CanBank to go in for brand makeover

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.Canara Bank, which recently turned 100, is in for a brand makeover. The Bangalore-based PSU bank will be the latest in a long list of banks and financial institutions to rebrand themselves in their pursuit to stay ahead of the times. Ray+Kesavan has been assigned the task of the bank’s makeover. The bank will soon sport a trendier logo in place of the familiar ‘flower and palm’ one with the tag ‘serving to grow, growing to serve’. The new tagline will be ‘business to profit, profit to business.’ It is also learnt that the formal launch of the new logo would in all probability coincide with the bank’s foundation day later this month. It is not known whether Canara Bank would go in for a brand ambassador although it had been using the services of Venkatesh Prasad, Indian cricket team’s bowling coach, as a model for some of its products. Prasad, it maybe recalled, is an employee of Canara Bank.

Your family photo on your Deutsche Bank credit card

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it. Would you like to put your family photo on your credit card? Customer-chosen photo on the plastic is something that Deutsche Bank is planning to bring out soon. Deutsche Bank is the new kid on the block in the Indian credit cards business. It launched its cards business only about a year-and-a-half ago and has issued since 350,000 cards. Mr Shameek Bhargava, Director & Head of Credit Cards, Asia Pacific, Deutsche Bank, says (without sharing numbers) that spends on the cards are better than the industry average. But what if you want a picture of your choice on the card ? According to Mr Bhargava, the bank is in the process of putting in place a mechanism for screening the pictures so that less-than-honourable pictures do not get on to Deutsche Bank’s credit cards. Once the mechanism is in place, customers would have the facility

DCB asked to cut promoter stake

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it. The RBI has asked Development Credit Bank Ltd to gradually reduce promoter's stake in it to 10 per cent by 2009. Currently, promoters hold 25.1 per cent stake in the bank. Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Development Credit Bank, Mr Gautam Vir, confirmed the development.

SBI has strong case for rights issue, says Chidambaram

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it. The State Bank of India’s long awaited ‘rights issue’ of shares to raise additional capital would appear to have received official blessings with the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, strongly endorsing the bank’s proposal. The bank’s board is understood to have made a presentation to the Minister in Mumbai on its capital requirements. The Government had acquired the 59.73 per cent stake of the bank from the Reserve Bank of India at Rs 35,531 crore in June this year. A senior official of the bank said, “We have an immediate requirement of Tier-I capital of Rs 10,000 crore in order to make ourselves Basel II compliant by March 31, 2008.” He also said that the bank has a long-term capital need in order to fund its growth. The bank’s Capital Adequacy Ratio was 12.85 per cent (12.63 per cent) as on September 30.

Religare, Corporation Bank tie up

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it. Religare, an integrated financial services provider, announced that it will be tying up with the Corporation Bank to further strengthen its Bancinvest Channel. This tie-up will focus on offering Religare’s Internet trading services platform to the bank’s customers. The facility will be part of a value-added 3-in-1 offering for the bank’s savings account customers, offering them a savings and a DP account from the bank along with Internet trading account, powered by Religare.