Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Bank holidays to leave common man in lurch

Few days back it was bank strike and now the holidays are going to hit the banking operations and affect the daily life of people to a large extent. During the two day strike the banking operations in all the branches of public sector banks including State Bank of India and its associates had come to stand still and now in this month of October the festival season has started meaning a number of holidays is going to leave the common man in lurch.

Now banks will be closed for public on September 30 on account of half-yearly closing; then in some states banks will be closed on Wednesday or Friday for Eid. After this the banks will be closed for Gandhi Jayanti on October 2. Then banks will open for one day in between and again they will get in the weekend mood.

However bank branches in the financial capital, will remain open for business on Friday. The spokesperson of ICICI Bank informed that the bank will remain open on Friday although its Goa branches will remain closed because of the festival of Eid. However He added in case the Maharashtra Government declared a holiday on Friday, banks will remain closed in Mumbai also. While a Canara Bank spokesperson said that banks will be closed on October 2 but will remain open on Friday.

A member of the All India Association of Industries (AIAI) said, “Industry will also suffer if banks remained closed for so many days. Cheques and other transactions will be delayed. This is not in the interest of a growing economy like India’s”.

Monday, September 22, 2008

State Bank of Patiala hiked Interest Rates on NRE term Deposits by 3.71%

After, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lifted the ceiling on rates by 50 basis points to attract more dollars into the country. Banks have started hiking the interest rates on NRE/FCNR terms.

State Bank of Patiala has hiked interest rates on NRE term deposits to 3.71 % per annum for one year up to and less than 2 years, to 3.81 % for a maturity period of 2 years and above but less than 3 years and to 4.13 % p.a for 3 years and up to up to 5 years. The rates will come into effect from18 Sept., 2008

In a press release bank has stated the interest rates on FCNR (B) deposits in USD have been increased to 2.96% p.a for a period of 1 year and above but less than 2 years, to 3.06 % p.a for 2 years and above but less than 3 years, to 3.38 % p.a. for 3 years and above but less than 4 years, to 3.60 % p.a. for 4 years and above but less than 5 years and to 3.76 % p.a. for a period of 5 years.

Likewise, interest rates on FCNR (B) deposits in Australian Dollars have been hiked to 7.22% p.a for a period of 1 year and above but less than 2 years, to 6.54 % p.a for 2 years and above but less than 3 years, to 6.49 % p.a. for 3 years and above but less than 4 years, to 6.52 % p.a. for 4 years and above but less than 5 years and to 6.49 % p.a. for a period of 5 years.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Dena Bank in tie-up with SBI to launch its new credit card

Dena bank soon will be signing an agreement with State Bank of India to launch its new credit card, to make its market position strong.

Dena bank's Chairman and Managing Director P L Goirala told reporters that, "Even 10 years after launching the Dena credit card, we have not been able to make much dent in the market. Hence we decided to go ahead with the SBI."

He informed that the final shape to the agreement will be given in the next one month wherein all the formalities will be completed.

"Our talks are in advanced stage. SBI will handle all the back office functions and other process... It will be mostly on revenue sharing basis," he said.

Goirala agreed that in spite of being in the credit card business for last ten years, they have not been able to forcefully drive the product in the market.

He informed that the new card will carry logos of Dena and SBI together.

At present Dena Bank is having 1165 branches and 325 ATMs. "This quarter the deposits have gone up by 23.82 per cent as against the last year and gross credit by 26.55 per cent," he said.

He told bank has opened 26 new branches during 2007-08 and have plans to open 25 more this year and adding up150 ATMs to its chain.