SBI blinks,withdraws teaser loans

State Bank of India (SBI) has decided to withdraw one of the most controversial ,yet popular, products in the Indian banking sector in recent times.
Introduced by the former Chairman of SBI,Shri O.P.Bhatt,in early 2009, the teaser loan scheme will be withdrawn from May 1. The scheme charges a lower rate in the initial years. Teaser loans account for a third of SBI's home loan portfolio.
The Reserve Bank of India( RBI ) has been against such schemes as it fears higher defaults after the rates go up in later years. The new management said even if a bank thinks a product is good, the regulator has the final word."One cannot be in a state of perpetual conflict with the regulator", said Pratip Chaudhuri, the present Chairman of SBI.
In the new home loan scheme,the interest rate on loans upto Rs 30 lacs will be 9.5%, while for loans between Rs 30 lacs and Rs 70 lacs the rate will be 9.75%. The rate for home loans above Rs 70 lacs will be 10.25%. For auto loans, the rate will be 10.75%. The maximum tenure has been kept at seven years.Both housing and auto loan rates have been linked with the Bank's base rate, making them floating.
Though the effective rate will rise , SBI has offered a sweetener by waving the pre- payment penalty. SBI has disbursed Rs 36,788 crore under the scheme to 400,000-500,000 borrowers. (BS 21042011)

Cibil makes credit scores available to individuals

Credit informaton Bureau(India)ltd. (Cibil), the agency gathering data on credit histories of individuals, has now made credit scores available to individuals for a fee of Rs 450 per request.An individual's credit score would be a three-digit-numeric summary of his credit history for the last three years, and this would be rated on a scale of 300-900.
The higher an individual's score, the better would be his chances of securing a loan. Banks have, for the last two years, used this data as an important factor in deciding on whether to approve or reject a loan.
Through Cibil's website, individuals can request for their credit scores online. They can also make the payments online,after which , they would have to send proofs of their identity to cibil. The score, alongwith the report, would be delivered to them in 7-10 days. The Cibil is working towards an online authentication system. Once this is done, it would help in delivering scores and reports online. (BS 21042011)

SBI's self service banking centre

State Bank of India(SBI) has opened a self-service banking centre in Hyderabad to increase customer convenience and provide 24/7 access to banking. The centre, a branch-less and staff-less technology-based banking outfit, has a multifunction kiosk for internet banking and to print statements. It also ptovides multiple banking facilities such as ATM,internet and mobile banking, cheque book request,mobile top-up, train ticketing and income tax payments using debit or credit cards. It has three ATMs,including one for the visually challenged with braille keypad.One BNA (bunch note acceptor) would be whereinstalled shortly customer can deposit money through the machine, a release said (BS 28032011)

Union Bank opens financial literacy centre

Union Bank of India,lead bank of Ernakulam District,has set up its first financial literacy and credit counselling centre(FLCCC) at Perumbavoor. FLCCCs, recommended by the High Power Committee headed by Ms Usha Thorat on Lead Bank Scheme, are being set up in every district with the intention of providing financial counselling service through face-to-face interaction as well as through other available media like email, fax, mobile etc,educating people in rural and urban areas with regard to various financial products and services. In the first phase of financial inclusion, all villages having population in excess of 2,000 are being targeted to set up banking facilities. (BS 28032011)

Now, ICICI customers can withdraw cash at shops

ICICI Bank, the country's largest private sector lender, today launched cash withdrawal facility for customers at point of sales(POS) terminals or merchant outlets.
Customers with debit cards will have the option to withdraw cash upto Rs 1000 whether they buy or not buy at merchant outlets.
"The facility will be available to all ICICI Bank debit card holders who can withdraw Rs 1000 a day. Cash can be withdrawn with or without associate purchase transaction at an approved and enabled merchant estasblishment with POS terminals", the Bank said.
In July 2009, RBI issued guidelines in which cash withdrawals of upto Rs 1000 a day from POS terminals were permitted through all debit cards issued in India.RBI, however, had left it to the bank's discretion to decide on the fee.
Union Bank of India, the first bank to start this facility a year back, albeit only in rural areas, said the experience was not encouraging.(BS 20.01.2011)

