Expressing his optimism with the growing success of India on the world stage, the Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, said on Sunday that he believes that by 2018, one of top five banks in the world would be from India.

Present at the 13th triennial conference of UCO Bank, FM said: "Our plan is to make six public sector banks reach the top 100 banks in the world."

Speaking on the influence and importance of...

India's third largest lender, Bank of India (BoI), is planning to open up a representative office in Qatar. For achieving that task, however, they need the permission of the Qatar Central Bank (QCB), which they have applied for.

Mr. K.R. Kamath, Executive Director of the Bank of India, had recently met Qatar QCB Governor Mr Sheikh Abdullah bin Saoud al-Thani when he had gone on an official visit to Qatar. The meeting was to seek permission...

In yet another case of credit card fraud, a former Indian cricketer was duped of 1.6 lakh rupees. Former Indian opener Chetan Sharma has registered a case of fraud with the DLF-I police in Gurgaon, against unknown people for illegally using his credit card. This case follows many such high profile cases, one involving Shah Rukh Khan’s credit card loss in February. There was also a case of the chairman of Topiwala and...

In what could be a landmark move, Pune might see the first development and usage of citizen-oriented identity cards in the country. Taking inspiration from smart cards used in Singapore, the chief information officer (CIO) of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has joined hands with the National Association of Software & Services Companies (NASSCOM) to develop multipurpose biometric cards along the same lines. These cards will be used for a variety of purposes. While the...

In news which could yield a big blow to the reputation of Hyderabad being recognized as a BPO hub in India, the police today blew the lid of a credit card fraud affecting an international company. The credit card fraud involving American Express credit cards of foreigners, with information being leaked by call centre employees was busted by the police. The police have arrested eight youths in connection with this case, and feel that there...

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and GE Money for a credit cards venture has expired, but both the companies have maintained that the deal is still on course.

On September 6, 2007, LIC (40 per cent) had announced a MoU with GE Money India (35 per cent), Corporation Bank (5 per cent), LIC Housing Finance (4 per cent) and LIC Mutual Fund AMC (2 per cent) to create a...

Bank of Maharashtra has decided to open eight new branches in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh .The Chandigarh region of the bank will open these branches in the current fiscal year to increase its focus on north India.

These eight branches include two branches in Himachal Pradesh at Una and Mandi, two in Gurgaon in Haryana, and one each at Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Zirakpur in Punjab. Anil Thakur, regional manager, Chandigarh region said that at...

In view of the increasing number of fraud cases, the Credit Information Bureau of India (CIBIL) and 10 large commercial banks have joined hands to fight frauds. Together they will start a pilot project in June for collecting information on frauds, building ground to create a database from 2009-10.

Presently, banks submit information on frauds to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on a regular basis, however, there is no inter-bank interaction. Senior bankers feel...

In a big blow to two nationalized banks, the Supreme Court has punished the two banks, namely, Indian Bank and Bank of Baroda, for the banks’ officials being involved with scams. In a directive to the banks, the SC asked them to release the funds to those cooperative societies and credit banks which were allegedly involved in the multi-crore fixed deposit scam.

However, the court has asked the banks to approach the CBI for any...

In a remarkable case, Chennai police have busted yet another fake credit card racket. This follows a fake credit card racket busted by the police just last week when seven people were arrested and several bank officials were also named. The police arrested four people, even as a search was on for 11 more people in connection with the case.

Police said the gang had duped banks to the tune of Rs 65 lakh. The...

ICICI Banks’ next target is the corporate sector. With over 700 billion dollars to be invested by corporates in the next three years, ICICI Bank expects its lending to the sector to grow faster than 35 percent.

"On corporate side we will grow faster than the industry. We will grow at least by 35 percent," ICICI Joint Managing Director Chanda Kochhar said. "I think the investment pipeline, which we estimate to be about USD 700 billion,...

ICICI bank has just got into more trouble. After the ruling of the Supreme Court against the bank to dissuade it from sending goons, the bank has now been asked to compensate a customer for wrongly debiting his credit card account and sending him monthly statements even after he had surrendered the card.

In a recent order, the state consumer disputes redressal commission, asked ICICI bank to pay Rs 30,000 in compensation to Kalyan Kumar Sur,...

In a startling revelation, it was learnt that some banks are going to charge customers for even paying their own credit card bills at a bank branch. Starting June 1, 2008, ICICI Bank card holders would need to pay Rs 100 to make credit card payments in cash at ICICI Bank branches. However, ICICI is not the only one charging its customers; Standard Chartered Bank has already been levying a charge of Rs 99 since...

The Readers Digest 2008 Survey has named SBI Card, a joint venture between State Bank of India and GE Money, and one of the largest Credit Card issuers in the country with over 3.2 million credit card holders, as India’s most trusted brand in the Credit Card category. All available SBI Credit Cards here. This is not the first set of laurels which have been beset on this card. SBI Card has won many...

Adding to the menace of inflation, the consumers would have an additional headache to suffer. Keeping pace with an increase in interest rates on almost all kinds of loans, credit cards, too, are becoming costlier if dues are not paid on time.

Following in the footsteps of ABN Amro Bank, which has raised its interest rate on credit cards from 3.1% to 3.5% per month, many other banks seem to be heading the same way.

Effective from...

In a respite to many banks in Chennai, the Chennai city police have cracked a major credit card racket. The police have arrested a gang of seven members, who have reportedly duped the banks to the tune of Rs. 65 lakhs.

Chennai City Police Commissioner G Nanchil Kumaran said the gang, which includes an industrialist, were caught with gold jewellery worth 35 sovereigns, a car, 15 computers and Rs 47,000 in cash. In addition to this,...

In a big jolt to the banks, it has been learnt that the government’s decision to reimburse banks for their losses from the Rs71,680 crore farm loan waiver scheme will not cover debts already written off.

According to people in the banking industry, loans taken before 1997 and turned bad will not be covered by the waiver scheme. Besides, loans already written off by banks will not be reimbursed.

This is a very bad news for banks...

Keeping a credit card just got a bit more expensive! Stealing and using a credit card are passé. In today’s world, hackers are working overtime to find out new innovative ways to make new money, and going by the look of things, they are gaining a sizeable lead in this domain! From skimming and cloning your credit card, to making fake sites; from using stolen cards on them to using new online trading models, the...

A new remarkable trend has been seen in the credit card industry, where half the cardholders revolve payments and pay just the minimum amount each month.

People who revolve credit are those who pay just the minimum amount asked by the card company before the due date and agree to pay the remaining dues at a later date. The issuing company collects interest on the overdue amount.

"The number of people who revolve payment is about half...

In yet another case of harassment of banks, a consumer court has penalized and ordered two multi national banks to pay a 11/7 widow for the accident insurance money she was entitled to on her husband’s death.

Two months after her husband Vithal’s death in the serial blasts that ripped through a first-class compartment at Borivili station, Kavita Choudhary, 35, started getting calls from recovery agents working for ABN-Amro Bank and statements from HSBC, demanding payment...