1. The Indian Overseas Bank Officers' Association conducted a free medical camp in
2. The proposal to collect 35% income tax from the co-operative banks will hit them hard and the Union Finance Minister should rethink it or at least reduce the burden on the banks, according to Mr P. Raghunadha Rao, Chairman of the Kanakamahalakshmi Co-operative Bank, here and the Vice-Chairman of the AP State Co-op Urban Banks' Federation Ltd.
3. Standard Chartered Bank (StanChart) will lead arrange India Infrastructure Finance Co’s (IIFCL) $500-mn external commercial borrowing (ECB) plan. The resources will be raised for a period of 10 years.
4. ICICI Bank has been fined HK$ 40,000 (Rs 2.2 lakh) by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC),
5. Even as the RBI works on long-term plans to replace physical cheque clearing with electronic clearing its existing clearing capabilities are being put to severe tests by rising volumes. A surge in volumes is turning out to be too much for the clearing system to handle leading to delays. Since the beginning of the new financial year starting April 1, cheque volumes have nearly doubled. Now, do not be surprised if your banker takes an additional two-three days for clearing your cheques, given that he is faced with the issue of adjustment of volumes. On an average, sources at the RBI explained that the month of March saw an average of 6,75,000 cheques being processed on a daily basis. Now, as against this, the month of April has already seen average daily volumes rising to near 12 lakh cheques.
6. ICICI Bank and apparel discount chain Megamart joined hands to launch a co-branded credit card. The ICICI Bank Megamart co-branded credit card is a gold card with features like multiple reward points scheme that enable customers to earn six reward points for every Rs 200 spent at any Megamart outlets.
7. Standard Chartered Bank (StanChart) has picked up to 5% stakes in a few private sector banks, according to chief executive officer (
8. The Delhi High Court has asked the director of a private company to pay Rs five lakh towards payment of a loan to an advocate against whom she had issued three different cheques that bounced in January 2003.
9. It used to be that, for banks, only the colour of money was green. But no longer. Increasingly, banks are consciously lending to projects that are green (in the way they treat the environment), opening branches that are energy-efficient and environment-friendly and using recycled paper for printing cheque-books.
10. Pushing for consolidation in the banking industry, the finance ministry has asked the SBI to explore the possibility of merging its unlisted subsidiaries with itself, including State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank Of Indore, State Bank of
11. The Reserve Bank’s efforts to squeeze out excess liquidity in the economy through hike in short-term interest rates is likely to impact quarterly earnings of banks and the rate, which is expected to remain slow in the first half of the current fiscal.
12. HDFC Bank was open to mergers and acquisitions, but it was not desperate as organic growth was fuelling its development healthily. It is open to acquisitions but given the healthy growth rate in the last few years, it is not desperate for acquisitions to fuel growth. The bank has been growing at between 25-30% pa over the past few years and since it was having a "good organic growth" it will go in for acquisitions only if there was real value in such a transaction. Any acquisition will have to ensure value to its business and its shareholders.
