The Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) decides to expand its business in the northern states that includes Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh.

The bank plans to open 11 new branches in these states by the end of this calendar year.

J K Malhotra, new General Manager for the Chandigarh region told that a new branch has recently been opened at New Shimla in Himachal Pradesh and a branch is also expected to open in Chandigarh by...

Karnataka based Syndicate Bank has raised its domestic term deposit rates.

The interest rates on term deposit with different maturities have been revised upwards by the bank on October 16th.

The interest rate for deposits with maturity of 1 year to 399 days has been increased to 10.25% from 10.05%. Deposits with tenure of 400 days to 499 days will also earn an interest rate of 10.25%.

Similarly interest rates for deposits of 500 days to less...

It seems that the series of cut in CRR has started showing its effect.

State-run, Punjab National Bank has decided to slash lending rate on housing, car and education loans after the announcement of third cut in CRR.

PNB is the first lender to declare a reduction in the interest rates. Chairman and Managing Director of PNB, K.C. Chakrabarty said: ‘Our bank is the first bank to reduce interest rate on the above loans to pass...

Country's second largest PSU bank, Punjab National Bank has been ordered to pay a compensation of Rs 5,000 for losing its customer's cheque worth Rs 20,000.

The complainant, Ram Krishan, a resident of Dhanas had deposited a cheque worth Rs 20,000 with PNB. The cheque was drawn at the Panchkula Central Cooperative Bank on November 7, 2007 for encashment but the complainant reported that the amount was never credited to his account.

Mr. Krishan had also...

Bank of Rajasthan has declared exciting Fixed Deposit Rates for senior citizens. The bank's fixed deposits with a maturity ranging between 1 year and 2 years are now offering an interest rate of 11.10% to the senior citizens against the earlier rate of 10.85% per annum. The regular depositors will earn a return of 10.60% for the same deposit.

Bank of Rajasthan had earlier raised its interest rates on its fixed deposits on with...

The CRR cut has injected Rs 60,000 crore of funds in the system and eased the liquidity along with a fall in call rates. The inter-bank call rates came down below 10% on Monday from the high of 22% on Friday.

Call rate is an inter-bank interest rate on funds that are not deposited for a fixed period. It relates to money deposited in a bank for an indefinite time.

At the beginning of the lat week,...

The Reserve Bank of India has again recovered fake currency notes from the branches of five banks in Allahabad.

The banks where the receipt of counterfeit notes has been reported are Union Bank of India, Canara Bank, Allahabad Bank, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur.

An FIR has been lodged regarding this matter following a compliant by RBI.

R K Singh, Inspector in Allahabad said, "We received a written complaint sent to us...

ICICI Bank chief KV Kamath reassured investors that the largest private sector bank in the country remains well capitalized and has no sub prime exposure.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services also said that the credit fundamentals of the bank continue to be sound, backed by its strong market position in the domestic banking industry, adequate financial profile, which is supported by its healthy capitalization, satisfactory loan quality, and diversification.

"We have Rs 90,000 crore investment in...

President Pratibha Patil will launch a scheme whereby loans at an interest rate of 4% will be sanctioned to women's self-help groups (SHGs).

The President is going to Pune for the launch, where she will extend loans to two SHGs from Pune and one each from Solapur, Satara and Nashik.

An official from the women and child welfare department said, "The 4 percent interest replaces the existing 9-11 percent. Around 45,000 SHGs will get Rs 50,000,...

The Reserve Bank of India on Friday announced a further reduction in cash reserve (CRR) by 100 basis points to 7.5% from 8.5%. On October 6th 2008, RBI had cut the CRR by 50 basis points to boost liquidity in the system.

This cut in CRR is expected to inject about Rs 60,000 crore into the system against the earlier injection of Rs 20,000 crore announced by a 0.50% cut in CRR.

"In the context of...

The recent financial fall of the US banks like Wachovia and Washington Mutual (WaMu) has impelled the Indian banks to move their nostro accounts with safer banks.

Nostro is an account which one bank holds with a bank in a foreign country, usually in the currency of that foreign country. It is especially held to carry out foreign currency transactions.

Most Indian banks have reduced their transactions with banks that have been in trouble. In fact some...

Private sector lender Development Credit Bank (DCB) has introduced a new deposit scheme -DCB Freedom 1-2-3 fixed deposit for its customers.

Under the new launch scheme, the bank will offer its customers a rate of 10.5% for fixed deposit in the 375 daysto3years slab. However, Senior citizens will receive 0.5% more rate above the card rates.

DCB also increased its interest rates for deposits of 91 days to 9% from the previous 7%. The new rates...

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) has asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to inject enough liquidity in to the market through the routes of cash reserve ratio (CRR) and repo rate. The chamber has requested the apex body to reduce the CRR and repo rate by one percentage point, allow banks to borrow against government securities and provide dollars directly to oil companies for purchasing crude oil.

In its...

Non banking financial companies (NBFC) with foreign parentageare tightening their pursue strings as the delinquency rate has taken its toll in the country's consumer finance companies. NBFCs are moving towards shutting down their branch networks. Major players like GE Money Financial Services and Prime Financial have cut down their branch network by a substantial number.

Non-bank financial companies (NBFCs) are financial institutions that provide banking services without meeting the legal definition of a bank, i.e....

The country's inflation rate for the week ended September 13 remained unchanged at previous week's level of 12.14%. The slowdown in inflation rate over the past few weeks has been maintained with this figure.

This figure is still far above the central bank's target of 7 percent for the fiscal year to March 31, 2009, but below market expectations. The market claimed that inflation would accelerate to 12.23 percent.

The Finance Ministry said prices of 30 essential...

For the second consecutive year, HDFC Bank has secured a place in Forbes' list of the best 50 of Asia-Pacific's biggest listed companies, out of a universe of 500.

Ten Indian companies including HDFC bank have made their way into the Forbes' list of top 50 best listed companies in the Asia-Pacific zone. ‘Fab 50' companies include only four banks and HDFC Bank from India being one of them stood at 22.

The other nine Indian...

HDFC Bank has extended its hand for providing education loan at minimum interest rates to the students of Institute of Computer and Finance Executives (ICFe).

Mr. Santosh Mangal, CMD, ICFe says on the tie-up with HDFC bank ‘‘Many dreams and aspirations of the bright and deserving candidates remain unfulfilled because of the lack of finances. We are happy that HDFC bank is helping us in this initiative to develop and nurture the future of budding...

The leading global provider of financial solutions, Deutsche Bank has become the top investment bank in India. The bank has left behind the big building blocks such as Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs.

Deutsche has acquired first position in country's investment banking with a market share of 16.6% in mergers and acquisitions while 14.2% funds raised through the equity corner.

Fall of the three biggies- Bear Sterns, Leman and Merrill Lynch- was tragic in...

India's apex development bank, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has announced four central cooperative banks under the Orissa State Cooperative Bank (OSCB) as Self Help Promotion Institutes (SHPIs). These SHIPs are declared in the wake of promoting Self Help Groups (SHGs) in Orissa.

The SHPIs aim to advance the movement of SHGs in the state of Orrisa by encouraging participation of people. These institutes will basically focus on women belonging to weaker sections...

The Lehman Brothers bankruptcy has left the whole world under the global financial turmoil and now even bankers are becoming conscious to decide the creditworthiness of their customers.

Although interest rates are rising, most of the banks are also planning to tighten their lending norms in order to reduce the risk of default in this scenario. Availing any type of loan including home, auto and personal loans is going to be tougher now. Bankers are...