Banks asked to cautiously deal with public funds

President of India Mrs Pratibha Patil has advised the money managers and the bankers to follow their responsibility and duties in more professional manner. She advised them to be cautious while handling the hard earned savings of the citizens.

Speaking on the occasion of the Centenary celebration of The Reserve Bank of India she said "I take this opportunity to speak about the importance of upholding highest standards of probity in banking. People put their hard earned money into the banks and therefore , the banks are obliged not to take unbridled risks with that money."

Referring to the recent loan scams, she said that the banks must follow proper guidelines while the allocation of loan. This would contribute greatly towards dealing with the cases of corruption. "All procedures and due diligence, consistent with approved guidelines, must be adhered to, while approving loans by competent authorities as banks play a very important role in building transparent and accountable systems of financial dealings,"

The President was very keen on the role of banks in the developing economy of India. She was very sure that the banks have to play a major role in the achieving the growth rate of 9 percent this fiscal year as well as in the years to come.

Union Bank of India inks deal with BSNL , MTNL

Union Bank of India has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with public sector telecom company MTNL and BSNL.

The bank has already been using the services of MTNL and BSNL for WAN (wide area network) across the country.

According to statement issued by the bank , the telecom company will provide latest network technologies to the bank at highly competitive rates.

All about post office savings account

Apart from mailing facilities post offices also provides several other facilities. Apart from a bank one can also open savings account in a post office. They pay the same 3.5 per cent annual rate as the banks do. The thing that is worth to be noted is that the minimum account required for a post office savings account is very low. One can avail this facility at any post office.

Any adult Indian citizen can open a saving account in any post office. A non resident Indian can not open this account. This account can be opened individually or by two three people can open a joint account

The most important salient feature of this account is that it can be opened with a minimal amount of Rs 50. So this account is very useful for the people who are not financially very sound. Moreover one gets income- tax exemption on the tax that one earns on this account. Under the provision of section 10 sub section 15 of Income-tax act.

The amount can not exceed by 1 lac for an individual account holder and if it is a joint account then the maximum amount in the account can not exceed by 2 lacs. The balances in all those accounts taken together should not exceed for Rs 1lac for each of the account holder.

One can also avail cheque book facility with this account, if one wans to avail this facility then he has to maintain minimum balance of Rs 500 in his account and if one do not wish to avail this facility then he has to maintain a minimum balance of Rs 50 in his account.

This saving account comes with a passbook, in which every transaction is entered and signed by the post office.

If one does not operates his account continuously for three years then the account is treated as a silent account and a penalty of Rs 20 is imposed on the account holder and the penalty is deducted from the account itself on the last day of the tear.

The one disadvantage according to the present day scenario is that this account does not provides with the ATM facility.

Government planning to launch plastic currency

The Government of India is planning to introduce plastic currency in India very soon. Plastic currency is already in practical use in countries like Australia and New Zealand.

"We are seriously considering introducing plastic currency notes in the Indian economy to check the fake currency problem and also for their longevity," Subbarao said while interacting with students of Ranchi University.

The main reason why the government of India is putting efforts to introduce plastic currency in India is to check menace of fake notes. The circulation of these fake notes is not good for the economy.

In recent past there are also cases of issuing of fake notes by the banks or from the ATM. RBI has given assurance that to check this problem they will take appropriate actions very soon.

"RBI is organising several outreach programmes in association with other banks to reach the rural population and the objective is to provide core banking facilities in all the panchayats of the country,"subbarao said

He also said that there is a huge potential of banking sector to grow , as there is still a large rural population that can be included . he furtherly added that our’s is a very fast growing economy and we can even suppress china with the inclusion of rural population.

IDBI Bank offers new products and services for customers

IDBI Bank, a new generation private sector lender has launched a number of products and services for its customers on the occasion of its 7th Foundation Day. These include banking services in all days of the week in five select cities, reduced processing fee for auto loans and an inbuilt overdraft facility for salaried account holders.

In view of this bank has signed a MoU for joint financing of MSMEs with SIDBI.

In its select branches, in five cities, bank has extended seven days banking services. These are Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Pune and Bangalore.

In India gold ATMs will be less popular as against across the world

In India mostly people prefer to invest in gold. In the recent years the gold prices has increased which has made it most costly and popular metal.

There are various options of investment in gold and individual must be able to choose the right option. Recently, there was news that in India the gold can be purchased through ATMs (Automated Teller Machines). But there are various issues related to having ATMs dispensing gold.

ATMs have become a convenient route for individuals for their banking requirements and are having become familiar with the mode of operation of the instrument. At the ATM dispensing gold will mean instead of cash these machines will dispense gold. In this case the gold will come out from the machine in the form of coins or bars. However, such machines are already operational in few places across the world. If individual get chance to see such machine can actually see the kind of use that is possible.

The individuals should check the choices that are actually offered by the ATM. Usually there are lot of options that are available so that there can be purchases in different denominations as per the requirement of the individual. The machine can actually dispense coins as small as 1 gm and then go up to bars that are about a 1kg in weight. Here individuals get the option to choose the exact weight that they actually want to buy.

The prices available for transactions are in fact updated and the latest price that will be available in the market. The machine updates the price of gold every 10 minutes so when an individual goes to transact then there is a link to the actual existing prices and this is actually a good thing for the individual.

The location of these machines has to be dome in different manner. These specialized machines you can not find at street corner. They will be extremely few in numbers and would be installed at high-end places. Therefore, an investor who wants to buy gold through a gold ATM, they would have to travel to the place specifically for the purchase.

The individual has to get familiar with nature of the machine and the manner in which this will actually be used. The gold dispensing ATM machine will only sell the gold to the individual and will not buy the gold back from the investor. Therefore, the individual who want to convert the gold into cash will have to do it separately.

The other important thing to be considered is the gold price at which it will be dispensed by the machine. The difference in terms of the price charged as compared to the prevailing market price has to be seen and understood very well.

However, there is time that presence of such machines become a reality in India it is important for the individuals should be aware of the manner of operation of these so that it is beneficial for them.

Vijaya Bank ties-up with MoneyGram for money transfer

Vijaya Bank, a Bangalore based public sector lender is to offer money transfer services at all its branches. The bank has signed an agreement with global money transfer company MoneyGram to offer this service.

Albert Tauro, chairman and managing director, Vijaya Bank, said, “We will offer money transfer facility at all our branches and that will now be facilitated by MoneyGram.”

He added, Thomas Cook and UAE Exchange, travel services providing companies will be part of the agreement who will be providing financial services relating to travel and money exchange.

During the last financial year, the global remittances market was approximately $400 billion and India is one of the major remittances market. Last financial year, from Indian diaspora it had received around $55 billion.

In India around 27% of remittances come from West Asia, though a major chunk is also received from North America.

Tauro added, “We want to tap this market as many of our customers send money from West Asia which is now easily remitted to their relatives in the country.”

He said, in the first half of the financial year Vijaya Bank had received remittances of around Rs 100 crore and the momentum is likely to continue.

He informed that now it will receive money transfer serviced from over 190 countries.

Speaking on the issue, Harsh Lambah, regional director-South Asia of MoneyGram India, said this deal will further strengthen their presence in India.

He added, “We have tied up with public sector banks like Corporation Bank and Punjab National Bank for providing remittance services. After the tie-up with Vijaya Bank, our presence will rise in southern India.”

During April- June period of this fiscal, Vijay Bank had registered a net profit of Rs 173 crore, up by 21 per cent on the back of falling cost of deposit with higher core earnings.

During the same period last year, bank total income increased by 3.8% to Rs 1,520.20 crore from Rs 1,463.42 crore.