BANKS IN NEWS

State Bank of Travancore has revised domestic deposit interest rates effective 1st May 2009. The major rates are 7% for 180 days to less than 1 year, 8% for 1 year to less than 2 years, 8% for 2 years to less than 999 days, and 8.50% for periods above 5 years. Senior citizens will get 0.5% additional interest on deposits of Rs 5,000/- and above for periods of 1 year and more (BL020509)

Citi Bank has reduced its prime lending rate by 25 basis points to 14.75% from 1st May 2009. (BL020509)

IDBI Bank has decided to cut interest rates on fixed deposits in seven maturity buckets by 25 basis points and simultaneously hiked the interest rate on long term deposit(over 5 years to 10 years duration) by 50 basis points. The revised rates are effective 4th May 2009. Now a 1 year fixed deposit would fetch 7.25%. The maximum interest rate is 8.75% for 5 to 10 years. (BL010509)

HDFC Bank has signed an agreement with Guruvayoor Devaswom for offering e-collection through HDFC Bank Payment Gateway. The website offers a variety of payment options including direct debit to their account with HDFC Bank or payment by a debit or credit card of any bank. HDFC Bank has designed a special product for religious institutes to make the donation process simple for devotees across the world. (BL010509)

PNB has announced a reduction in its BPLR by 50 basis points to 11% effective 1st May 2009. The bank has also revised the floating interest rate on housing loans by 25 basis points. It would now range from 8.75 to 10% depending on the tenors and amounts. PNB has also reduced interest rates on term deposits. The peak rate now is 7.50% for 3 years to 5 years as against 8% earlier. (BL010509).

BANKS IN NEWS

Canara Bank has launched SME Sulabh a new business model for increasing credit flow to the MSME sector. These centralized processing centres are established initially at seven places in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. The centre will aim at fast processing and quick delivery of credit to MSMEs. (BL050509)

SBI has decided to cut interest rates on fixed deposits by 25 basis points across the board w.e.f 4th May 2009. As per revised rates,1 year FDs will fetch 6.75% and 1,000 days deposit will earn 8%. (BL030509)

Bank of Baroda has pipped Canara Bank in terms of net profit and total business for FY 09 to become the third largest public sector bank after SBI and PNB. (BS040509)

Standard Chartered Bank announced launch of ‘India

Standard Chartered Bank announced launch of ‘India Consortium Project’ to provide preventive eye care to the rural poor. Under the project the bank will open 40 vision centres across 6 states over three years. These are UP, Haryana, Uttaranchal, Tamil Nadu,Delhi and MP. It has already benefited nearly 2 million people in India through curative eye care since 2003.(BL090409)

From 1st April 2010 the balance in savings bank

From 1st April 2010 the balance in savings bank accounts will earn interest on a daily basis following RBI’s decision to implement new interest calculation methods for such accounts. At present banks calculate interest on SB accounts on the minimum balances held during the period from the tenth day to the last day of the month. This change is likely to benefit the average salaried class and pensioners. (BL220409)

RBI has done away with the requirement

RBI has done away with the requirement of prior regulatory approval for setting up offsite ATMs. It is felt that the move would allow banks to expand their ATM networks more easily and thereby their reach of banking. (BL220409)

RBI has cut the repo rate and reverse

RBI has cut the repo rate and reverse repo rates by 25 basis points. The reverse repo rate is now 3.25% and the repo rate is 4.75%. RBI has indicated that the concept of BPLR has lost its relevance as a reference rate and would review the present system to make credit pricing more transparent. (BL220409)

According to National Housing Bank sources

According to National Housing Bank sources barely 2,800 accounts amounting to Rs 550 crores had been sanctioned during the 2 years till December 2008 under the reverse mortgage loan scheme for senior citizens.(BT020409)