In the inflationary time like this when prices of all products are soaring high haunting the common man, the only solace in such situation is cutting down on discretionary spending and opting for cash-back or reward offers on credit cards.

However these are the companies' strategies to push on credit cards to more and more customers. Now-a-days banks issuing credit card are introducing new schemes and reward programmes to engage and compel consumers to spend more...

Banks are encouraging student borrowers to apply for permanent account number (PAN) at the time of taking loans to prevent them from defaulting on the payment post completing higher education.

By asking for PAN, which is a 10-digit alphanumeric number allotted by the Income-Tax Department; banks will be able to track the defaulters for loan repayments.

Though obtaining a PAN is not mandatory for student borrowers, bankers feels that they should get their PAN card before completion...

The private sector lender, ICICI Bank will offer non-resident Indians (NRIs) a mobile application- Money2India to track their money transfers to India.

The mobile application enables the registered users of the bank to track their transferred money through their smartphones.

User can download the application from the iOS App Store for iPhones and iPads, Android Marketplace and Windows 8 Store across five countries namely the US, UK, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong, the bank said in a statement.

For...

With the introduction of information technology life has become easier and convenient, making everything just a click away, but the picture is not as rosy because it has also increased the susceptibility towards increasing frauds as well. In that case, Virtual Credit Cards is the best option for all the credit and debit card holders.

What is a Virtual Credit Card?

A virtual credit card (VCC) is a exclusive online payment solution with complete online security while...

The regional rural bank, Andhra Pradesh Grameena Vikas Bank (APGVB) has introduced ATM-cum-debit cards and kisan credit cards on the RuPay platform.

"With this initiative, our small depositors and farmer-borrowers will have access to draw their money from any ATM owned by State Bank Group, ICICI, HDFC Bank and AXIS Bank," Mr. K. Lakshmana Rao, Chairman of APGVB said in a press release.

The regional rural bank, sponsored by State Bank of India, was only second in its...

Country's largest lender, State Bank of India introduced a pre-paid card for blue collar employees and students coined as ‘State Bank of India smart payout card'.

"The new product will bring a large number of workers, contract labourers and dependent family members, who don't have access to the basic banking facilities within the ambit of financial inclusion," SBI Deputy MD (corporate strategy and new businesses) Mr. R K Saraf said.

The pre-paid card can be loaded with...

The public sector lender, Dena Bank has introduced a health cover scheme for farmers holding Kisan Credit Cards.

Dena bank will offer KCC holders and their family members mediclaim with maximum cover up to Rs 30,000, the bank said in a statement.

Celebrating its Platinum Jubilee year, Mr. Ashwani Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director of Dena Bank, said that this facility will be available to KCC holder of Dena Bank and his/her spouse and two children under...

Now, post-paid mobile bill payment records will help banks to decide on giving loans. 

The Credit Information Bureaus (CIBs) have initiated talks with the telecom regulator for allowing telecom companies to lodge customer bill payment history with them.

"Telecom service providers are willing to share information. However, there is a regulatory clause whereby TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) does not allow information sharing by telecom operators. We are in talks with the regulator," said Mr. Arun...

Vodafone India in association with ICICI Bank has introduced its mobile money transfer and payment service called ‘M-Pesa', the service was launched across the eastern states that include West Bengal (including Kolkata), Bihar and Jharkhand.

According to Mr. Marten Pieters, Managing Director and CEO of Vodafone India, the service will help achieve financial inclusion in eastern areas.

"Vodafone's low-cost distribution model can be used to leverage banking services in rural areas. It will bring about financial inclusion,'' Mr....

Bangalore based, ING Vysya Bank targets to expand its presence in Punjab, Maharashtra and Gujarat to meet the regulatory norm pertaining to minimum loan exposure to the agriculture segment.

As against the regulatory requirement that banks should have an exposure of 18 per cent of their overall loans to the agriculture segment, ING Vysya bank's exposure is about 13.5 per cent.