Banks told to cap cash deposit charges at Rs 5

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has told banks not to charge more than Rs 5 for any cash deposit made at a non-home branch (other than the one where the customer has the account).Some banks charge as much as Rs 110 for such cash deposits.
In 2008, RBI said the charges for a transaction under the National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT)upto Rs 1 lakh should not exceed Rs 5. Now, the regulator says cash deposit charges should be in line with NEFT charges.
The central bank generally refrains from specifying interest rates and charges. However, it has acted where it feels banks are being needlessly stubborn or unfair.Last year,RBI had mandated a fixed charge for cash withdrawal from third- party automated teller machines, beyond the five free transactions. Banks used to charge customers as much as Rs 55 for cash withdrawal from other bank ATMs.
RBI feels since banking is a highly regulated service industry, with very stiff entry norms, customer service cannot entirely be left to market forces. It is the regulator's duty to protect small customers.
To review customer service in banks, RBI recently set up a committee under former Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairman, M.Damodaran. It would look at the range of services offered to retail and small borrowers, including pensioners and suggest a mechanism to expedite grievance redressed. Its report is to come next month. (BS 13.12.2010)

Banks use 'negative list' gambit to make defaulters pay up

To recover dues, bankers are trying to put the fear of God into obstinate defaulters to pay up. And how? By making it plain that they could get reported to the Credit Information Bureau, banks have been able to achieve a modicum of success in recoveries. Some defaulting borrowers do see the writing on the wall when they are sensitised about the deleterious consequences of finding their names on the bureau's negative list, say bankers. By delivering the simple key message that the doors of the banks will be shut for the defaulters once they are on the negative list, banks are gradually making headway in recoveries. The prospect of future banking relationship getting jeopardised convince some defaulters to repay loans.
According to the Credit Information Companies (Regulation)Act 2005, every credit institution has to become member of at least one credit information company. Credit institutions, including banks and housing finance companies, have to provide credit data (positive as well as negative) to the credit information company. By tapping into a credit information bureau, credit grantors get complete picture of the payment history of a borrower.(BL 22.11.2010)

Banks forging tie-ups with brokerages

Banks are increasingly looking at online equity trading as an opportunity to boost their fee income and also increase the proportion of low cost current and savings account (CASA) deposits in total deposits. The recent spate of public issues, especially public sector units, has led to a revival of the retail interest in the equity markets. The total no. of demat accounts with CDSL and NSDL crossed the 1 crore mark and is now at 1.80 crore.
Banks are also hoping that the increase in the investment limit for retail investors in primary markets ( from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh) will see more inflows into the equity markets. With State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank have their own subsidiaries that offer online booking, others are tying up with online booking firms to offer the same, as they look for more avenues to increase fee income.( BL 19.11.2010)

SBI to open exclusive branch for youth

Trendy music, a cafeteria for chatting over a cup of coffee and catchy ambience. It's an exclusive "Youth branch" to be set up by State Bank of India in Andhra Pradesh in a first-of-its kind initiative in the country . This is a new concept and the idea is to project SBI as a bank for youth too, Mr. Shiv Kumar, Deputy Mananaging Director, SBI, told newspersons after the formal launch of e- payment system for commercial taxes in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday.
The proposed branch, to be set up in about three months, may have criteria such as age for opening accounts. "We were working on deciding an age bracket- something below 35 years of age", he said. The nature of branding/naming of the branch is also being discussed.
SBI now believes that a segmented approach to cater to different types of customers is the way to go.Further, with a view to helping its retail and corporate customers to pay commercial taxes, SBI has launched an e- payment platform.(BL 19.11.2010)

Corporation Bank on biz. development drive

Corporation Bank has launched a business development drive called "Operation Customer Outreach". A bank release said at Mangalore that the drive, which was launched on Thursday, will continue till November 28 at various centres throught the country .Under the programme, each staff member of the bank will move out in the command area of the branch and reach out to all residential areas, business establishments, govt. organisations, and corporates to connect the people to Corporation Bank. (BL 19.11.2010)

"Vernacular" drive for financial inclusion

Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (IIBF) has brought out the first vernacular edition (in Malayalam)of the book, 'Inclusive growth through business correspondent', a courseware for certification as a business facilitator/correspondent(BC/BF). The book was released by the Managing Director of State Bank of Travancore at Thiruvananthapuram. While making a presentation, Mr. R.Bhaskaran,CEO,IIBF said that candidates aspiring to be business facilitator/ business correspondents have to possess skill-sets necessary to making them effective and efficient in their assigned role. It is expected that he/she be equipped with adequate knowledge of banking and banking operations, bank-specific rules, norms and procedures related to acceptance of deposits and lending to the public. In addition, they should possess the skills for communication, interviewing, marketing and cross-selling. These are essential and necessary to enhance their effectiveness in information-gathering and customer profiling.
Keeping the above objectives in mind, the IIBF designed a certificate course for this newly emerging cadre of financial intermediaries. The objective is to expose the individual BF/BCs to current developments in the field and upgrade skill-sets to enable them to relate better with the rural people.(BL 10.11.2010)

