News

ICICI Bank opens 3 rep offices abroad ICICI bank on tuesday (5th December 2006) opened its representative offices in Thailand ( Bangkok), Indonesia ( Jakarta ) and Malaysia ( Kuala Lumpur), extending its reach to 17 countries. Lakshmi Vilas bank in pact with Western Union Money transfer The Karur based Lakshmi Vilas Bank has tied up with Western Union Financial Services for offering global money transfer facility to its customers. The services would initially be extended to 150 branches located in rural and Semi-urban areas. No Real-time fund transfer for small deals The banking regulator, the Reserve Bank of India has instructed banks that they should not use the instant funds transfer system, known as the Real TIme Gross Settlement (RTGS), for an amount below Rs.1 lakh. The new rule would come into effect from January 1,2007. For small transactions, RBI has asked banks to offer National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) which provided T+0 and T+1 settlement system (depending on the time a customer gives instruction to the bank for tranferring the fund). The key difference between RTGS and NEFT is that while RTGS in on gross settlement basis, NEFT is on net settlement basis. Besides, RTGS facilitates online transfer, while NEFT involves four settlement cycles a day 9.30 am, 10.30 am, 12 pm and 4 pm. Thus if a customer has given instruction to its bank to transfer money through NEFT to another bank in the morning hours, money would be transferrd the same day, but if the instruction is given later during the day, money would be transferred next day. However, RTGS facility is available in over 25000 branches, while NEFT is availabel in 9800 branches. Besides, while all commercial banks have put in place the RTGS facility, only 43 banks have purchased the software required to facilitate NEFT based transaction. RBI has instructed banks that all branches which are RTGS enabled should also provide NEFT by December 2006. Sources said that RBI also had planned to discountinue EFT-Electronic funds Transfer. This is because EFT is availabel only in 15 locations where RBI has its clearing house. As of now, customers can access the RTGS facility only upto 3 pm and inter-bank transactions are possible upto 5 pm.

Bank Stock News

Bank of India to pay 20% interim Bank of India has declared a 20% interim dividend payable on December 20.

Recruitment

Corporation Bank --- Recruitment of specialist officer Assistant General Manager (information Security)---SMG-V---Vacancy---1 Computer officer (Hardware)---MMG--III---Vacancy---4 Computer Officer (Software)---MMG---III---Vacancy---2 Computer Officer (database administrator)---MMG--III---Vacancy---3 Computer Officer (Communication)---MMG---III---Vacancy---3 Security Officer---JMG---I--Vacancy---5 Official Language Officer---JMG---I---Vacancy---5 Law Officer---JMG---I---Vacancy----10 Last date for receipt of application 22.12.2006 Date of written exam ; 18.02.2007 For more information visit www.corpbank.in

News

Banks can open lockers on rent deault According to the draft RBI circular, the locker holder of banks which are categoriesed as "medium risk" and "high risk" according to "know your customer" norms have to open their lockers at least once in three years and one year respectively. If they do not do so they will be given an option to operate or surrender them. If they still do not operate the locker the banks should consider opening the lockers with the help of police after giving due notice to the locker hirer. Other than above banks have the right to break open the lockers of those hirers who do not pay annual rent after giving them due notice. In case of the death of a locker hirer, access to the nominee or the joint hirer can now be given by submission of a death certificate and indentification papers. If there is an 'either or survior' clause and the locker is not to be operated jointly, access may be given only to the survivor in case of the death of one of the hirers. In case of the death of a locker hirer, where there is no nomination but a valid will, access may now be given to the executor. In other cases, access will be given to the legal representative of the deceased. While permitting the removal of the contents of any lockers, by a nominee or a legal heir, banks have been asked to create an inventory of the contents, which is to be signed by the new hirer. Banks cannot, however, open sealed packets left with them for safe custody or found in the locker. The central bank, has told banks that lockers, which do not have nomination clause should obtain the option within a year. PNB's new remittance service Punjab National Bank has launched a new remittance service with Buyindiaonline.com Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Xoom Corporation, USA. Under this service, non-resident Indians can send their remittances to India through the website www.xoom.com. A beneficiary can pick up pay order in his favour from any of the over 2000 core banking solutions branches of the bank in India.

