IBA improves offer by 0.5%

Bipartite settlement held today 27th January 2014 between IBA and UFBU to settle the wage settlement of bankers saw IBA improvings its offer by 0.5% to 10% and the unions rejecting the same and announcing strike on 10th and 11th of February 2014.

UCO Bank Q3

Public sector lender UCO Bank announced a whopping 206.95% y-o-y jump in its net profit to Rs 314.53 Cr for the quarter ended December 31, 2013, from Rs 102.47 Cr in the year-ago period. This was largely on the account of a more than 36% jump in its operating profit. The Kolkata-headquartered bank’s asset quality also improved as the gross as well as net non-performing assets (NPAs) were trimmed. The bank’s operating profit rose to Rs 1,137 Cr for the third quarter this fiscal against Rs 831 Cr in the year-ago period, on the back of a substantial rise in net interest income (NII). NII during the period under review stood at Rs 1,566 Cr against Rs 1,177 Cr in the year-ago period, registering 32.97% y-o-y growth. Retail lending saw a high growth, while corporate lending declined. UCO Bank CMD Arun Kaul attributed the more-than-three-fold rise in net profit to healthy growth in net interest income, rise in Casa ratio and a decrease in cost of funds.

Kharb Allahabad Bank's new ED

Allahabad Bank on Friday said Jal Karan Singh Kharb has joined the state-run lender as an executive director. He started his career with Dena Bank as a probationary officer in 1983 and was the general manager of the bank prior to this appointment. He is an LLB with CAIIB (II).

Central Bank of India's new ED

B K Divakara has taken charge as executive director at Central Bank of India. Prior to taking charge of the new assignment, he was working as general manager with Mangalore-based Corporation Bank, another public sector lender.

Karnataka Bank profit up 33%

Karnataka Bank saw its net profit grow 33.25% to 106.7 Cr in the third quarter of 2013-14. P. Jayarama Bhat, Managing Director, attributed the net profit growth to the 19.2% rise in net interest income and lower slippages compared to the first and second quarters of this fiscal. The NII increased to 271.50 Cr (227.80 Cr). The net NPA reached 2.23% (2.19%) during the period. On the outlook for the fourth quarter of 2013-14, he said: “We should grow better than all these three quarters, and we are looking at a guidance of around 2.75% for NIM (net interest margin) and return on assets (RoA) of 1%. The RoA was 0.96% for Q3 of 2013-14 and 0.71% for the nine-month period. The deposits stood at 38,683 Cr (34,620 Cr), and advances at 27,005 Cr (23,404 Cr). The bank’s effort to increase the retail loan book has started yielding results, he said.

E-donation facility

Corporation Bank has facilitated ‘e-Kanike/e-Donation’ service through its e-payment gateway for the benefit of the devotees of Sree Padmanabha Swami Temple, Thiruvananthapuram. A press statement by the bank said on Tuesday that the devotees across the world could just click in and offer donation or book for different ‘sevas’. S.R. Bansal, Chairman and Managing Director of Corporation Bank, inaugurated the ‘e-Kanike’ facility at the zonal office of the bank in Thiruvananthapuram in the presence of Lt Col S.R. Bhuvanendran Nair, Executive Officer of Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple. Girdhar Shenoy and Lakshminatha Reddy, general managers of the bank, were present on the occasion.

The Bank is already having E-kanike/E-donation facility for following temples

Dharmasthala Sri Manjunatha Swami Temple  

Udupi Sri Krishna Mutt   

Kollur Sri Mookambika Temple                   

Indian Bank Q3 net down 20% as provisioning rises

Indian Bank has reported a 20% drop in net profit at Rs 264.50 Cr for the quarter ended December 31, 2013, against Rs 330.58 Cr in the corresponding previous-year period. T. M. Bhasin, Chairman and Managing Director of the bank, attributed the drop in net profit to additional provisions of around Rs165 Cr made towards pension fund and gratuity. The bank’s gross non-performing assets (NPA) grew to 3.42% (Rs 3,834.78 Cr) during the quarter, from 3.18% (Rs 3,180.12 Cr) in the same period of last year. The net NPA too rose to 2.25% (Rs 2,483.60 Cr) from 2.17% (Rs 2,141.86 Cr). However, Bhasin said the bank has made a robust recovery of 539 Cr during the quarter. The gross NPA has come down to 3.42%, from 3.76% for the quarter ended September 2013, aided by their sale to asset reconstruction companies. The bank has a provision coverage of 57.99%. During the quarter, non-performing assets aggregating to Rs 389.97 Cr (net of provisions) were sold to asset reconstruction companies for Rs 675.71 Cr. Bhasin said, in addition to the above, the bank has identified 19 large-value accounts (totalling around 300 Cr) to sell to ARCs.