Canara Bank bets growth on customer service

Usually when a Chairman takes charge of a bank, his first comment would be to increase the bank's deposits and advances. However, Mr. S.R.Raman,the present Chairman of Canara Bank had different views to comment. He said that his efforts would be to make all his customers only bank with the Canara Bank and which would mean better service to the customers. "Take good care of your customers and they'll take care of you", he further said.
He further stressed that his immediate focus would be first to initiate employees to know and understand all the features of the services offered by the bank. For example, employees would operate their own accounts only online, therefore, it would help them impart their knowledge to the customers easily. There is a perception problem with the customers, although public sector banks offer all the services offered by the private banks, still customers feel the latest service is given only by the latter. This is due to the fact that our own employees do not know all the features of the products and services provided by the bank.
Regarding challenges to be faced, he visualised that human resource would be a big challenge with about 5000 employees retiring in the next 3-4 years. To cope with this, the Bank would recruit about 4000 employees by next year.
For taking the Bank to the global, the Chairman said that the Bank is open to buying a small Bank in the US. Canara Bank expects to double its global business to 8% in the next 5 years.(BL 08.11.2010)

NBFCs too raise interest rates to attract depositors

With most banks increasing deposit rates, non-banking finance companies(NBFCs), including housing finance companies and non-banking non finance companies, are being forced to fork out higher interest rates on deposits to woo savers.
All major housing finance companies like HDFC,LIC housing finance, DHFL and HUDCO are now offering over 7% for a one year deposit compared with between 6-6.50% about 6 months back. For instance, Mahindra and Mahindra Finance(MMFL) rated FAA+ is paying a 8% for a one-year maturity while Shriram Transport, which commands a similar rating is offering 8.75% for a one-year deposit. While ICICI Bank offers 6.75% for a one year deposit, though it offers 7.25% for 390 days.
Meanwhile, Corporates looking for deposits too are being forced to raise interest rates. Real estate major Unitech is offering 11% for 6 months while Avon Corporation and another real estate company, Kolte Patil are paying 11.46% for a one year deposit. Not surprisingly, most savers prefer banks.(FE 27.10.2010)

Pon IIIam inaugurated in Maduri

Pon IIIam (Gold House), the exclusive set up for those who deal in Gold, was inaugurated in State Bank of India(SBI),Madurai Branch recently.Inaugurating the set up, Mr. J. Chandrasekaran, Chief General Manager, Local Head Office , SBI Chennai, said this was the second in the circle, the first one at Chennai and soon such exclusive set up would be established in Coimbatore and Tiruchi, he said.(BL 27.10.2010)

Karvy to provide online trading facility to BOI customers

Karvy Stock Broking Ltd.(KSBL) will provide its online trading services to customers of Bank of India(BOI). According to an agreement between the Hyderabad-based Karvy and BOI, customers having savings/current account with Bank of India alongwith depository participant account either with NSDL/CDSL can avail a readymade online trading account from Karvy.(BL 27.10.2010)

Banking sector in India put up a good show during global financial crisis

The performance of various bank groups as on March 2009 and March 2010 had been impressive despite constraints faced by them due to slow down in the economy of the global financial crisis and adverse real economic scenario witnessed all over the world.The performance parameters during the two-year period showed that the banking sector exhibited remarkable resilience in withstanding the impact of global economic crisis. Increase in net NPAs or fall in return on assets during the period was marginal whereas the cost of funds registered a significant decline. Analysis of bank group-wise performance was as follows:-
Cost of funds:
The cost of funds had come down considerably during 2009-10 although it continued to be high for all bank groups except for foreign banks. The cost of funds which ranged between 4.46% and 6.67% for different bank groups in March 2009 came down considerably and worked out between 2.82% and 6.13% in March 2010.
Foreign banks could bring down their cost of funds from 4.6% to 2.82% during the period, whereas the State Bank group and nationalised banks could bring down their cost only from 5.94% to 5.32% and 6.09% to 5.35% respectively. While the new private sector banks could bring down their cost of funds sharply by 1.63%, the old private sector banks could bring down their cost of funds only by 0.54% during the period.
Cost of funds for public sector banks and old private sector banks continued to remain high and is a matter of concern.
Return on advances adjusted to cost of funds:
Return on advances adjusted to cost of funds in respect of various bank group remained in the range of 3.95% and 8.14% as at the end March 2009 and 3.60% and 7.17% as at end March 2010. State Bank group had the lowest return on advances for both the years. Foreign banks outperformed the entire bank groups as their return on advances adjusted to cost of funds stood at 8.14% and 7.17% as at end March 2009 and 2010 respectively.
Return on assets:
In respect of return on assets, while the foreign bank group scored well as compared with the other bank groups, State Bank group stood lowest even compared with old private sector banks.It is noteworthy to observe that while the new private sector banks increased their return on assets from 1.12% in March 2009 to 1.38% in March 2010, all other bank groups, including foreign banks, registered a decline on their return on assets.
Net NPAs
Barring the State Bank group, nationalised banks, and foreign banks, the other bank groups could show a reduction in their net NPAs during the period 2009-10. The benefit of restructuring of assets might have come to the rescue of banks to improve their NPAs position.(BL 25.10.2010)

