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...

The life insurance arm of SBI- SBI Life Insurance has been rated ‘iAAA' by Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency (ICRA) of India Limited.

ICRA has assigned this rating on the basis company's growth over the past five years, distribution model, extensive reach, strong operation and risk management expertise, low expense structure, efficient capital usage and high channel production.

Managing Director and CEO of SBI Life, U S Roy said "To our customers, iAAA rating of ICRA...

It's the right time for investors to lock their funds in fixed deposits as the interest rates may soften following the cuts in repo rate and CRR.

Bankers feel that the repo cut may begin soft interest rate regime in the economy. Banks may first reduce their cost of funds before reducing their lending rate. Thus it is expected that the deposit rates would decline in the coming times.

Presently interest rates of around 10.5% are...

Dear Customer,

Further to our earlier mail regarding possible delays in Payment settlements today (Oct 21), we wish to bring to your attention that RTGS & NEFT settlements are not happening at RBI's end today.

Hence, any RTGS & NEFT transactions initiated today shall not be settled today and likely to be settled only tomorrow. We shall keep you updated on further developments in this regard.

It will be our endeavor to provide you services on a best...

The global financial crisis has had an adverse effect in the entire nation but the country's second largest PSU, Punjab National Bank is still in the safer zone. The Bank said that it is not facing any liquidity crunch amid the crisis.

The borrowers of can depend on PNB for the financial support as it has sufficient funds to lend money to their customers. PNB Chairman and Managing Director K C Chakrabarty said, "We are...

State Bank of India Officers Association has decided to defer their countrywide indefinite strike from October 20th. This decision follows the impact of global financial crisis in the Indian economy.

All India State Bank Officers' Federation General Secretary G. D. Nadaf said, "We have decided to defer the proposed indefinite strike."

Association General Secretary of Kerala Circle, K Rajeevan said that the strike has been postponed ‘considering the financial situation in the country'.

The employees had planned...

The Reserve Bank of India has cut its short- term lending rate (repo rate) by 100 basis points to 8% as against 9% till now. This is a surprise move, which comes before the scheduled credit policy on October 24th.

According to a central bank statement, "The Reserve Bank has been, and will continue to monitor the impact of global developments on our financial markets and on our liquidity conditions and will take action as appropriate."

"In...

India Post, country's postal services will now start selling 24-carat gold coins across 100 post offices in four states - Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. The sale will be further carried to 155,000 post offices across the country, depending on the response of consumers.

A. Raja, Union Minister of IT and Telecom, said: "We have initiated the process to commercialize the post offices and increase their visibility. The proposal is to cover 102 post offices...

State Bank of India has postponed the commencement of its inward remittance cell after mid-November.

Inward remittance means purchase of foreign currencies in whatever form and includes not only remittances by M.T., T.T., draft etc., but also purchase of travellers cheques, drafts under travellers letters of credit, bills of exchange, currency notes and coin etc. Debit to banks' non-resident Rupee accounts also constitutes an inward remittance.

The inward remittance cell will be centralized in Kolkata following...

State-run, Bank of India (BoI) has finally appointed its new executive director after a gap of two months. B.A. Prabhakar has taken over the post with effect from October 15th.

K.R. Kamath was the former executive director of Bank of India. He had left his post for his current position as the Chairman and Managing Director of Allahabad Bank.

Prior to taking up the present position, Prabhakar was the General Manager with Bank of Baroda and...

State Bank of India is going to be the only finance provider for Tata Nano, which is considered to be the world's cheapest car.

Market sources are pointing towards a deal between State Bank of India and Tata Motors whereby the former will be the sole loan provider to Nano buyers across the country. The reports claim that Nano dealers will only accept cheques issued from SBI for orders placed for Nano. Besides, consumers who...

India's inflation moderated more than economists expected and gave some respite to the government, which is battling the impact of the global financial crisis.

The inflation rate, based on wholesale price index (WPI), eased to 11.44% for the week ending October 4th from 11.80% recorded during the week ending September 27th. The dip has been attributed to falling prices of oil and manufactured goods.

The index for fuel prices declined by 1.1% on account of lower prices...

Cholamandalam DBS Finance Ltd, a joint venture of DBS Bank of Singapore and Murugappa Group, has decided to close 75 branches in personal loan business.

"The business has to adapt to prevailing conditions in India," a DBS spokesman said, confirming an earlier report that its subsidiary will close 75 of its 260 branches and 200 people will lose their jobs.

In an e-mail sent to employees, Atul Pande, managing director, Chola DBS, said, "The economy, the industry,...

Despite of the tight monetary policy of RBI, banks are planning to offer higher deposit rates and lower lending rates on retail loans. This step is prompted by the festive season surrounding the corner.

In fact the two PSU banks- Bank of Baroda and Union Bank of India- have already decided to reduce their home loan rates by 25 basis points. If the RBI announces cuts in repo rate and statutory liquidity rate (SLR) in...

Crisil, the leading credit rating agency, has reaffirmed its ‘AAA/FAAA' ratings on the debt instruments and fixed deposits of ICICI Bank. These ratings have been demonstrated on the basis of bank's strong market position and healthy capitalization.

The ratings also reflect ICICI Bank's management, the bank's average but improving resource position, its adequate earnings profile and moderate asset quality. The outlook on the Tier I perpetual bonds and upper Tier II bonds is ‘Stable'.

Another global rating...