SBI launches Youtube channel

Nation’s largest lender State Bank of India strengthened its social media presence with the launch of its channel on popular video sharing website Youtube and said it will also be launching its handle on the micro-logging site Twitter soon. “The YouTube channel is another platform that will enable us to connect with our customers. SBI will continue to spread its footprint on social media through the launch of platforms like Twitter, shortly,” Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya said in a statement. The YouTube channel, which follows a dedicated Facebook page launch in November, will initially have information about the bank’s products and services and its legacy to begin with and will gradually include philanthropic initiatives, it said in a statement. SBI, has over 200 years of history. It has over 15,000 branches and over 43,000 ATMs. The bank statement said the Youtube channel will help it connect with the young and technologically savvy customers.

Banks not to credit "account payee" cheque proceeds to third party

In a circular issued on 22nd January 2014 the RBI has strictly prohibited the banks from crediting  'account payee' cheques to the account of any person other than the payee named therein. RBI reiterated its previous circulars and instructed that banks should strictly collect ‘account payee’ cheques only for their payee constituents.

Banks may, however, consider collecting account payee cheques drawn for an amount not exceeding Rs.50,000/- to the account of their customers who are co-operative credit societies, if the payees of such cheques are the constituents of such co-operative credit societies

Bank notes issued prior to 2005 will be withdrawn from 31st March 2014

The Reserve Bank of India has today (22nd January 2014) advised that after March 31, 2014, it will completely withdraw from circulation all banknotes issued prior to 2005. From April 1, 2014, the public will be required to approach banks for exchanging these notes. Banks will provide exchange facility for these notes until further communication. The Reserve Bank further stated that public can easily identify the notes to be withdrawn as the notes issued before 2005 do not have on them the year of printing on the reverse side.

The Reserve Bank has also clarified that the notes issued before 2005 will continue to be legal tender. This would mean that banks are required to exchange the notes for their customers as well as for non-customers. From July 01, 2014, however, to exchange more than 10 pieces of `500 and `1000 notes, non-customers will have to furnish proof of identity and residence to the bank branch in which she/he wants to exchange the notes.

The Reserve Bank has appealed to the public not to panic. They are requested to actively co-operate in the withdrawal process.

Major lenders for Kingfisher Airlines

SBI has the largest exposure to Kingfisher at Rs 1,600 Cr, followed by Punjab National Bank and IDBI Bank at Rs 800 Cr each. Bank of India and Bank of Baroda have an exposure of Rs 650 Cr and Rs 550 Cr, respectively.

9000% dividend !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB) has declared an interim dividend of 9,000%. That’s actually Rs 900 per share of Rs 10 each, for the fiscal ending March 2014. The board of this Tuticorin-headquartered bank took a decision to this effect at a meeting held on January 18. Bank sources said this would translate into an outgo of Rs 25.6 Cr (unchanged from last year). The 9,000% interim dividend is said to be the highest in the banking industry and this is the second year in a row that the bank has declared such a high dividend. It may be recalled that the bank’s board had approved a dividend of Rs 750 per share for 2008-09 and Rs 1,000 per share the following year, but could not make the payment as the annual general meetings for 2009-10 and 2010-11 were not held due to legal issues. The AGMs for the subsequent years have also not been held till date. As a result of the legal tangles, the bank has been compelled to hold back some major decisions, including the plan to go for an initial public offering. Bank sources said TMB’s shares continue to trade at between Rs 60,000 and Rs 65,000 a share in the informal market.

FII can invest upto 74% in Federal Bank

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the proposal of Federal Bank for increase in foreign investment up to 74%. This nod is, however, subject to the condition that aggregate foreign institutional investor shareholding will not exceed 49% of the paid-up capital of the bank. The approval will result in a foreign investment of Rs 1,400 Cr into the country, an official release said. As at end December 2013, FIIs had an aggregate holding of 43.34% in the private sector lender.

