Tides of 8.07.2015

1.   To strengthen physical security and surveillance and increase the efficiency of incident response, State Bank of India has decided to hook about 6,000 of its ‘critical and high-value’ branches across the country to a central monitoring system (CMS).To achieve integrated monitoring, India’s largest bank will divide the 6,000 identified branches, spread across 14 circles, into 5 clusters. As at March-end 2015, the bank had 16,333 branches.Facilities in each cluster will be remotely monitored 24x7x365 from the CMS for detecting any eventuality such as fire, theft, intruder detection, burglary, vandalism, and unauthorised activity. Considering the complexities involved and increasing physical security threats, it was necessary to review the current security system and adapt industry best practices and technologies, as per a bank document.Each cluster of branches will have a separate outsourced CMS. All the security systems at the branches — CCTV, fire alarm sensors, intruder alarm sensors — will be integrated with the CMS for real-time monitoring. Event-based alerts will be sent by the branch security system automatically to the CMS for appropriate resolution.SBI’s current surveillance system is a de-centralised system, thus not having any capability to send distress signals or CCTV feeds to any other branch/central monitoring station.

2.    SBI Life Insurance, the 74:26 joint venture between the State Bank of India (SBI) and BNP Paribas Cardif, is targeting a 30 % growth in first year premium this fiscal. According to Arijit Basu, Managing Director and CEO, SBI Life, the growth will come through the ‘bancassurance’ (selling of insurance products through banks) model; followed by growth in retail. While the ‘bancassurance’ model is expected to grow at 45%; retail is likely to grow at 20% .At present, the two models account for nearly 95% of the insurer’s business; with ‘bancassurance’ being the major one.

3.    The passage of the long-pending Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2015 — which has increased the cap on foreign direct investment in the insurance sector from 26% to 49% — has now set the ball rolling for Indian promoters to offload some of their stake to their foreign partners.SBI — India’s largest lender— has decided to dilute its stake in both life and general insurance businesses. The bank has informed the BSE that the executive committee has authorised divestment of its stake in SBI Life Insurance by up to 10%. A few days ago, it had also decided to dilute its stake in SBI General Insurance from 74% to 51 % in favour of its foreign partner Insurance Australia Group (IAG).

4.    The Indian Finance Ministry has gone back to an old faithful, much loved by the common man. Yes, the Rs. 1 currency note is making a comeback after two decades.The new avatar unveiled by the government in March is made of cotton rag with 110 micron thickness. It has the watermark of Ashoka’s Lion with ‘Satyameva Jayate’ inscribed and carries the signature of the present Secretary, Ministry of Finance, and is dated 2015. Banks have also started distributing these notes in select locations.In December 2014, the government had announced that Rs. 1 notes will be issued and will be brought back in circulation. The government prints the Rs. 1 currency, while the RBI prints all other currency notes, according to the RBI Act.The re-launch of Rs. 1 notes, has also brought old notes to life. Whether old or new, the banknotes are legal tenders and people can use them freely.