The Indian railway is planning to launch ‘smart card’ for rail users in association with State Bank of India.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee at the economic editors' conference said, "We are negotiating with SBI for issuing smart card for rail passengers."
The card will be a multiple purpose one which can be used in metro, suburban and passenger trains. The card can be also used for e-ticketing.
A railway official said, "The modalities are being worked out for the smart card which will be the first of its kind by the railways. We are in discussion with other stakeholders to make it a composite all-purpose card."
Ms Banergee also said, "Every suburban train will have toilet for which test has been carried out already. There will also be facilities for handicapped passengers."
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
SBI plans to take charges for no-frills accounts transaction
Country’s largest public sector lender, State Bank of India (SBI) is thinking of taking charges from no-frill account holders for every transaction they conduct to make operation of no-frills accounts opened under the financial inclusion plan possible.
An anonymous senior SBI official involved in its financial inclusion initiatives said that the bank will be taking nominal charge which can be either a percentage of the amount transacted or a fixe amount and this will not discourage people from operating no-frills accounts.
The official said, "The question on our minds is -- how do we make the operations of the model feasible? We can recover the Rs 20,000 required for setting up infrastructure in a village through a kiosk or palm-held device by opening around 100 accounts and charging Rs 200 as account-opening fees."
He said although the plan has not been finalized but people will prefer to pay a small amount like Rs3 for a transaction than travelling 20-kilometres to reach a branch.
He added, "You cannot have a model under which the financial inclusion roll-out is subsidized, it needs to be sustainable."
He told, there are some persistent expenses like maintaining the back-end systems and paying the business correspondent (BC) who is operating on behalf of the branch at the village level, of which bank has to take care.
Bank will do campaigning through multiple media which will help in increasing public interest in being a part of the banking system and assuage any concerns.
Regarding, whether such move will face any regulatory hurdles, the official said, "Though the regulators have given us all the freedom, it is very difficult to say (what their reaction will be)."
Bank financial inclusion plan also includes opening of last mile banking infrastructure at village level to get the local population into the formal banking system.
Earlier this year, in his budget speech Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said that all the 60,000 unbanked villages having a population of over 2,000 will be covered by March 2012, and the public sector banks were allotted these villages.
The banks need funds to invest in traditional brick-and-mortar branches, therefore banks are outsourcing the operations to non-bank financial companies by appointing them as BCs to look after the operations.
An anonymous senior SBI official involved in its financial inclusion initiatives said that the bank will be taking nominal charge which can be either a percentage of the amount transacted or a fixe amount and this will not discourage people from operating no-frills accounts.
The official said, "The question on our minds is -- how do we make the operations of the model feasible? We can recover the Rs 20,000 required for setting up infrastructure in a village through a kiosk or palm-held device by opening around 100 accounts and charging Rs 200 as account-opening fees."
He said although the plan has not been finalized but people will prefer to pay a small amount like Rs3 for a transaction than travelling 20-kilometres to reach a branch.
He added, "You cannot have a model under which the financial inclusion roll-out is subsidized, it needs to be sustainable."
He told, there are some persistent expenses like maintaining the back-end systems and paying the business correspondent (BC) who is operating on behalf of the branch at the village level, of which bank has to take care.
Bank will do campaigning through multiple media which will help in increasing public interest in being a part of the banking system and assuage any concerns.
Regarding, whether such move will face any regulatory hurdles, the official said, "Though the regulators have given us all the freedom, it is very difficult to say (what their reaction will be)."
Bank financial inclusion plan also includes opening of last mile banking infrastructure at village level to get the local population into the formal banking system.
Earlier this year, in his budget speech Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said that all the 60,000 unbanked villages having a population of over 2,000 will be covered by March 2012, and the public sector banks were allotted these villages.
The banks need funds to invest in traditional brick-and-mortar branches, therefore banks are outsourcing the operations to non-bank financial companies by appointing them as BCs to look after the operations.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
SBI clerical post receives applications from 3,800 graduate engineers, 200 post graduates
Recently SBI, the country's largest commercial bank gave an advertisement for clerical category. In the advertisement bank had declared vacancy for over 27,000 posts in the clerical cadre, in response to this around 38 lakh aspirants from across the country had applied for the jobs online, 28 lakh of them appeared for the written exam. Out of these 88,000 candidates passed the written exam and 27,000 were selected for an interview.
From the selected 27,000 candidates, 3,800 are graduate engineers, 200 are post graduates in different branches of engineering, 8,200 are women and 2,000 are ex-servicemen.
A senior SBI official was surprised to see such a response from technically qualified candidates said, "It was the biggest such exercise for us. The response to our advertisement was huge. It took a little longer to complete the selection process."
After the global economic crisis, though the job market has picked up still it does not seem to be that favorable for aspiring candidates. The young and potential candidates are finding difficulty in getting job which has led them to rethink about their career. An engineering graduate said, "I come from a leading engineering college. When I applied for the SBI job, there were virtually no vacancies in the manufacturing or IT sector due to recession. I had to seriously look at other options. After all, SBI offers a safe job."
An HR professional who was shocked to see engineering graduates taking up clerical assignments said, "The country boasts of having a large number of engineering colleges. However, it does appear that we are producing engineers without accessing the manpower requirement."
From the selected 27,000 candidates, 3,800 are graduate engineers, 200 are post graduates in different branches of engineering, 8,200 are women and 2,000 are ex-servicemen.
A senior SBI official was surprised to see such a response from technically qualified candidates said, "It was the biggest such exercise for us. The response to our advertisement was huge. It took a little longer to complete the selection process."
