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...

After asking banks to come out with ‘no-frills' accounts for the underprivileged, the central bank has urged banks to provide these account holders with small-ticket credit as well.

No-frill accounts are accounts with no pre-conditions, so that the common man would not hesitate to have a bank account. These accounts were introduced as a part of the financial inclusion that started in 2004 in India.

The country's largest bank, SBI has decided to follow RBI's recommendation...

Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Sunday asked the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) to desist from going on a proposed two-day strike on September 24th and 25th. He termed the proposed nation-wide strike by bank employees as 'unnecessary' and said that negotiations with the concerned parties had begun to meet the union's demand.

"The strike is not necessary. The government is ready to hold talks with bank unions," he said after inaugurating a Bank of...

HDFC Bank, one of India's premier banks, has won the Asian Banker's Best Retail Bank in India 2008 award. The bank has won this award for the second consecutive year after beating a host of other competitors in Asia Pacific, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Central Asia on a range of parameters.

The jury of the Asian Banker's Excellence Award mentions various parameters for HDFC bagging the award. These included perception among peers and in...

Massive strides in technology accompanied by evolving consumer needs have changed the way Indian banks serve their urban customers. The regular visits to the local bank branch and personal acquaintance with its manager has given way to anytime and anywhere banking for routine transactions.

Country's largest bank, State Bank of India (SBI) aims to shift 50% of its transactions to alternative channels of banking apart from branch banking. For this purpose, the bank is likely...

State run, Union Bank of India has decided to stay away from interest rate hikes for sometime.

As the soaring inflation rate is showing a downward move for three consecutive weeks, the bank is holding back to raise interest rates for the time being. Chairman and Managing Director of Union Bank, M V Nair said, "We are not interested to raise interest rates for the time being."

The series of increase in repo rate and CRR by...

A genuine customer who worries about the unnecessary harassment by recovery agents when he enters into a contract does not need to be bothered any longer.

Under the orders of the central bank-Reserve Bank of India- recovery agents of the banks are undergoing training on behaviour and banking. This step has been taken by the RBI after a series of complaints about misbehaviour of recovery agents with loan defaulters.

Rupeetimes.com also had earlier compiled Chronicles of...

Banks have got three more months up till December 13th for complying with the Reserve Bank's direction to include loans to mutual funds and the Irrevocable Payment Commitments (IPCs) to stock exchanges on behalf of MFs and FIIs under the capital market exposure.

Earlier the banks were asked to meet the terms by September 13th. "On a review, it has been decided to extend the transition period to comply with the requirements by another three months,...

As the inflation rate of the economy is moderating in the recent times, it is expected that there would be no more hikes in the interest rates. Although there was a feeling that already soaring interest rates would go up by another 0.5 perecnt.

"I hope interest rates have peaked. With inflation moderately coming down, I hope there will be no need for a further interest rate hike," Parekh told reporters

The HDFC Chairman, Deepak Parekh, said...

After Dumariaganj fake currency scam it's the Gonda case that is currently under the scanner.

A special team from RBI has recovered fake notes with face value of Rs 2,100 from a branch office of State Bank of India (SBI) in Gonda during its checking.

These fake notes were found at the Babhnan branch. The Branch Manager, Ramanuj Misra said, " Four fake notes in the denomination of Rs five hundred and one of Rs 100 have...

State-run, Union Bank of India is now heading east to make a mark in retail loan business segment.

The bank plans to extend loans of Rs 120 crore in the eastern region through its retail asset branches this fiscal as compared to Rs 16 crore in the last fiscal.

On the launch of the bank's new logo, S L Bansal, General Manager, Union Bank of India, disclosed that that the bank intends to open four new retail...