As at December-end 2012, the bank's total gross advances stood at Rs 32,153 crore.

"In FY14, we clearly...

The Reserve Bank of India is flooded with requests for clarification of new banking licence, as more than 100 entities have envinced initial interest in seeking permission to set up new banks.
The RBI released its guidelines for new banking licence in February,asking the aspirants to submit their application by July 1.

Later, RBI asked all the interested entities to seek any clarifications they might have in various areas April 10, a deadline that ended last...

The Reserve Bank of India is exploring the idea of increasing the license period for white label ATM providers from one year to five years. This has been prompted buy the feedback from companies that have secured an in-principal approval to set up these ATMs, a senior RBI official said.

RBI had a meeting in Mumbai with officials of companies that were granted approval to set up the ATMs.

Representatives from Srei Infrastructure Finance, Tata Communication, Vakranges...

The private sector lender, Federal Bank has launched its redesigned corporate website in order to position itself as an important player in the digital banking space.

The new corporate website comes with updated content, user friendly features, innovative easy-to-use tools and a design that's easy on the eyes, a bank press release said.

Users can now locate any branch and ATM of Federal Bank within second as the website is armed with world class GPS support branch/ATM locator.

The...

Srei Infrastructure Finance and Vakrangee Software have got the Reserve Bank of India's nod for setting up automated teller machines or ATMs that will not be proprietary to a particular bank.

Apart from these two companies, Tata communications and nine other companies got the authorization to set up ‘white label ATM machines' for reaching out to the un-banked and under banked areas.

Unlike around 1 Lakh ATM machines in India, white label ATMs would not have any...

India's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI), has deployed 600 cash deposit ATMs in association with ATM manufacturer and service provider NCR Corporation.

With the adoption of NCR SelfServ intelligent deposit ATMs, SBI will provide its customers with the flexibility to execute everyday cash deposit transactions beyond banking hours.

As per an NCR's internal study, migrating high volume deposit transactions from the branch to the ATM reduces cost significantly for banks. A single cash withdrawal or deposit...

Many people at some point of their life have faced the problem of being denied a loan or a credit card on grounds of not being eligible for the same due to bad credit history. Often people are unable to understand why their name is in the list of defaulters and they find ways to remove their names from the same. CIBIL report or credit ratings play a vital role in such cases.

Credit Information Report (CIR)...

RBI offices and designated branches of banks will remain open on March 29, 30 and 31 to facilitate no interruption in tax collection.

"With a view to providing greater convenience to the tax payers, it has been decided that all designated branches of agency banks and RBI offices conducting Government business will keep their counters open on March 29, 30 and 31, 2013 to accept Government taxes," the Reserve Bank of India said in a statement.

The...

Country's private sector banks appear to be outdoing each other in expanding their ATM network. As on January 2013, the collective ATM network witnessed an average year-on-year growth of 31 per cent.

HDFC Bank is one of the leading private sector banks in expanding its ATM network. It increased its ATM network to 10,583 as on January, 2013 which is up by 44 per cent as compared to 7346 last year.

Mr. Paresh Sukthankar, Executive Director, HDFC...

The Banking Ombudsman Annual Report for 2011-2012 which was released in January shows maximum number of complaints are related to cards. Around 14,492 bank customers had card related complains, of which 9350 pertained to ATM/debit cards alone.

Complaints and grievances related to cards outnumbered other complaints as wrongful interest rates and charges on loans, delay or non-receipt of pensions or lost cheques.

In 2011-12, card-related complaints formed one-fifth of the total complaints. And at least half the...

India's first credit health improvement company, Credit Sudhaar has introduced a new website called www.freescoreindia.com which will make available credit score estimates to every individuals for free.

The announcement was made by Mr. Arun Ramamurthy and Mr. Gaurav Wadhwani, Co-founders of Credit Sudhaar.

"Your 3 digit credit score can have a 6 digit impact on your life. Is your score low? Is it good enough? How can you improve your score if it's low? How can you...