State Bank of Saurashtra (SBS), which has recently merged with its parent bank, State bank of India, has come into the picture for being involved in a scam.

The Reserve Bank of India has uncovered a scam worth Rs 95.40 crore from the Bhavnagar branch of State Bank of Saurashtra. Head Cashier of the branch, Kirit Purohit is considered to be the culprit and therefore a fraud case has been registered against him. Although...

Top bankers in the country depict a comeback in the liquidity crunch in the coming quarters. Even though the monetary regulator, Reserve Bank of India has taken several measures to raise the money supply in the system, coming times are yet to observe a significant rise in the non-performing assets (NPAs).

Economic growth in the country has become a latest focus of the regulators so the bankers feel it is essential to have a strong risk...

After President Pratibha Patil launched a scheme whereby 4% interest rate loans are to be sanctioned to women's self-help groups (SHGs), around 300 women SHGs have availed loans up to Rs 10 lakh from nationalized banks in Pune.

A senior district coordinator of Mahila Arthik Vikas Mahamandal (MAVIM), T L Shere said: "The scheme will enable women to take on more entrepreneurial activities and repay faster." The scheme is likely to benefit nearly 17 lakh...

The government's purpose for the meeting that was held between Union Finance Secretary, Mr Arun Ramanathan and representatives of private, foreign banks has been fulfilled. The private lenders have assured the government on considering a cut in their interest rates. "Private bankers said that liquidity is better now but it continues to be an item which has to be monitored on a regular basis," stated Mr Ramanathan.

Senior officials from ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Jammu and...

Even though the Finance Ministry has tried to persuade banks on rate cut and RBI has been cutting down on its lending rate, auto loans rates seem to stay unaffected.

The three leading auto financing companies, HDFC Bank, ICICI and Kotak Mahindra, are planning to keep their auto loan rates untouched for now. They are following a wait and watch policy due to the instability in the call money market.

Call money is the rate...

The life insurance arm of ICICI Bank, ICICI Prudential Life has introduced a new premium payment service under which payment can be made through interactive voice response (IVR).

The scheme provides an option of premium payment over the phone with the help of a credit card. The service has been introduced to ease the mode of premium payment for policyholders. In order to make the payment, customers just need to call up at any...

If your company is not rated under any credit rating agency, then your borrowings will be costlier by 200 basis points.

According to the Basel II accord, it is mandatory for a corporate or a bank to be rated under a rating agency. Any borrower without a rating is likely to avail a loan at higher interest rates. Banks are charging more to such borrowers as they fail to provide a credit rating to prove their...

Yet another move by the Reserve Bank of India to ease cash squeeze, support growth and overcome the global financial crisis. RBI has again cut its short-term lending rate (repo rate) and cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 50 basis points and 100 basis points respectively.

The CRR of scheduled banks is reduced from 6.5% to 5.5% while the repo rate under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) has come down to 7.5% from 8%. This seems...

Although the global financial crisis have not spared India, Indian banks still appear to be unaffected by the slowdown.

The global turmoil seem to affect Indian banks by a much smaller extend as compared to their peers in US. According to the second quarter reports of five major Indian and American banks, it was seen that the Indian banks profits have been much greater than their US peers.

The five Indian banks that were considered included SBI,...

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) were considered for offering stable returns over the long term in an unstable economy but now even they seem to be hit by the global financial slowdown.

Banks and financial institutions have cut on their disbursements to MFIs and also raised the interest rates over 200 basis points for these institutions. Besides the banks are demanding for personal guarantees of directors of MFIs.

Some banks have raised the security margins over the loan amount...

Private lender, Karur Vysya Bank (KVB) has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with SME Rating Agency of India (Smera). The MoU has been signed for financing of SME by influencing the potential of the two institutions.

Under the MoU, Smera will supply data about external credit rating by reflecting the financial position and qualitative factors linked to the worthiness of the SME and Karur Vysya Bank will extend funds for the SME.

Karur Vysya Bank...

Even though the market rumours have tried to put a negative impact on ICICI's financial stability, yet the bank has clocked a 42% increase in its operating profit and 1.1% rise in net profit for the second quarter ending September 30th.

ICICI's operating profit rose to Rs 2,437 crore from Rs 1,712 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. This figure comes in spite of bank's exposure of $80 million to the senior bonds of...

Gold Bullion trading is becoming common day by day. Indian Bank has recently passed a proposal to launch bullion trading service with a target of Rs 10 crore which will be accounted as other income.

Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Bank, MS Sundara Rajan said, gold bullion trading facility by the bank is part of its expanding financial services. The bank is likely to sign an agreement with international dealers for this purpose.

At first,...

Now the banks seem to be unsafe even with its employees. A senior bank official of Canara Bank was arrested for being a part of fraudulent case.

Tarun Kumar Chatterjee, a Special Assistant in the credit section of Canara Bank, has been arrested by the police for his involvement in Rs 42-lakh fraud case.

The fraud came under notice when the director of a diary firm in Kolkata lodged an FIR with the detective department. The...

India's leading private sector lender, HDFC Bank has opened its first overseas full-fledged commercial branch in Bahrain, after been granted a full commercial branch (FCB) license by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB).

The new Bahrain branch with a 25-member staff will offer cash management and trade finance solutions to corporate clients and wealth management services for NRIs.

CBB Governor Rasheed Al Maraj inaugurated the new branch on the 49th floor of the Bahrain Financial Harbour. "The...

The regulatory moves taken by RBI to solve the liquidity problem in the economy have almost proved successful. India's High Commissioner to the UK, Shiv Shankar Mukherjee said that RBI's regulatory mechanism has proved quite successful during the current global economic meltdown.

Mukherjee also cautioned the Indian financial institutions to be "vigilant." "Earlier RBI was criticized for being too prudent but its regulatory mechanism has stood the test of time and has now come for praise,"...

Gold is emerging as a safe investment at the time when all other assets are losing their value. World Gold Council (WGC) is engaging banks to have gold as collateral for personal loans.

WGC has already joined with HDFC Bank for extending personal loans to gold buyers in India and the service is expected to commence within a few days.

Ajay Mitra, MD, India Sub-continent, WGC said, "HDFC has taken the initiative to provide personal loans...

Kerala-based, Federal Bank is planning to enter into wealth management business mainly to serve its NRI patrons. The Bank has asked Boston Consulting Group (BCG), its new business consultant to look into the proposal.

Federal Bank's Chairman and CEO M Venugopalan said, "We expect to firm up this plan in the next three months." He ruled out the possibility of entering into the asset management space directly. "This is not the right time to think...