Govt comes up with Rs 1,400-Cr interest subvention on loans taken by women SHGs

The government on Monday reached out to rural women by rolling out a R1,400- Cr interest subvention on loans taken by Self Help Groups working for their empowerment. Interest subvention for the loans taken by women Self Help Groups (SHGs) is a significant initiative under the Centre’s ambitious programme National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM). Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said that it is applicable for loans availed by women SHGs from April 1, 2013. According to the minister, from Monday onwards, all banks/will lend to women SHGs at upfront 7% interest (for loans upto R3 lakhs) in 150 select backward districts, most of which are affected by Naxal menace. These SHGs will get a further 3% subvention on prompt repayment, thus the effective charge on all such loans will be 4% only.

IBA issues advisory to banks on use of Win XP

The Indian Banks Association (IBA) has issued an advisory to banks to ensure business continuity after Microsoft ends support for its popular Windows XP operating system on April 8. IBA, in its advisory, drew the attention of the banks to a study by Microsoft, which estimates that over 34,000 branches of public sector banks would become vulnerable following the US-based firm’s decision to stop support to Windows XP. The fiscal impact of this could be as much as a loss of business opportunity worth Rs 1,100 Cr in a day and a loss of income worth Rs 330 Cr over a period of three days (assuming that a major incident may take three days for the systems to come up to normal functioning), the study had said.

Kotak Mahindra Bank hikes interest on Deposit

 

The private sector bank has revised interest rates on its rupee term deposits of less than Rs. 1 Cr for select maturity buckets by up to 25 bps, with effect from February 6, the bank said in a statement. The bank now offers 9.25% interest (9% earlier) for the 390-day deposit and 9% (8.75%) for deposits in the 181-269 day tenor. Kotak Bank is the first lender to hike its deposit rates after the central bank increased the repo rate by 25 bps to 8% in its third quarter Monetary Policy Review.

Vijaya Bank Q3

Vijaya Bank reported a 91.1% drop in net profit at Rs 11.39 Cr for the October- December quarter due to higher provisioning for bad loans and rise in operating expenses. The Bangalore-based public sector lender had posted a net profit of Rs 126.73 Cr for the same quarter of last fiscal. The bank’s total income in the third quarter ended December 31, 2013, increased to Rs 2,874.60 Cr, from Rs 2,357.05 Cr in the year-ago period, the bank said. Provisions other than tax and contingencies during the quarter increased to Rs 159.41 Cr against Rs 102.72 Cr in the same period of last fiscal. At the same time, operating expense of the bank rose to Rs 456.39 Cr during the quarter compared to Rs 319.18 Cr. As of December 31, the bank’s portfolio quality improved, with gross NPAs rising to 2.67% of gross advances against 2.91% a year ago. Its net NPAs during the third quarter declined to 1.57%, from 1.71% in the period a year earlier. During the three quarters (April-December) of 2013-14, the bank’s net profit declined by 22% to Rs 280.07 Cr against Rs 361.46 Cr in same period of 2012-13. Its total income rose to Rs 8,387.03 Cr for the nine months, from Rs 6,978.68 Cr in the year-ago period.

Govt may infuse capital of Rs.175 cr

 

Corporation Bank is planning to raise Rs.175 Cr from the government to meet the lender’s capital requirement. S R Bansal, chairman and managing director, Corporation Bank, said that during the fiscal, the government had infused Rs.450 Cr and will pump in another Rs.175 Cr by end of the fiscal. Speaking at the launch of bank’s SME loan centre in Chennai, Bansal said with the proposed infusion, the government’s stake will increase to 63% from the current 58%. Bansal said the bank would focus on retail, SME and agriculture. Currently, the retail portfolio accounts for 15% of the total credit portfolio and the plan was to increase it to 25% in the next 12 months. To boost lending to these sectors, specialized centres for each of the businesses are being set up across the country.

Corporation Bank CMD speaks

 

SR Bansal, CMD of Corporation Bank, is a banking industry veteran with more than three decades of experience. Known in the industry circles for his result-oriented approach and quick decision-making, Bansal assumed charge of Mangalore-based Corporation Bank in October 2013. In an interview he said that he is now focused on five areas for growth. According to him, the overall performance of the financial sector in general and the banking sector in particular has been impacted. “The credit and deposit growth in the current fiscal has been moderate so far, but we expect some improvement in the last quarter, which is the busy season” he said. In this environment, retail, agriculture and SME (small and medium enterprise) sectors offer good potential and we have made efforts to improve our business in these segments. I have advised our field staff to focus on five important areas, he added. Mobilising CASA deposits; quality credit growth with focus on agriculture, retail and MSME; expansion of branch and ATM network and alternative delivery channels; customer acquisition, especially Next-Gen customers; and improvement in asset quality, according to him are the major focus areas for the Bank.