Banks seem to be again putting foot forward towards the unsecured lending segment again, however treading carefully this time.

"The quality of our cards' portfolio has improved tremendously. The credit information infrastructure is significantly superior now than five years ago. Banks have learnt their lessons from the past crisis and are lending more rationally," Jairam Sridharan, head of consumer lending and payments at Axis Bank said.

Citibank is also moving gradually towards this segment again and...

The Bangalore police has hacked a massive scale credit card fraudster gang. The gang had been creating havoc worldwide by hacking into credit card accounts of customers and obtain the details and use it via fake credit/debit card swipes in India.

The gang was operating from Malaysia.

The police has arrested two people in this regard and property amounting to Rs 2 crores has been recovered from them. The arrested are named Jaikumar alias Shyamvel alias Shyam,...

The state of Andhra Pradesh has decided to declare the month of September as Kisan Credit Card. The decision has been taken on the basis of the center's directive that all banks of Kerala complete loan disbursal process to farmers by end of this month.

"There are more than 60 lakh farmers in Kerala but so far only 25 lakh Kisan Credit Cards have been issued in the state.

This directive has been issued so that...

Private sector lender Axis Bank has inked a deal with Malaysian lender, Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank), regarding fund transfer services.

As part of the deal, customers can remit money from Malaysia to account holders in India.

The fund transfer will take place under Maybank Money Express (MME) service.

The sender can now remit money without hassle to beneficiaries in India. The only condition is that the beneficiary should hold an account with Axis Bank.

Commenting on the tie...

Public sector lender United Bank of India has introduced mobile banking facility across various parts of the country in a bid to take forward its financial inclusion drive.

Using this facility, customers of the bank will be able to avail facilities like balance enquiry, mini statement, check status, fund transfer facilities and many more with the touch of their mobile phones.

Contemplating the inconvenience caused to people with ATMs running out of cash in case of bank strikes or other emergency situations, the Reserve Bank of India has decided to allow banks to take cash from it and replenish their ATMs in such cases.

The apex bank made the announcement through a notification. In case of any natural calamity in the region or the entire nation, the following process of pumping ATMs with cash from RBI will...

Public sector lender Corporation Bank and global payment service provider, Visa have joined hands and launched a debit card for the premium customers of the bank.

The card is named "Corp Convenience- International Visa Signature Debit Card". All savings account holders of the bank who have an average quarterly balance of Rs 10 lakh in their bank accounts will be eligible to avail this card.

"The alliance is formed with a view to provide an exclusive...

Private sector lender IndusInd Bank has introduced mobile banking facility for its customers.

The new product has been coined 'IndusMobile'.

"IndusMobile is a comprehensive mobile banking platform that enables our customers to manage their banking needs with incredible ease. This new application will serve as a key customer touch point that complements the bank's physical branch network," the IndusInd Bank Head of Consumer Banking, Mr Sumant Kathpalla said.

Features like mini statement, balance enquiry, bill payment as...

Foreign lender Citibank has brought in quite some additions to its online banking facilities. The online platform of the bank now also includes facilities like an online payment dashboard, Citi recommendation engine as well as an online tax corner.

The bank has said that it has added new features to its online portal which would enhance the goodness of customer experience along with making the process a more user friendly as well as secure one.

Global...

All banks irrespective of being ATM holders or not will now be able to be a part of the National Financial Switch (NFS), said the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) under whose umbrella NFS operates.

The idea behind this step is to let even non scheduled cooperative banks as well as regional rural banks get access to the NFS via their sponsor banks. They can also thus get access to the ATM network of more...

Public sector lender IDBI Bank has introduced a debit cum credit card for its customers. The card called Magic Card is a debit card in nature but also has the nature of being a credit card for salary account holders.

"The card will work as a debit card till the account holder has balance in it but once exhausted, any further withdrawal or expenditure on the card, magic card will act similar to a...

Regulator Reserve Bank of India has agreed to allow companies to issue prepaid cards to their employees as perks. This step by the regulator is a move towards promoting cashless settlements.

Prepaid cards can be issued to employees as gift cards with preloaded amount of money equivalent to their perk amount.

The maximum amount that can be loaded in the card is Rs 50,000.

"Pre-paid payment instruments can be issued only to corporate entities listed in any of...

Private sector lender South Indian Bank has bagged the award for 'IT implementation and management' for the second time this year.

The bank has been awarded the ‘Technology Excellence Award 2010' by IDRBT (Technical Arm of Reserve Bank of India).

The award was given out by RBI deputy governor Mr Anand Sinha at IDRBT Hyderabad.

CEO and MD of the bank, Dr V A Joseph received the award on the bank's behalf.

A committee set by Reserve Bank of India has placed forward recommendations for improved customer service from banks regarding cases of ATM, card problems.

Amongst the hoard of suggestions put forward are need for immediate blocking of lost ATM following intimation by SMS as well as instant restoration of money into the account of the customer in case ATM does not dispense cash.

In case a person gets an ATM transaction alert on lost ATM via SMS,...

Private sector lender HDFC Bank has introduced three new credit cards targetting the traveller class.

These three travel cards are Regalia, Superia and Platinum Edge.

According to Mr Pralay Mondal, Country Head - Retail Assets and Credit Cards, HDFC Bank, nearly 80% of the cards of the bank are given out to internal customer base only.

The cards would be available in both VISA and MasterCard platforms.

The Regalia card would focus on the ultra rich Indian...

Technology advancement has brought bountiful development in the banking industry. Gone are the days when one needed to stand in long hours of queue to send money to a distant location or for other banking activities too. With electronic fund transfer facility increasing its presence, customers are indeed getting work done in hassle free process.

In India, banking regulator Reserve Bank of India has approved fund transfers in form of National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT), Real...

Private sector lender HDFC Bank is now busy distributing credit cards to even those customers who are not a part of the client base of the bank. This is seen as a shift from the bank's original idea of distributing cards only to clients.

Presently it is seen that amongst the total card holders of the bank, 25% account for non account holders.

Pralay Mondal, country head, retail assets and credit cards says, "As we...

The largest lender of the country, State Bank of India has introduced increased security features in its credit cards. SBI Cards would now have an extra EMV chip security feature in its credit cards.

EMV refers to 'Euro Pay, MasterCard & Visa' which is an industry standard for offering security features on cards to customers across the globe.

Kadambi Narahari, CEO, SBI Cards, said, "The launch of the EMV chip based cards for over...

Public sector lender Allahabad Bank has tied up a deal with rating agency CIBIL through which it will be availing the analyser services to aid its branches.

Using this facility, the bank will get an idea of all financial services which have been availed by a company as well an individual along with complete track record of payments.

So they will be helped in getting an idea of credit worthiness of the borrower.

The bank branches would...

Banking and monetary regulator Reserve Bank of India has directed all banks that they should make a clear mention of the reasons when they dishonor or return an unpaid check.

"Certain instances of banks not signing the cheque return memos stating that the memos are computer generated and therefore no signature is necessary, have been brought to our notice," read a statement by RBI.

It said that these come under violation of instructions as referred in the...