City Union Banks New Deposit Scheme

Its called CUB 500. The deposit is for 500 days. The interest payable is 10.75% p.a. for senior citizens its 11.00% p.a.. The minimum deposit to be kept is Rs.10,000/- and the Maximum is Rs.2,00,00,000/-. The deposit is effective from June 11,2007.

Dena Bank is Recruiting

Dena Bank is recruiting Clerks and Offiers for its various offices across India. For more details and application forms kindly visit www.denabank.com

Lending target: RBI raises loan limit for poor

Reserve Bank on Wednesday raised the limit of loan under the Differential Rate of Interest (DRI) scheme from Rs 6,500 to Rs 15,000 and for housing loan from Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000 per beneficiary. This assistance under the scheme is provided by the banks to low income groups at a concessional rate of interest 4 per cent. The target for lending under DRI scheme will continue to be one per cent of the previous year's total advances, RBI said in a notification. The decision follows the announcement made by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his budget speech to raise the ceiling on DRI scheme.

Money transfer: A cash lifeline for the rural poor

After two days of driving almost 700 km on rough rural roads, a team of managers from money transfer company Western Union belatedly arrived at the town of Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state. Before Western Union opened a branch in the area, the villagers "had huge difficulties in receiving money", said Mr. Kapur,. There are 65,000 bank branches in India, but these are concentrated in urban areas, and about 80 per cent of India's 1.1 bn citizens lack access to financial services. India, however, is the world's largest recipient of remittances, according to the World Bank. Inward remittances from Indians working overseas surged from $2.1 bn in 1990-91 to $26.8 bn in 2006-07. Remittances can play a large role in driving income to impoverished areas and reducing poverty. Western Union is aggressively expanding in India to capture a share of this booming business by adding locations, offering faster and cheaper services than local banks and launching innovative marketing campaigns.

Pay your Advance Tax

15 th June is last day to pay your Advance Tax

Opening Savings Bank accounts (SB)

Different banks requirements are different for opening a SB account. But broadly we can state the requirements as below; 1) Duly filled account opening form. 2) Passport size photograph of person opening account. 3) Identity Proof ( Election Card, PAN Card, Passport or any card bearing Photograph of the person) 4) Address Proof ( Election Card, Passport, Electricity Bill, Telephone Bill or any bill containing address of the person) 5) Introduction by an existing account holder. 6) Initial Deposit. • What does account opening form contains ? It usually contains Name of person, Name of father/husband, Address, Date of Birth, PAN number details/F60 details, Education, Profession, Income, Movable and Immovable assets, Family details, Nomination details and many more. • Photo, Identity Proof, Address Proof are required to confirm the identity/ residence of the person. • Proper Introduction is obligation on the part of bank. • Initial deposit varies from bank to bank. Some banks open Zero balance accounts. Public sector banks require less initial deposits compared to their Private sector counterparts. • Many banks offer add on facilities with your SB account like ATM Card, Internet Banking, Tele Banking, Personalised cheque book, Multicity cheque book, Insurance at nominal rates/free insurance etc. Why does Banks are keen to garner more Savings Bank accounts? The banks are keen to have more and more SB accounts because: 1. Their customer base expands, which in turn provides them opportunity to cross sell their products. 2. These are low cost deposits. So the cost of deposits of the bank comes down with aggressive addition of SB accounts. 3. These are stable deposits unlike the bulk deposits where there is always threat that the depositor can close or transfer deposits.

ICICI Bank Follow On Public issue

ICICI Bank will raise Rs.8750 crore in domestic stock market through follow-on public issue. This is out of Rs.20125 crore which the bank plans to raise in domestic market and foreign market ( American Depository receipt or ADR). The bank has decided to reserve 5% in the present public offer for existing shareholders. The retail bidders will get 5% discount to offer price and also the payment is staggered one i.e., bidder need not pay full amount with application. The funds raised will be used for future growth needs of the bank.

Bank Stock News

Bank of Rajasthan said its shareholders have approved a bonus issue, wherein 2.69 crore shares of Rs 10 each will be allotted in a ratio of 1:4. Pursuant to the recommendation of the board of directors, shareholders have accorded their approval to the bonus issue at the extra ordinary general meeting (EGM) on Monday.

haiTechnorati Profile

New Deposit

Bank of Baroda has increased its interest rate to 9.5 % on Fixed Deposits. This is a unique scheme which offers higher interest rates to customer for a short period of one year. The major attraction is that the scheme provides for investing for any amount as low as Rs.1000 and there is no lock-in period. The scheme takes effect from 18.05.07.Senior Citizens will get an additional 0.5% on fixed deposits under the scheme i.e.10 % p.a. Dena Bank launched a new Deposit scheme " Dena Diamond Deposit Scheme" to mark its 70th Foundation Day on 26th May 2007. The new scheme offers the depositors an opportunity to earn higher interest rate of 9.60 percent for deposits of maturity period of 700 days. The senior citizens will get 10.10 percent interest in this scheme. The minimum amount of deposit is Rs.10,000/-.The scheme also has a special feature of part withdrawal in multiples of Rs.5000/-.