Corporation Bank to focus on improving low-cost deposits

Corporation Bank is chanting the "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' mantra when it comes to extending credit to corporates. While sanctioning loans, the Bank will insist that corporates open salary accounts of at least one division or unit.
The Bank has hit upon this strategy to grow its current account savings account(CASA) deposits, which at 25 percent of total deposits is lower than the 35-40 percent prevalent among public sector banks.
For every large corporate loan that Corporation Bank sanctions- be it on a standlone basis or in consortium with other banks- the Bank will insist that salary accounts of that company's staff be opened with it. This way the bank hopes to tap CASA deposits. To improve the proportion of CASA deposits in the total deposits, the Bank plans to open 200 branches, mostly in the semi-urban and rural areas in the North, East and West, every year over the next 5 years.(BL 21.10.2010)

Canara Bank to invest in tech to attract the young

Canara Bank plans to invest significantly in technology with a view to wooing younger customers. Mr. S.Raman, CMD,Canara Bank advised that the Bank would invest as much as it requires to make the Bank the most technologycally advanced Bank. The Bank will also invest in recruiting specialities such as IT professionals and Chartered Accountants.The Bank will recruit 100 IT professionals, 100 Chartered Accountants, risk analysts and young people with technical skills, he added. There are also plans to appoint officers to exclusively work in rural branches. The Bank is also embarking on branch expansion plans, including a better ATM network. Canara Bank also plans opening branches in Africa,"possibly Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya", he added.(BL 21.10.2010)

State Bank raises base rate 10 bps to 7.60%

Striking a balance between wanting to attract more borrowers into its fold and the need to pass on the increased cost of mobilising resources, State Bank of India has nudged its base rate up by 10 basis points to 7.60 per cent. Simultaneously, India's largest lender increased its benchmark prime lending rate by 25 basis points to 12.50 per cent. Both the rate hikes are effective from October 21. By upping its base rate only marginally at a time when other banks have raised their rates by as much as 50 basis points, SBI clearly wants to attract borrowers from other banks into its fold, say analysts.Most public sector banks , including PNB, BOB, Union Bank of India and IDBI Bank have increased their rates from 8.00-8.25% to 8.50% after the RBI hiked key short term interest rates in September. Private sector banks such as ICICI Bank and Axis Bank have increased their base rate by 25 basis points to 7.75%. HDFC Bank has raised its base rate by 25 basis points to 7.50%. With interest rates on deposits of various maturities being marked up by 25-75 basis points over the last few weeks, analysts say the increased cost of mopping up liabilities will pinch banks.(BL 21.10.2010)

Microfinance rates can be cut if banks lower interest : Apex body

Microfinance institutions are ready to cut lending rates by as much as 2.50 percentage points provided banks reduce the cost of money for these institutions by a similar quantum, according to a senior official of the industry association of MFIS.
The 12-13% interest on loans taken from banks is the single biggest cost for MFIS and this presents them a challenge in bringing down lending rates, said Mr.Alok Prasad, CEO, Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), the apex industry body.
MFIN is a self-regulatory organisation representing the interests of MFIS that are registered as non-banking finance companies (NBFC-MFIS)with the RBI.Its members represent about 80% of total outstanding micro loans in the country.
MFIS are in the eye of the storm as negative perception has gained ground that they are creaming off profits by charging high interest rates on loans given to small borrowers and also for resorting to strong -arm tactics while making recoveries.
Recently, the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has set up a committee to study the issues and concerns in the microfinance institutions (MFI) sector, including ways and means of making interest rates charged by them reasonable.
The RBI regulates only those MFIS that are registerted with it as non-banking finance companies.Although the registered companies cover over 80% of the microfinance business, in terms of number of companies they constitute a small percentage of the total number of MFIS in the country. The Central Bank, however, does not prescribe lending rates for these institutions. ( BL20.10.2010)