News

Catholic Syrian Bank to offer mediclaim policy The bank has tied up with New India Assurance Company to issue mediclaim policy " CSB Health Care Support " to its customers. Syndicate Bank's CBS The bank has implemented the Core Banking Solution (CBS) in the 1001 branches with Flexcube from i-flex Solutions Ltd.

Bank Stock News

L&T picks up 9.99% in City Union Bank L&T got preferential allotment of 26.65 lakh shares at a price of Rs.169 a share costing it Rs.45 crore.

Class Room

Security Alert--------Lebanese Loop “Lebanese Loop” attacks have become common occurrence especially in the western countries. The modus operandi in Lebanese Loop is comparatively simple, using a combination of technical and social engineering / inter personal skills. The technological part of the Lebanese Loop involves inserting clear plastic sleeves into the card slot of the ATM in advance. When an unsuspecting customer inserts his card for operation, the ATM try to read card’s magnetic strip but the exercise would be in vain as the card will be slotted into the sleeve inserted by fraudster. The situation will prompt the system to display messages like “ System Temporarily out of order “ or “Enter PIN number” etc. Whatever the customer does, may not yield the desired result as the system will not be able to read any instructions keyed in as the card will be within the sleeve inserted by the fraudster. It is at this point in time, that one of the individuals involved in the fraudulent racket will turn up and offer to help. The person offering to help may emerge posing as another customer pretending to be also aggravated over the malfunctioning of the ATM or as someone simply offering to help the customer to wriggle out of the woes he is in, quoting their own similar experience. In either case, the objective, basically, of the person offering to help is to get to know the ATM PIN number of the customer. Needless to mention, any means of support by the stranger may not help in enabling the customer to operate the ATM for obvious reasons. On the other hand, the damage is already done as the PIN number would have, in all probability, been compromised with. After several unsuccessful attempts to re-enter the PIN or at retrieving the card, the user will come into terms with the fact that he cannot retrieve the card anymore from the ATM. He may then opt to intimate the bank instead, for retrieving his card from the ATM. Once the unsuspecting customer leaves, the fraudster will remove the sleeve from the ATM and retrieve the card therein. Thereafter the fraudster is entitled to a free run having both the customer’s card and PIN number at his disposal, which enables him to transact from the customer’s account at will. This modus operandi can be used for trapping all types of cards that are used in ATMs viz. the ATM/Debit/Credit card etc. It is important for each of the customers to remember that if they encounter a scenario as mentioned above, the card slot of the ATM may be carefully examined by running the fingers across it to find one or more of the imperceptible “ prongs “ attached to the plastic sleeve that are designed to enable the fraudster to remove it. It is important to understand that if the card is not possible to be retrieved for any reason, it is not always right to assume that the ATM swallowed it. Instead it is prudent to enquire with the concerned branch/any authorized officials of the bank whether any problem exists with the ATMs and communicate about the card being held back by the system. Most of the banks providing ATM services display in the ATM cabin, the contact numbers, in case of emergency. Timely information will facilitate the bank personnel to look into the issue and ensure that a potential Lebanese Loop attempt is not rendered successful. The branch officials shall therefore exercise prudence/presence of mind whenever such instances are reported. The modus operandi invariably necessitates a scenario wherein the fraudster has to first go to an ATM to rig the card slot and fix the sleeve. Needless to mention the fraudster/his accomplices also have to be present in the vicinity of the ATM/ATM cabin to lend the helping hand to a customer who has been victimized. The most important aspect to be borne in mind is that such of these activities relating to Lebanese Loop to happen without any hindrance, the ideal situation has to be an unmanned ATM location. An unmanned ATM location provides the fraudsters the opportunity to spend ample time at the ATM/in the ATM cabin as is required as a pre-cursor to such fraudulent attempts. The Best preventive measure in the case of manned ATMs is that the security guards posted at the ATM sites do have a close watch on the people entering the ATM cabin, fixing any gadgets in the ATM or in the ATM cabin and those who spend unduly long time inside/around the cabin. Lebanese Loop attempts can be definitely thwarted by the security guards and the timely intervention of the branch officials to a considerable extent. The security guards at the ATM sites and the branch officials should be primarily aware and be vigilant on such issues. The need of the hour, therefore, Is to proactively anticipate and foresee motives in any of the activities being attempted in or around the ATM cabin which is not in line with the normal/prescribed set of actions and activities.