The Indian Banks Association has suggested certain alternative proposals on pension after meeting the representatives of United Forum of Bank Unions, general secretary of the All India Bank Officers' Association R J Sridharan said.
Borrowers wanting to prepay home loans can look forward to some relief as RBI on Tuesday indicated that it would scrap prepayment penalties charged by banks.
Tax shortfall: Finmin asks banks to deposit March TDS by month end.
The move will help curb card frauds. Currently, customers use only personal identification number for automated teller machine transactions.
At 3.5 per cent per annum, interest on savings accounts is the only regulated rate in the banking system currently and a highly contentious one given its impact on the common man.
As their non-performing assets have risen sharply even as loans have remained stagnant, RBI steps in with stringent loan-management measures.
Keeping up his tradition of celebrating the festival with soldiers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Sir Creek near the Indo-Pak border in Gujarat's Kutch district and offered sweets to jawans.
The decision, the Reserve Bank of India said, "is expected to revolutionise the retail payments system of the country".
In a dazzling resurgence, foreign investors have graced the Indian equity markets with an influx of nearly Rs 1.5 lakh crore in 2023, fuelled by optimism over the country's resilient economic fundamentals amid shadows of a gloomy global scenario. Experts believe that the positive trend may continue in 2024. This follows Indian equities witnessing the worst-ever net outflow of Rs 1.21 lakh crore by FPIs in 2022 on aggressive rate hikes by the central banks globally after net inflows for three consecutive years.
Ahead of the Union Budget, the banking sector, through the Indian Banks' Association (IBA), has made recommendations to the Union finance ministry on direct tax, including removing Section 194N of the Income Tax Act. According to Section 194N, tax deduction at source (TDS) has to be done if a sum or sums withdrawn in cash by a person in a fiscal year exceed Rs 20 lakh if no income-tax return (ITR) has been filed for the three previous assessment years, and Rs 1 crore if ITRs have been filed in all the three previous assessment years.
Banks Board Bureau chief Vinod Rai has proposed performance-linked incentives for bank employees, but the staff unions are dead against the idea.
The current wage revision for PSBs, as well as some private lenders, is due from November 2017 for five years - up to October 2022.
Unlike the new private sector lenders, BoR employees' wages are still governed by the industry wage package negotiated by the Indian Banks Association with bank staff unions.
The unions have called for a strike against proposed closure of associate banks and their merger with the State Bank of India
Macroeconomic (macro) concerns, along with a cautious approach towards discretionary information technology (IT) spending, will see the revenue for Indian IT firms decelerate by 5 per cent through 2024-25 (FY25), from the highs of 12-18 per cent in 2022-23, said analysts from S&P Global Ratings. "The reason behind this slow growth is a macro slowdown. "Customers are cutting their discretionary IT spending, especially on projects that take longer to deliver quantifiable outcomes. "We also acknowledge that there are still strong economic headwinds for the next few years," said Spencer Ng, associate director, corporate ratings, S&P Global Ratings, over a call in a media briefing.
Lenders say settlements will cross over 100 accounts in the March quarter.
The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (Fada) has raised concerns over the rising inventory levels of four-wheelers at dealerships which have now reached a 60-day stockpile or around 550,000 units. This situation could mean a significant financial burden on dealerships due to the additional interest cost for the extended holding period. These 60-day inventory levels are nearing the 2018-19 levels when inventory days had approached 70 days, leading to the closure of around 282 passenger vehicle dealerships.
Bad loans of PSU banks rose by 28.5 per cent.
'The last year's growth is a foretaste of things to come in the retail credit market.'
All banks are eligible for privatisation. A committee of secretaries will decide which banks will be privatised, says Financial Services Secretary Debasish Panda.
Alternative investment funds (AIFs) have not seen any significant redemptions from financial institutions even though the 30-day timeline provided by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to liquidate their holdings or make full provisions ends recently. Sources said the industry is awaiting certain relaxations or extensions based on the recommendations submitted to the banking regulator. On December 19, the RBI restricted financial institutions and banks from investing in AIFs where there is any downstream link or exposure to a debtor firm.
The AISBOF wants bank employees' wage revision in parity with that of the Indian Administrative Services officers. Last month, the IBA had given an initial offer of 10 per cent wage hike, or a package which would cost the industry Rs 2,750 crore (Rs 27.5 billion), against Rs 2,220 crore (Rs 22.2 billion) in the eighth bipartite meeting between bank unions and IBA.
The apex bank is scheduled to announce the quarterly review of its annual monetary policy on January 29, when it is widely expected to hike the cash reserve ratio or the percentage of amount banks park with the RBI to absorb excess money from the system.
With the addition of the seven banks - South Indian Bank, Karur Vysya, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Bikaner, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Mysore, and Punjab and Sind Bank - the number of banks allowed to import the precious metals now stands at 30.
Of the three major Budget announcements related to the banking sector, privatisation of PSBs is the most audacious, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The Centre is pushing for bilateral trade with Cuba and its settlement in rupee as a part of its strategy to internationalise the domestic currency. A delegation from Cuba, including officials from its central bank, met Indian government officials and banks last month to discuss bilateral trade and settlement using the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) payment mechanism in rupee, said people aware of the matter. Since the Cuban nation has opened up its economy and is looking to implement reforms to attract investments from India, Cuban banks have evinced interest in opening special rupee vostro accounts (SRVAs) with Indian banks.
Soon, there will be an exchange-like platform for trading in loans.
The syndicate used "stooge" bank accounts and shell companies to transfer the largest amount linked to a single case recorded in the city, the Customs and Excise Department of Hong Kong said.
Officials said the IBA had three major agendas to discuss, the most important being to persuade the unions to accept the new pension scheme, otherwise known as the contributory pension scheme, for new bank employees. Currently, the bank unions are vehemently opposing it since unions of no other sector has accepted it to date.
The All India Bank Employees Association, Bank Employees Federation of India, All India Bank Officers' Association and National Union of Bank Employees have given a call for one day country-wide strike.
'When the bombing happened in the Taj Mahal hotel in 2008, that was a very sad moment, but he really took care of the people, took care of everybody and that was when you saw some of his best moments.' 'There are some things which we will never forget. That is when the best of a person comes out.'
The Delhi Police Cyber Cell has arrested 12 people, including three HDFC Bank employees, for allegedly trying to withdraw money from the account of an NRI, officials said on Tuesday.
Banks would soon be able to determine whether a property is already mortgaged when a borrower approaches them for a loan against it and this would help in checking the increasing instances of housing loan frauds.
It further asked the government to make suitable arrangements for smooth functioning of the bank.
When it comes to the Congress and Wayanad, the only way the scepticism in the minds of some in Kerala may be addressed is by the Gandhi family proving that they are more than a passing caravan in town, reports Shyam G Menon.
As against an allocated Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion), subscription by retail investors stood at Rs 4,500 crore (Rs 45 billion), while an additional subscription of nearly Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion) came from other investors, including high net-worth individuals.
The Reserve Bank working group, constituted to revisit benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR), is likely to recommend two types of PLRs and may put a ceiling on banks' sub-PLR lending, a source said.