News

State Bank of Travancore (SBT) has launched a new loan scheme for pensioners from military and related services. The scheme titled `Jai Jawan pension loan', will cover pensioners who retired at an early age from armed forces, paramilitary forces, coast guards, Rashtriya Rifles, CRPF, BSF, ITBP, etc. The scheme provides for loan of up to Rs 2 lakh or 48 times the monthly pension, whichever is lower Utkal university, Bhubaneshwar, is tying up with the country's largest private sector bank ICICI to impart training to students in banking, insurance and finance related aspects. The two entities will shortly sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to introduce a one-year diploma course on banking, insurance and finance. The course would be sponsored by ICICI. With ICICI planning to expand its operations in Bhubaneswar to a large extent the need for expert hands might have prompted the bank to sponsor such a course. Initially the course would admit around 25-30 students. Students passing out from the course would be recruited by the ICICI bank. The financial market will soon see the country’s biggest junk loan deal. State-owned Indian Bank has decided to sell all its bad loans at one shot. The Chennai-headquaterted bank has put on block its entire distress loan portfolio amounting to Rs 1,500 crore. Indian Bank chairman and managing director KC Chakrabarty said, “We have received bids on the auction of Rs 1,500-crore bad loans. The bank will shut the asset recovery cell which would free around 250 people. These officials would then be deployed for marketing other products.” Sources said that the bank had received five bids, including three from asset reconstruction companies. These are ICICI-promoted Arcil, UTI-promoted Asrec and the privately-held Pegasus Assets Reconstruction. Till now, the single-biggest bad loan transaction was from ICICI, when the country’s second-largest bank sold over Rs 1,400 crore to British bank Standard Chartered. Bidders said Indian Bank has indicated that it would prefer not to receive the entire income upfront from the bad loans selloff. Instead, the bank would like to receive the income over a couple of years In a rising interest scenario, these banks which engaged in a neck-to-neck battle for gaining more deposits finally landed up managing close to 29% of the software services giant’s monies tied up as bank deposits. Infosys redeemed its holding of Rs 684 crore in liquid funds in FY07, while deposit accounts rose to Rs 4,827 crore in the same year as against Rs 2,735 crore in FY06 - showing a 76.48% year-on-year rise. Infosys expanded the relationship with banks like Bank of India (Rs 504 crore), Bank of Baroda (Rs 503 crore), Punjab National Bank (Rs 179 crore), SBI (Rs 151 crore) and Bank of Maharashtra (Rs 51 crore), which gained as a result. In FY06, Infosys had placed funds with two PSU banks - Corporation and Canara Bank. While in the case of Corporation Bank, the quantum of deposits rose to Rs 302 crore in FY07 from Rs 126 crore in FY06, there was a marginal dip in the case of Canara Bank to Rs 503 crore in FY07 against Rs 504 crore in FY06.