After the global economic crisis, though the job market has picked up still it does not seem to be that favorable for aspiring candidates. The young and potential candidates are finding difficulty in getting job which has led them to rethink about their career. An engineering graduate said, "I come from a leading engineering college. When I applied for the SBI job, there were virtually no vacancies in the manufacturing or IT sector due to recession. I had to seriously look at other options. After all, SBI offers a safe job."
An HR professional who was shocked to see engineering graduates taking up clerical assignments said, "The country boasts of having a large number of engineering colleges. However, it does appear that we are producing engineers without accessing the manpower requirement."
SBI and Western Union tie-up for mobile money transfer in India
State Bank of India (SBI), the largest commercial bank in India has signed an agreement with Western Union, may be the largest money transfer service to India, to offer cross border money transfers service to SBI account holders on their mobile phones. Anil Kapur, Western Union’s Senior VP (South and Southeast Asia), said India is the world’s No. 1 remittance recipient country. According to World Bank figures in 2009 the received figure stood at US$52 billion. At present, consumers through 70,000 Western Union Agent located in 25 countries will be able to send Mobile Money Transfers.
In India, there are 61,000 agent locations of Western Union with the mobile transfer partnership it will be able to expand its distribution within India using SBI’s network. However Western Union is already partnered with SBI, at over 12,000 SBI branches Western Union Money Transfer service is available. With this partnership, SBI customers will be able to transfer money from Western Union into their accounts, using mobile phones, online banking, ATMs and bank branches. In July, Western Union made an announcement in early 2011the Account-Based Money Transfer (ABMT) service will be introduced which will be enable SBI customers with online bank accounts to draw a Western Union Money Transfer directly into their accounts via the Internet or an ATM. According to the release, there are 110 million SBI accountholders, out of which more than 4 million are registered for online banking.
Western Union is offering the Mobile Money Transfer service in many other parts of the world including the Philippines with Smart Communications and Globe Telecom; in Kenya with Safaricom; in Malaysia with Maxis and in South Africa with Absa Bank. Recently company has tied-up with EnStream in Canada and has agreements with Tunisian Post and Bank of Commerce & Development (BoCD) in Libya. Besides this, Western Union had earlier announced tie up with Zain (now owned by Airtel) in Africa.
In India, there are 61,000 agent locations of Western Union with the mobile transfer partnership it will be able to expand its distribution within India using SBI’s network. However Western Union is already partnered with SBI, at over 12,000 SBI branches Western Union Money Transfer service is available. With this partnership, SBI customers will be able to transfer money from Western Union into their accounts, using mobile phones, online banking, ATMs and bank branches. In July, Western Union made an announcement in early 2011the Account-Based Money Transfer (ABMT) service will be introduced which will be enable SBI customers with online bank accounts to draw a Western Union Money Transfer directly into their accounts via the Internet or an ATM. According to the release, there are 110 million SBI accountholders, out of which more than 4 million are registered for online banking.
Western Union is offering the Mobile Money Transfer service in many other parts of the world including the Philippines with Smart Communications and Globe Telecom; in Kenya with Safaricom; in Malaysia with Maxis and in South Africa with Absa Bank. Recently company has tied-up with EnStream in Canada and has agreements with Tunisian Post and Bank of Commerce & Development (BoCD) in Libya. Besides this, Western Union had earlier announced tie up with Zain (now owned by Airtel) in Africa.
Friday, October 1, 2010
SBI raises deposit rates by 25-75bps, base rate remain unchanged
Country’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI), has revised its deposit rates but has not changed the base rate the minimum rate of interest on loans is at 7.5%. Bank has raised deposit rates by 25 to 75 basis points (bps), ranging from 4 percent to 7.75percent.
The SBI said in a statement, “The bank revises upwards the deposit rates by 25-75 bps in various maturities, effective from Oct 1.”
Bank has raised deposit rates by 75 basis points to 5.5percent per annum on term deposits from 91 days to 180 days maturity period.
While on the maturity period of 556 days to less than 2 years rate has been increased by 50 basis points to 7.25 percent. For maturity period from 2 years to 999days interest rate has been increased to 7.50 per cent from existing 7 per cent and on 1,000 days maturity bank has raised interest rate by 50 basis points to 7.75 per cent.
For 1 year to 554 days the rates have been increased by 25 basis points to 7 percent, whereas on 555 days the rates have been raised by 25 basis points to 7.5 per cent and on 1,001 days to less than 3 years bank is offering revised rate of 7.15 percent.
For other maturity period’s bank has not kept rates unchanged.
Bank in its quarterly review of base rate said, “Base rate will continue to remain 7.50 percent per annum for the present.”
Although, last month SBI had raised benchmark lending rate by 50 basis points and deposit rates by 25 to 150 basis points.
The SBI said in a statement, “The bank revises upwards the deposit rates by 25-75 bps in various maturities, effective from Oct 1.”
Bank has raised deposit rates by 75 basis points to 5.5percent per annum on term deposits from 91 days to 180 days maturity period.
While on the maturity period of 556 days to less than 2 years rate has been increased by 50 basis points to 7.25 percent. For maturity period from 2 years to 999days interest rate has been increased to 7.50 per cent from existing 7 per cent and on 1,000 days maturity bank has raised interest rate by 50 basis points to 7.75 per cent.
For 1 year to 554 days the rates have been increased by 25 basis points to 7 percent, whereas on 555 days the rates have been raised by 25 basis points to 7.5 per cent and on 1,001 days to less than 3 years bank is offering revised rate of 7.15 percent.
For other maturity period’s bank has not kept rates unchanged.
Bank in its quarterly review of base rate said, “Base rate will continue to remain 7.50 percent per annum for the present.”
Although, last month SBI had raised benchmark lending rate by 50 basis points and deposit rates by 25 to 150 basis points.
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