Banking and monetary regulator, Reserve Bank of India has directed changes in rules guiding financial instruments  and FDs which would come into effect from April next year.

The directive has been implemented on cooperative banks too. The cooperative lenders have been guided to consider a cheque/demand draft valid only for 3 months from its date of issue rather than the 6 months tenor earlier with effect from April 2012.

"The RBI directs that with effect from...

Banking and monetary regulator, Reserve Bank of India has announced a hike in interest rates of non resident Indians' (NRI) deposit accounts by different spreads.

The apex bank has directed in a notification that the NRE deposit rates in case of USD deposits should not supercede the...

Private sector lender Dhanlaxmi Bank has achieved the award for being the 'Best Mid-Sized Bank' in growth terms. The award has been given as per the results of the Business Today-KPMG's Best Banks Survey of 2011.

The main arenas considered while conducting the survey included- growth, size and strength. In all, 63 commercial banks were considered under the survey.

Dhanlaxmi Bank has been found to have shown commendable growth in its deposits as well as loans...

Starting next fiscal, rules guiding financial instruments like cheques, pay orders and demand drafts are going to see big change. With effect from April 01, 2012, a cheque or demand draft will remain encashable only for a period of three months instead of six months now.

Banking and monetary regulator Reserve Bank of India has said that the reason behind reducing the validity period of these financial instruments is to bring a check on the increasingly...

Senior citizens have requested banks for higher interest rates on fixed deposits than the present ones being offered to them.

It has been urged by the All India Senior Citizens' Confederation (AISCCON) that they should be offered 2% raised interest than what offered to general citizens on various fixed deposit schemes.

Presently, senior citizens are offered additional 0.5% to 1% interest on FDs.

They have also urged for more liberal insurance schemes.

According to President of AISCCON, Mr...

Interest rates happen to be touchpoints for customers. Every customer is sensitive to interest rate change and his decisions are governed to a big extent by the interest rate factor.

With savings bank account rates getting deregularized recently, some private sector lenders have taken to increasing their respective offerings in this segment with consideration to the interest rate sensitivity of the customer. They feel that higher interest rates are definitely going to attract customers.

However public...

Private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank is likely to tie up with Manipal University in order to offer customized banking course to post graduate students.

With lenders like ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank having already started to offer this policy, Kotak Mahindra also plans to join the league in collaboration with Manipal University.

The benefit banks get in offering such tailor made courses is that since these study material is designed as per individual...

Private sector lender Karnataka Bank has recently launched its first financial literacy center in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka.

The center has been incepted by the lender in collaboration with Manipal-based Jnana Jyothi Financial Literacy and Credit Counselling Trust.

Speaking on the launch, managing trustee of Jnana Jyothi Financial Literacy and Credit Counselling Trust, Mr D.T. Pai said that Karnataka Bank is the first private lender which has taken up an initiative of this kind.

Mr A...

Banking and monetary regulator Reserve Bank of India has advised banks to increase deposit rates in a bid to enhance the savings growth rate in the country even if it means pulling down the net interest margins (NIM) of banks.

"The NIM of the Indian banking system is higher than that in some of the other emerging markets, even after accounting for mandated social sector obligations such as priority sector lending and credit support for the...

Banks seem to be on a rate hiking spree. On one hand, while interest rates on loans are already surging, banks have now also gone for raising rates of safety lockers.

Public sector banks now seem to be in a mood to raise both security deposits as well as annual fees of lockers.

Syndicate Bank went ahead to become the first public sector lender to raise rates on safety lockers.

However rates applicable on lockers differ on...

Public sector banks have been the preferred choice of banking for most Indian customers. However, the quality of services offered by these lenders has been found to be far below the level offered by private sector as well as foreign lenders.

The data has been revealed by a report released by regulator Reserve Bank of India.

In order to give more emphasis to customer service, the apex bank set up a separate customer service department in 2006...

Regional rural banks (RRBs) have seen a major increase in savings bank deposits in comparison to term deposits in the last fiscal. According to data reported by the 'Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India 2010-11', it has been seen that savings bank deposits in all the RRBs have taken a big rise as compared to term deposits.

SB deposits have seen a rise by around Rs 15000 crore while term deposits have,...

Payment of advance income tax has been made a lot hassle free for taxpayers in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. As many as 926 branches of both public as well as private sector lenders in the area will now act as authorized receiving counters for advance income tax.

862 of these branches are of public sector nature and the remaining from private sector banks.

"The arrangements have been made for the convenience of the income-tax assesses. The RBI...

Leading housing finance provider HDFC Ltd is now planning to foray into the education sector in India too. This, the company plans to do by setting up schools and also offering vocational training services and similar courses.

According to Mr Deepak Parekh, Chairman, HDFC,"To support such an initiative, we will start with some baby steps and envisage building an education organisation on the principles of efficiency, effectiveness, integrity and transparency which have been so successfully applied...

The largest lender of the country, State Bank of India has indicated that it expects that savings bank deposits would grow beyond 16% for the second quarter of this fiscal, said Chairman of the bank, Mr Pratip Chaudhuri.

He said that the bank expects to reach this target without raising savings bank account rates.

The bank has reported a 12% rise in net profits for the second quarter.

However high levels of non performing assets...

Public sector lender State Bank of Hyderabad has come up with a new deposit scheme which would double itself in the shortest time span. Christened as the 'double deposit scheme', it would come with double benefit for the customer.

A general citizen will see his fixed deposit amount double in just 87 months while for a senior citizen, the amount would double itself in just 83 months.

Interest rates applied would be 13.84% for a...

With deregulation of savings bank account rates setting in, all lenders are in a dilemma whether to revise their respective rates or not. While some private sector lenders have already gone ahead and hiked their rates, public sector lenders still await for the largest lender of the country, State Bank of India to take a stand.

SBI, however says it is in no hurry to raise its savings bank account rates.

"We are not going...

Public sector lender IDBI Bank has initiated the enrolment process under the Aadhar project in Tamil Nadu.
The lender which is an authorized registrar for the UIDAI project has started enrolment through 10 of its branches in Chennai.

Executive director of the bank, Mr K C Jani inaugurated the launch process.

Enrolment through other branches of the bank in Tamil Nadu is to begin soon.

The latest report released by regulator, Reserve Bank of India has shown a dip in the total business of banks in terms of both loans as well as deposits. For the fortnight ended on October 21, 2011, the total lending by banks showed a dip by Rs 3684 crore as compared to fortnights prior to this.

The total lending by banks in this fortnight has amounted to Rs 40,81,598 crore.

However, so far the annual credit growth...

The largest lender of the country, State Bank of India, whose stand on revising savings bank account rates has been eagerly awaited by all has negated the idea of any such revision presently.

Speaking on the decision of the bank, Chairman, Mr Pratip Chaudhuri said, "We will not be amongst the first few. We will watch the other banks first. We do not have any immediate plans to hike the interest rates on savings...