Sunday Special

National Electronic Funds Transfer System (NEFT) This is a nationwide funds transfer system to facilitate transfer of funds from any bank branch to any other bank branch. But not all the bank branches are its members. As on January 31, 2007, 18500 branches of 53 banks are participating. The system uses the concept of centralized accounting system. Each participating bank has to designate one branch at Mumbai to handle NEFT transaction. All the transactions originated by that bank has to be routed through and all the transactions to be responded by that bank has to be routed through that designated branch. The funds are available to the beneficiary on the same day or the next day depending on the time of settlement Process Flow: • The Remitter fills in the NEFT application form giving the particulars of the beneficiary (Bank Branch, Beneficiary’s name, Account type and Account number) and authorizes the branch to remit the specified amount to the beneficiary by raising a debit to the remitter’s account. • The remitting branch prepares a Structured Financial Messaging Solution (SFMS) message and sends it to its service centre of NEFT. • The service centre forwards the same to the local RBI (National Clearing Cell, Mumbai) to be included for the next available settlement. • The RBI at the clearing centre sorts the transactions bank-wise and prepares accounting entries of the net debit or credit for passing onto the banks participating in the system. Thereafter, bank-wise remittance messages are transmitted to the banks. • The receiving banks process the remittance message received from RBI and affect the credit to the beneficiaries account. As of now, NEFT is settled in six batches at 0930,1030,1200,1300,1500 and 1600 hours on weekdays and 0930,1030 and 1200 on Saturdays. At present there is no Value Limit for individual transactions and RBI has waived the processing charges till March 31, 2008. Levy of service charges by banks is left to the discretion of the respective banks. Another important aspect NEFT uses is IFSC codes ( Indian Financial System Code) which is an alpha numeric code designed to uniquely identify the bank-branches in India. This is 11 digit codes with first 4 characters representing the banks code, the next character reserved as control character (presently 0 appears in the fifth position) and the remaining 6 characters to identify the branch. The IFSC codes will normally printed on Cheque Book or Pass Book or the customer can call his bank branch and get the same. Sending remittances abroad using NEFT is not possible but one can send/receive funds from/to NRI accounts subject to applicability of provisions of FEMA. In case of non-credit or delayed credit you can contact your branch or if the issue is not resolved satisfactorily, the Customer Service Department of RBI may be contacted on cgmcsd@rbi.org.in or write to The Chief General Manager, Reserve Bank of India, Customer Service Department, 1st Floor, Amar Building, Fort, Mumbai-400001 For any other queries you can visit RBI web site www.rbi.org.in

Reslut

IndusInd Bank has reported a net profit of Rs 21.4 crore in the fourth quarter of 2006-07, against a loss of Rs 62.4 crore in the previous year on lower provisioning. The Managing Director, Mr Bhaskar Ghose, said all the key ratios of the bank were looking better. Net interest margin for the quarter fell to 1.63 per cent, against 1.82 per cent in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Mr Ghose said that the bank had shifted its focus from wholesale banking to a balanced combination of corporate loans, vehicle finance, and other retail advances. Vehicular finance contributes a significant chunk of the bank's portfolio at 55 per cent. In 2006-07, deposits grew by 18 per cent to Rs 17,645 crore from Rs 15,006 crore. Advances were up 19 per cent to Rs 11,084 crore against Rs 9311 crore in the previous year. Cost of deposits moved up to 6.73 per cent (5.87 per cent) while the yield on advances was slightly higher at 9.76 per cent (9.44 per cent). Net Non-Performing Assets ratio increased to 2.47 per cent (2.09 per cent).

Awards

Private sector Federal Bank has been adjudged the 'most efficient bank' in the large banks category by the 'Business Today-KPMG survey', 2006-07. The survey, which covered 78 scheduled commercial banks in the country, has analysed the growth, size and strength of the financial institutions under the category. The bank recorded an all time high net-profit of Rs 292.73 crore for March 2007. The total business stood at over Rs 36,480 crore and the return on assets recorded 1.3 per cent. The non-performing assets of the bank recorded 0.44 per cent, one of the lowest among the banks in India.

News

Bank of Baroda intends to open ten overseas branches this year, the Chairman and Managing Director, Dr A.K. Khandelwal, told. These will be at Port of Spain (Trinidad & Tobago), Accra (Ghana), Bahrain, second branch in Johannesburg (South Africa), ninth in UK, second in Tanzania, second in Botswania, eighth in Kenya, Canada and one representative office in Australia. In addition, a joint venture company, along with Punjab National Bank and Andhra Bank would be set up in Malaysia, he said. Overseas branches contributed 20 per cent to the bank's total business of Rs 2.09 lakh crore last year. A third of its profit of Rs 1,026 crore came from overseas operations.

Bank Stock News

Private sector lender City Union Bank is planning to raise over Rs125 crore by allotting equity stakes to a clutch of domestic and foreign investors, including Larsen & Toubro, LIC, and the Netherlands-based Nederlandse Financierings. Around 15 lakh shares are proposed to be allotted to state-run LIC and 3 lakh shares to L&T on a preferential basis at Rs169.15 per share raising Rs30.44 crore

Result

Centurion Bank of Punjab recorded a 7.6 per cent rise in its net profit to Rs 28.01 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2007 against Rs 26.04 crore in the corresponding quarter previous year due to a strong growth in advances. The bank experienced a 72-per cent growth in advances to Rs 11,221 crore, and 58 per cent rise in deposits to Rs 14,863 crore during the quarter. The net interest margin stood at 4.38 per cent (5.07 per cent) in the quarter due to rising interest rates. During 2006-07, the net profit was up by 38 per cent to Rs 121.38 crore against Rs 87.8 crore in the previous year. Catholic Syrian Bank has posted a 210-per cent increase in the net profit to Rs 19.07 crore for 2006-07, compared with Rs 6.14 crore the previous year. The board of directors has recommended a dividend of 15 per cent. Net NPAs were reduced to 1.98 per cent (2.78 per cent). The bank also recorded capital adequacy ratio of 9.58 per cent against the RBI-stipulated norm of nine per cent. Total deposits grew to Rs 4,748.60 crore (Rs 4,288.85 crore), while advances rose to Rs 3,012.64 crore (Rs 2,694.87 crore).

