply to 5.04 per cent as against 2.94 per cent during the corresponding period a year ago.

Shares of Bank of Maharashtra were trading at Rs 35.10 apiece in the afternoon session, down 3.57 per cent from their previous close on the BSE.


Source : Thehindubusinessline

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Healthy fee income and a drop in bad loans helped the country’s largest lender, State Bank of India, to post a 10 rise in net profit in the April-June quarter at Rs.3,692 crore.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, increased marginally by 4 per cent, while non-interest income (including income from trading profits and fees) rose 19 per cent to Rs.5,088 crore.

Fresh slippages from standard to bad loans during the quarter stood at Rs.7,318 crore, down from Rs.9,932 crore in Q1 FY15.

“The main slippages were in the retail and agriculture segments. The sequential increase in slippages was a seasonal impact. But year-on-year they have been coming down,” said Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson, SBI.

The bank’s asset quality improved with gross bad loans or non-performing assets (NPAs) declining to Rs.56,420 crore against Rs.60,434 crore a year ago. Gross NPAs as a percentage of total loans fell to 4.3 per cent (4.9 per cent a year ago).

“Slippage from restructured assets was only 8.6 per cent… Going forward, recoveries (of bad loans) will be better or at least equal to earlier times,” Bhattacharya said.

Bhattacharya added that credit growth is not happening since there is a lot of weakness in commodity prices, input and energy prices. “We will transmit rates only when credit growth picks up,” she said.

The SBI chief added that deposit rates will get re-priced over the next nine months.

She expects credit growth to be around 14 per cent and deposit growth at 14-15 per cent in FY16.

Consolidated results

On a consolidated basis, SBI posted a 6 per cent rise in net profit at Rs.4,714 crore in the first quarter (Rs.4,448 crore in the year-ago quarter).

On Tuesday, SBI shares ended at Rs.269.30 apiece, down 4.87 per cent on the BSE.


Source : Thehindubusinessline

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