Twelve banks under the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) have performed below the state average of 83.06 % during 2008-09.

These banks include Indian Overseas Bank (77.26 percent), Syndicate Bank (68.28 percent), Rushikulya Gramya Bank (58.34 percent), and Union Bank of India (57.85 percent), Baitarani Gramya Bank (51.34 percent), Indian Bank (51.19 percent), Canara Bank (35.12 percent), Dena bank (33.65 percent), Utkal Gramya Bank (29.84 percent), Corporation Bank (8.6 percent) and State Bank of Hyderabad...

Public sector lender, United Bank of India is on negotiation terms with many asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) to sell a portion of its bad loans so as to clean up its loan book, said a top official of the bank.

The Finance Ministry officials as well as RBI officials are to meet today in order to discuss the technological models of financial inclusion so as to spread banking to unbanked areas.

"Tomorrow, we are going to sit with RBI to finalize what are going to be the various technologies which we will be using, what are the business processes under the regulation available," Financial Services Secretary R Gopalan said.

Gopalan added that the Government has targeted 60,000...

Police officials have nabbed another party of crooks involved in a fraud worth crores of rupees. Seven people have been arrested in the case that has taken place in the National Capital Region (NCR). Most of them are bank officials. The gang has been accused of withdrawing money from other peoples' accounts after they hacked into the personalized details of customers of a leading nationalized bank and used fake cheques.

Till now Rs. 27 lakh could...

The Government has declared that it is up to the Board of Directors of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) to decide whether they want a banking license or not.

"The LIC board will have to decide that first. Let the board decide, discuss and debate whether LIC should get into the banking business or not," R Gopalan, secretary, department of financial services said.

LIC had joined the race of getting a bank license after the Finance Minister,...

The Central Government has declared that it has no objection with public sector banks (PSBs) entering into non banking sector.

Speaking on the issue, Financial Services Secretary, R. Gopalan said, "There is no issue at all. We have never asked and there is no thinking in the ministry."

"The banks have to expand in various financial product activities so you cannot prevent them from getting into it," Gopalan said.

The arena of insurance and mutual funds has always...

Banks have received warning against strict action that would be taken if they do not sanction loans to unemployed youth under the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP). The warning has been generated by Jharkhand Deputy Chief Minister, Shri Raghubar Das.

Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) is a credit linked subsidy program that has been approved by the Government of India. The scheme has been developed by the merger of two previously existent schemes namely...

The largest public sector lender of the country, State Bank of India is planning to open bring 1000 branches in rural and semi urban areas of the country in the upcoming financial year.

"During this financial year, till now we have opened about 600 branches in rural and semi-urban areas, and next (financial) year we are planning to open 1,000 branches in these areas," SBI chief general manager for rural business Jayanta K. Sinha told...

India's top most lender SBI stands amongst the four Indian banks which have registered their names in the list of top five banks in Asia Pacific region to have arranged syndicated loans in 2010.

"Amongst Asia-Pacific countries, Indian entities have been most active in raising funds mostly from infrastructure projects in the power and airports segments. Small amounts were raised for creating industrial capacities by corporates," a senior executive of a large public sector bank quoted.

A...

Muthoot Pappachan Group, a Kerala based financial institution has decided to move into the housing finance business by setting up a separate subsidiary in the upcoming fiscal.

The group was earlier a part of the race by private players and NBFCs to get a bank license but has decided to drop the plan.

The new venture would be named Muthoot Housing Finance Limited and the group plans to invest around Rs. 100 crore over the next...

The year ended in 2009 saw an increase in banks' NPAs by 30% as compared to the previous year. The rise has been due to stress in many sectors and farm loan waiver which led to a step decline in the profits of banks. The banks also could not take efficient measures to curb the exposure on sectors that brought in bad debts.

The Government said in a reply to the Rajya Sabha that the overall...

State Bank of India is moving ahead firm and steady with its expansion plans all over the country. The bank plans to reach a target of 1000 branches in the Chandigarh circle in the upcoming fiscal.

SBI Chief General Manager (Chandigarh Circle) S K Sehgal said that the bank has around 875 branches in the region and plans to add a 100 more by the next financial year.

The Chandigarh circle comprises Union Territory Chandigarh and...

Uco bank has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Hyundai Motors India so as to scale up the demand in the auto loan segment.

Hyundai Motors is the second largest automaker in the country.

Under this agreement, both parties would aim to leverage from each other's competencies and in the process focus towards expansion. The bank's auto loan portfolio would increase and in return the bank would cross sell Hyundai's products.

Arvind Saxena, Director, Director -...

The Reserve Bank of India has been keen to spread financial education programs at both school and college levels in different parts of the country. While it ahs already started off with its mission in Karnataka as a pilot study, it also wishes to extend the program to Orissa.

The Central Bank wants to initiate the program in Orissa in conjunction with the Orissa State Government. In a meeting with the Chief Minister of Orissa...

In its drive towards increasing the volume of business, India's largest public sector lender, State Bank of India has shown plans of setting up 25 more branches of the bank in Assam this year. Along with the set up of new branches, the bank also would be increasing its ATM strength.

Chairperson of SBI, Mr. O.P.Bhatt said that the bank is taking up this step so as to meet the needs and requirements of the...

BPLR or Benchmark Prime Lending Rate is the rate charged by commercial banks to their most credit worthy customers. According to the Reserve Bank of India, banks are free to fix their BPLRs but the interest rates charged by them have to bear relevance to the BPLR. Banks are free to fix BPLRs for credit limit beyond Rs.2 lakhs. Lending rates for the agricultural sector was set by the RBI.

Questions about the BPLR system being...

Public sector banks are planning for expansion to meet their capital requirements for the next financial year. Bank of Baroda, Bank of India and Corporation Bank are some names in the league. While Bank of Baroda and Bank of India have plans to raise Rs. 2000 crore each, Corporation Bank has a target of Rs. 1500 crore in the upcoming fiscal.

These expansion plans will be elicited by economic and financial improvement like strong economic...

The State Bank of India may rather opt to go for a rights issue than dilute its Government stake to 51% as propose in the SBI (Amendment) Bill, 2010, which was placed in Parliament on Monday.

As per the proposal set in the Bill, the bank should be allowed to dilute the Government stake from the threshold of 55% to 51%.

According to Chairperson, SBI Mr. O.P. Bhatt, the bank would prefer to keep the Government...

People seeking bank jobs seem to have huge opportunities knocking their doorstep. The public sector banks would be hiring around 80 to 100 people on an average on a daily basis for various posts in the upcoming fiscal.

This leads to projection that around 40,000 to 50,000 vacancies for officer and clerk grade will be filled up this year.

Experts say that branch expansion and replacement of retired staff are driving these PSBs into hiring spree.

Earlier it...

Small businessmen will soon have a reason to rejoice. A RBI panel has proposed that collateral not be sought for loans to small businesses up to Rs. 10 lakhs. The panel has proposed to double the guarantee provided under a government scheme.

A report released by the Finance Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee proposed that banks should not seek for collaterals to small businesses up to Rs. 10 lakh while sanctioning loans. The security in such cases...