Kotak Mahindra Bank Q3

Private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank disappointed street with its third quarter earnings  on every parameter with the asset quality weakening. Standalone (banking operations only) net profit fell 6 percent year-on-year to Rs 340 crore and net interest income grew nearly 11 percent to Rs 912.7 crore.  Asset quality Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) expanded 4 basis points sequentially (55 basis points year-on-year) to 2.01 percent while net NPAs jumped 14 bps quarter-on-quarter (46 bps Y-o-Y) to 1.1 percent in the quarter gone by. In absolute term, gross NPAs surged 7 percent quarter-on-quarter (45.4 percent year-on-year) to Rs 1,076.18 crore while net NPAs climbed 20 percent Q-o-Q (81 percent Y-o-Y) to Rs 584.52 crore during October-December quarter.

Vacancies at Reserve Bank of India

Reserve Bank of India has called applications for filling various vacancies:

Combined Advertisement for the posts of (i) Research Officers in Gr. ‘B’ for DEPR (ii) Research Officers in Gr. ‘B’ for DSIM (iii) Assistant Manager (Rajbhasha) in Gr. ‘A’ and (iv) Manager (Technical-Civil) in Gr. ‘B’

Last Date for applying is 17.02.2014

IDBI Bank joins the credit card bandwagon

 

 

Nearly nine years after becoming a full-fledged commercial bank, IDBI Bank has decided to issue credit cards to its customers. The Mumbai-headquartered bank intends to issue around five lakh cards in three years — one lakh in the first year and two lakh cards each in the following two years. The public sector bank, which currently has a base of more than 10 million customers, will be issuing EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) chip cards with magnetic stripes. EMV is a global security standard for microprocessor chip card technology. This ensures that the credit card is not only accepted anywhere in the world but is also better protected against fraudulent activities. Since many merchant establishments in the country still have credit card payment infrastructure (terminals) that accept cards with magnetic stripe, the bank has decided to issue EMV cards with magnetic stripe. The category of credit cards that the bank plans to issue are: Platinum, Signature and Corporate. For foraying into the credit cards space, IDBI Bank is planning to engage the services of a third party service (TPS) provider for providing end-to-end solutions for credit card issuance under the outsourced model.

Bank accounts for all in two years — a pipe dream?

The recommendation of the Nachiket Mor committee to provide bank account to every Indian over 18 years of age by January 1, 2016, seems a little stretched. It hinges on banks opening accounts based on KYC authentication done by the UIDAI for providing the 12-digit Aadhaar number to resident Indians. Till date, the UIDAI has provided Aadhaar numbers to about 56 Cr Indians. It plans to provide Aadhaars to three Cr Indians every month and complete the coverage by December 2015. But the UIDAI has, by design or default, left out most people working as migrant labourers and domestic helps as they do not possess valid identification and address proof. So, before banks can ride on the UIDAI-enabled KYC verification, the Authority must seek out such people and issue them Aadhaar numbers. According to the Mor committee report, only 36% adult Indians — 45% in urban centres and 32% in rural areas — have bank accounts. It is, however, not clear how many of these accounts are unique, as banks still lack the unique customer identification code where dual accounts of the same person across banks can be identified.

Virus - Beware

cyber security sleuths have detected a 'black' private information stealing virus in the Indian online banking transactions space and have alerted consumers who swipe debit or credit cards at shopping counters to make payments.

The 'severely' spreading virus of the Trojan family has been detected conducting its clandestine operations at the point of sale counters placed at retail terminals after the RBI made it mandatory in December last year for debit cards holders to punch in their PIN every time they make a purchase.

Bank of India loan against property scheme

Public sector lender Bank of India is giving Loan against Property at 11.75%. The loan can be taken for your personal and business needs. The maximum loan amount is Rs.5 crore and the repayment period is maximum 12 years.

RBI directive to Banks on Loan against gold

In its directive dated 20th January 2014 the RBI has directed banks that ,

As a prudential measure, it has been decided to prescribe a Loan to Value (LTV) Ratio of not exceeding 75 per cent for banks’ lending against Gold jewellery (including bullet repayment loans against pledge of gold jewellery). Therefore, henceforth loans sanctioned by banks should not exceed 75 per cent of the value of gold ornaments and jewellery.

In order to standardize the valuation and make it more transparent to the borrower, it has been decided that gold jewellery accepted as security/collateral will have to be valued at the average of the closing price of 22 carat gold for the preceding 30 days as quoted by the India Bullion and Jewellers Association Ltd. [Formerly known as the Bombay Bullion Association Ltd. (BBA)]. If the gold is of purity less than 22 carats, the bank should translate the collateral into 22 carat and value the exact grams of the collateral. In other words, jewellery of lower purity of gold shall be valued proportionately.