Welcoming the launch of the Bharatiya Mahila Bank, India Inc on Wednesday said the initiative will propel women's financial inclusion, encourage female entrepreneurs and empower women in the country.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said the country needs big and world-class banks, and discussions are on with the Reserve Bank and lenders in this regard.
Coinciding with the 96th birthday of late Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the first of its seven branches at a function in Mumbai in the presence of United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, coalition leaders Sharad Pawar and Farooq Abdullah, besides Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday allayed apprehension that privatisation of state-owned banks would hurt financial inclusion and national interest. She said the bank nationalisation done in 1969 has not yielded the desired result as far as financial inclusion was concerned.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi will inaugurate country's first all-women Bharatiya Mahila Bank in Mumbai on November 19, the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Bharatiya Mahila Bank to have 60 branches by Mar 31: CMD
With the inauguration of the bank in Mumbai, seven branches would become operational across the country including in Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Guwahati.
The government on Tuesday appointed SBI's senior-most managing director Dinesh Kumar Khara as the chairman of the the country's largest lender. He replaces Rajnish Kumar, who completed his three-year term on Tuesday.
The bank has been garnering interest from women far and wide, but it needs to mobilise savings from customers to be able to take off.
Country's biggest lender State Bank of India had proposed merger of five associate banks.
The finance ministry on Wednesday allowed all private sector banks to participate in government-related business, like collection of taxes. pension payments and small savings schemes. At the moment, only few large private sector are allowed to conduct government-related business.
We do not expect any major price action at SBI counter as the swap ratio being largely neutral
Amendments would be required in the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970 and the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1980 for privatisation, sources said.
Did you know that women can avail for a loan of upto Rs 20 crores to set up a manufacturing business?
Khara will replace SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar, whose three-year term comes to an end on October 7.
In the biggest consolidation exercise in the banking space, the government on Friday announced four major mergers of public sector banks, bringing down their total number to 12 from 27 in 2017, a move aimed at making state-owned lenders global sized banks.
The operating income of the bank fell by 5.17 per cent to Rs 25,612 crore during April-June quarter of 2017-18
These PSU banks also account for the lion's share of bad loans or NPAs plaguing the sector and need crores of rupees in new capital in the next two years to meet global Basel III capital norms.
All shares held by SBI in the five associate banks will stand cancelled after merger.
Among other demands, the unions are also seeking immediate introduction of five-day week in full and reduction of cash transaction hours and regulated working hours.
'Consolidation was part of the Indradhanush package.'
Rajnish Kumar was on Wednesday appointed the new chairman of the largest public sector bank, State Bank of India (SBI), replacing Arundhati Bhattacharya who completes her one-year extended term on Friday.
In an ambitious initiative aimed at empowering women, the government has proposed to set up an exclusive bank for women having branches across the country which may see merging of the Bharatiya Mahila Bank launched last year by the UPA government.
Seeking to create a global-sized bank, the Cabinet on Wednesday gave the go-ahead to the merger plan of SBI and its five associates, a step aimed at strengthening the banking sector through consolidation of public banks.
Why are investors gung-ho about State Bank? asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
As per the mega consolidation plan, Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India will merge into Punjab National Bank (PNB); Syndicate Bank into Canara Bank; Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank into Union Bank of India; and Allahabad Bank into Indian Bank. Following this merger, PNB will become second largest after the SBI, Canara Bank fourth, Union Bank of India fifth and Indian Bank seventh biggest public sector lender.
Of the three major Budget announcements related to the banking sector, privatisation of PSBs is the most audacious, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
According to SBI executives, the aim is to do things efficiently with an eye on profitability, and get a feedback on areas, including which business to enter and which to exit.
I kept insisting that Rs 100 notes were in short supply and there was an urgent need to augment the supply of 100 rupee notes while also rapidly bringing into circulation the proposed new Rs 500 notes. But this was easier said than done because all the note printing machines of the RBI were programmed for printing Rs 2,000 notes and required at least three weeks before the machines could print the new Rs 500 currency notes. The availability of currency paper posed another major bottleneck, and it had to be imported. It was decided to immediately start printing the Rs 500 notes. It was only when the supply of the new Rs 500 notes started improving and the process of change of cassettes at the ATMs gathered momentum that the situation began limping back to normal. A fascinating excerpt from former SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar's The Custodian of Trust: A Banker's Memoir, five years after demonetisation, November 8.
DDinesh Kumar Khara is someone who cares for others's ideas and suggestions.
If he takes the people along with him (which he always does); cares for the customers (80 per cent of SBI's new customers are in the 20-40 age group); and doesn't take his eyes off technology, his job is done, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
There would be no retrenchment of employees and that their services conditions would also not be affected post merger.
Indradhanush-II is likely to chart out the process for resolution of non-performing assets.
However, BJP has not given any assurance of support and conveyed to the Finance Minister that the matter will be discussed within the party and take a call, sources said.
Move to hasten rollout and, if successful, set a precedent for new banking firms.
The mergers will not involve any cash but only share swaps
Mudra Bank will be a Rs 20,000-crore institution, which would "primarily be responsible for refinancing all micro-finance institutions.
According to the RBI's Financial Stability Report, the industry's gross bad-loan is at a 14-year high. As RBI's March 2017 deadline for banks to clean up soured credit looms closer, Shailajanand Mishra takes stock of just how bad the situation is.
'We can't have the best of both worlds -- large, efficient, world class government-owned banks, doing social banking and making profits. 'Why not set them free from the shackles of such obligations and run them as business units?' says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The loss-making and debt-laden government carrier has earlier leased space in the 22-storey building to banks and offices but this will be first time that commercial eateries will be allowed in the premises.
Employee integration and branch rationalisation are major challenges.
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