This festive season brings a variety of offers that provide handsome rewards to the consumers. Higher deposit rates and lower lending rates have been accompanied by cash back offers in this season.

Corporation Bank has introduced a Cash Back Scheme for a period of 100 days on the usage of the Bank's Debit, Credit and Campus cards. This scheme comes under special influence of festival season.

The bank offers a cash-back off upto 5% on purchases...

ICICI Bank, India's largest private sector bank has joined together with British Airways, one of the world's leading International airlines to launch a co-branded credit card called "ICICI Bank British Airways American Express® Credit Card".

ICICI said that the card provides one of the fastest ways to earn complimentary flights using a credit card in India. The card will give new and existing members an opportunity to accelerate their BA Miles earnings.

Commenting on the launch,...

Allahabad Bank has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance.

The tie-up between the two parties is aimed to provide value-added services and financial security to the educational loan borrowers of Allahabad Bank.

Allahabad Bank's Chairman and Managing Director, K R Kamath said, "The association with Kotak Life Insurance will provide education loan borrowers of Allahabad Bank best-in-class products and services beyond the normal education loan."

Under this MoU, Kotak...

The current liquidity crunch has also taken a toll on the credit card segment. Most credit card issuers are now charging higher interest rates as well as reducing the credit limit of their customers.

Every bank charges an interest rate within a specific band on the credit it extends to its customers. The current crisis has forced many companies to change these bands that will result into higher interest rates.

In fact the past two months have...

Deutsche Bank has named Munish Varma as the new head of Global Markets India. He was appointed on October 8th with immediate effect.

Varma is replacing Pavan Sukhdev who has chosen to focus upon environmental economics and conservation with a variety of NGOs including the Green India States Trust and the United Nations Environment Programme.

To take up this new post Varma leaves behind his previous role with Deutsche Bank in London, where he served as...

Dear Customer,

We are aware that you are being misled by numerous malicious and baseless rumors. Many of these are via SMSes. Many of our customers have written in to us expressing solidarity and confidence in our relationship, and have mentioned they have dismissed these rumors, for which we are grateful. Still we know that these rumors may cause you distress and doubts. You are our valued customer and we would not like you to...

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is going to join hands with a public sector bank to rollout its credit cards. The company is planning to launch a white label credit card for its policyholders who are considered high net-worth individuals (HNIs).

LIC may partner with Corporation Bank, in which the insurer will own a 26.7% strategic stake, for the joint venture credit card company. The company may also consider Canara Bank for this...

The country's financial regulatory body, Reserve Bank of India has relaxed the norms for mobile banking by raising the caps on fund transfers as well as mobile-based payments.

Continuing with its earlier announced draft guidelines for mobile banking services in India, RBI has increased fund-transfer limit from Rs 2,500 a day to Rs 5,000 a day. The regulator has also provided a cap of Rs 10,000 for purchases through mobile. The move was made after...

Though the economy is facing two-digit inflation, tight liquidity and high interest rates, banks' loan growth has not been affected by the challenges. There are more loan takers now as compared to last year, when the rates were relatively low.

The borrowers are demanding more loans despite of the high interest rates. This is antagonistic to the usual trend, when banks borrowing decline due to rise in interest rates.

Since the first quarter of current fiscal, banks...

Public sector banks - Canara Bank, Corporation Bank and IDBI Bank - have been rated down form stable to negative by a rating agency, Crisil. The rating agency mentions that resource profile of these banks has weakened further.

The borrowing costs of banks have been rising along with a fall in current and savings account (CASA) deposits. Banks are increasingly relying on high-cost bulk deposits to fund their asset growth. All these are concerns...

The largest private lender, ICICI Bank takes a step to ease services for its customers. The bank has joined with Dish TV to launch its latest interactive banking service, ICICIATIVE.

The new service will enable subscribers to access information on the bank's products and services from their home. ICICIACTIVE will also provide Dish TV viewers information about various types of ICICI Bank accounts and deposits.

Information regarding ICICI's different products, EMI on loans, eligibility criteria, documentation,...

The credit cards segment of India has taken a hit by the ongoing global crisis and two-digit inflation. With the delinquency rate going high in the country, banks and card issuers have been hesitant on issuing credit cards. The annual growth rate of the industry is also expected to come down to 20-25% by the end of the current fiscal. Over the last few years this growth has been noted at 30-35%.

In order to...

US Banker magazine has enlisted HDFC's Joint Managing Director, Renu Sud Karnad and ICICI Venture Funds Managing Director and Chief Executive Renuka Ramnath in the list of top 25 non-bank women in finance.

Ms Karnad, the first woman joint managing director of HDFC has been ranked 10th while ICICI Ventures' CEO is at 14th spot.

Karnad is on the board of several Indian and multi-national companies. She is also the chairperson of HDFC Venture Capital and...

The country's largest lender, ICICI Bank came forward to assure depositor that their money was safe and there was no reason to panic. There were rumours that the US financial crisis had landed the bank in a tight spot.

However, ICICI Bank said rumours that were being repeatedly circulated about its financial strength were "baseless and malicious", saying it had a very strong capital position.

In a statement, Chief Executive K.V. Kamath said ICICI's banking and...

No matter how many times the banks union strike, the government has decided to move on with its plans on merging the state-run banks. However it insisted on following strict prudential norms.

The idea follows that a weaker entity should not emerged from the merger of a weaker bank and a stronger one.

Following the sub prime crisis in US, the finance ministry would be more attentive in calculating the cost and benefits of a merger...

The global financial turmoil has Indian banks worriedabout their overseas operations. Most of banks feel that if the conditions worsen their international branches will get affected.

The banks fear that foreign lenders may not turn over credit granted to their overseas offices as inter-bank exposure is going slow. They are worried because deposits in their international branches have reduced over the last fortnight.

The Indian banks have expressed their concerns to RBI in a recent meeting which...

Andhra Bank is planning to start a gold retailing business and has therefore approached the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to obtain necessary clearances for the venture.

Anil Girotra, Executive Director of the Andhra Bank said, "We are awaiting approval from the apex bank and once it is in place the bank will start selling gold coins through select branches. Simultaneously, we have initiated talks with a couple of international companies who can supply gold....

Citi India announces the launch of Citibank® Commercial Cards designed for Indian corporates. It is a comprehensive expense management tool with a unique, chip-embedded commercial card for enhanced security of corporate clients.

The product is supported by a powerful global expense data management function and offers world-class business payment services enabling Indian companies to strengthen their financial operations and control over expenses.

Citi Global Transaction Services India Head Ashish Bajaj said, "About 3,000 of the world's...

A technology solution firm, Financial Information Network and Operations Ltd (FINO) is soon going to launch micro deposit machines in the Indian market. The company aims to take banking to the doors of poor by launching this machine.

Manish Khera, CEO of FINO said, "Poor people find it difficult to go to banks and make a deposit."

"These machines solve that problem, as they will be available at locations where they live," added Khera.

Earlier the firm had...

It seems that India is likely to face a debt trap. The economic boom has seen salaries rise and lifestyles change with people spending a lot on luxuries. Unfortunately, the economic prosperity has also seen a huge rise in personal debts. In this era where one is conscious about his ‘societal status', default rate on credit is also becoming common. Credit card default, home loan default and consumer credit tightening are now frequently heard terms...