News

Punjab National Bank has received the licence for opening a full-fledged branch in Hong Kong, said the Chairman and Managing Director, Mr S.C. Gupta. "We will be opening our Hong Kong branch before July 31," he added. PNB had recently operationalised its London subsidiary. The country's third largest public sector bank by business also plans to open an offshore banking unit in Singapore this fiscal. PNB has placed a bid with the Pension Fund Regulatory and Devclopment Authority (PFRDA) for managing the pension fund accruals of the Central Government employees under the New Pension System (NPS) RBI nod for delivering cash at doorstep - Now, you do not even have to drive to your nearest ATM to withdraw cash. Instead, you can call up your bank branch or make an online request and have the cash delivered right at your doorstep. Taking the doorstep banking service one step forward, the Reserve Bank of India has allowed banks to deliver cash at the doorstep of individual customers. The RBI decision follows the suggestions made by the Indian Banks' Association to extend this facility to individual customers. Earlier this facility was restricted to corporate customers Union Bank in overseas pitch - After opening representative office in Shanghai recently, the Mumbai-based Union Bank of India will set up three more overseas offices at Beijing and Guangdong in China and the UAE. It will also set up branches in Hong Kong and Doha within a few months. In addition, the bank is also looking forward to set up its branch in Singapore. The bank has received Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approval for opening branches in Hong Kong and Doha and also for its representative offices at Beijing, Guangdong and UAE, whereas RBI approval for the Singapore branch is still awaited. Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB) has entered into an agreement with the Abu Dhabi-based UAE Exchange Centre LLC to offer money transfer and speed remittance services. Under this tie-up, non-resident Indians (NRIs) in the Gulf region can remit funds to India by sending rupee drafts drawn on the UAE Exchange Centre to any of the 182 branches of the bank. The speed remittance arrangement will provide web-enabled money transfer services to NRIs. The UAE Exchange Centre handled 4.51 million remittance transactions amounting to around Rs 16,000 crore during 2006-07. Foreign cos can open escrow accounts -- Reserve Bank allowed foreign companies to open escrow or special accounts in authorised banks for buying shares in Indian firms - a move that gives them more flexibility in acquiring domestic companies. In a notification, RBI said authorised banks may open escrow or special accounts on behalf of non-residents for the purpose of open offers, delisting offers and exit offers subject to Sebi regulations. The notification follows the central bank's announcement in the annual credit policy for 2007-08. As per the notification, these banks will not require prior approval of the Reserve Bank to open such accounts. Such accounts could be operated by persons appointed by the firms.

Bank Stock News

The board of directors of Punjab National Bank has declared a final dividend of 60 per cent, taking the overall dividend for 2006-07 to 100 per cent against 90 per cent in 2005-06 The board of directors of Karur Vysya Bank have proposed a dividend of 100 per cent for the fourth year in succession.

Result

Karur Vysya Bank has recorded an 18 per cent increase in net profit at Rs.160 crore for 2006-07 against Rs.135.35 crore in the previous year. The board of directors also proposed a dividend of 100 per cent for the fourth year in succession. The bank is targeting to reach deposits of Rs.12,000 crore and advances of Rs.9,020 crore by 2007-08. Currently KVB has deposits of Rs.9,340.29 crore while advances stood at Rs.7,040.48 crore A higher provisioning for standard assets and retirement benefits of employees besides depreciation in certain government securities portfolio has impacted Punjab National Bank's (PNB) fourth-quarter bottomline performance in fiscal 2006-07. However, net profit for the financial year 2006-07 increased 7 per cent to Rs 1,540 crore against Rs 1,439 crore in the previous year. The board of directors has declared a final dividend of 60 per cent, taking the overall dividend for 2006-07 to 100 per cent against 90 per cent in 2005-06. As a measure of prudence, PNB has also adopted the ICAI's revised AS-15 on retirement benefits, leading to additional provisioning of about Rs 200 crore. He added that interest rates are likely to soften in the next two-three months as demand for credit would be much lower in this period, which is usually referred to as slack season. Meanwhile, Mr Gupta said that PNB would raise tier-II capital of Rs 500 crore before June 30.