The United Forum of Bank Employees Unions (UFBEU) representing about 9.5 lakh (950,000) bank employees across the country, has given a two-day nation-wide bank strike call on August 6 and 7 in support of their expedite settlement of wage revision demands.
The bank chiefs have also cancelled the customary media conference after the bi-annual policies.
The Supreme Court stayed the National Consumer Commission's order, which had capped the interest rate chargeable on credit card holders at 30 per cent. The verdict will allow banks to levy any interest rate they consider applicable to card holders. In their appeal, the banks said they were following the guidelines of the RBI, which was the only authority to regulate the fixing of the interest. The commission had no jurisdiction to pass an order directly to the banks.
C H Venkatachalam, convener, United Forum of Bank Unions, the umbrella body of the nine unions, said due to the failure of Thursday's talk between Indian Banks Association and UFBU before the chief labour commissioner, they have decided to go ahead with the strike. IBA is yet to resolve issues regarding wage revision and the pension option.
The apex bank has sent a communication in this regard to Indian Banks' Association and this is expected to be implemented shortly, IBA chairman K Ramakrishnan told PTI. Since April 1, RBI had declared third party ATM usage, including cash withdrawals and account enquiries, free for all customers and said that banks can charge Rs 18-20 per month from other banks in case of third party ATM transaction.
Besides wage revision and compassionate appointment, the UFBU is also demanding provision of one more option for pension.
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 Supreme Court on Monday admitted the appeals of Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC and Citibank challenging the order of the National Consumer Commission imposing restriction on charging credit card holders an interest rate in excess of 30 per cent.
The United Forum of Bank Employees Union has taken this decision of going on strike after failure of talks with the Indian Banks Association on May 11, C H Venkatachalam, convenor of UFBU, said.
In an effort to boost credit flow to the housing sector, public sector banks are going to finalise the new interest rate regime for home loans up to Rs 20 lakh (Rs 2 million) on Thursday.
FM has called for a tripartite meet to resolve the bank staff issue and avoid a strike.
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.
Indian Banks' Association on Thursday said banks cannot lower their lending and deposit rates any further under the current scenario.
The Reserve Bank of India has said that banks are 'cornering' customer surplus by charging high fees on inter-bank ATM transactions in the name of recovering technology costs.
Responding to a supplementary during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, minister of state for finance Pawan Kumar Bansal said there was no proposal to waive loans of the landless. Indian Banks Association have asked its members to provide loans to the landless so that they can pay back the money-lenders, the minister said.
Lenders say settlements will cross over 100 accounts in the March quarter.
Employees of public sector banks have called off the strike planned on February 25 and 26
The Indian Banks' Association (IBA) on Friday asked Reserve Bank to allow home-grown banks to set up intermediate holding companies for raising capital for their insurance, asset management and allied businesses.
While asking all members to fall in line and lower interest rates on bulk deposits, Indian Banks' Association on Monday said further reduction in term deposits rates for retail customers will depend on a fall in inflation.
Banks have approached Reserve Bank of India with a proposal for allowing them to provide doorstep cash delivery services to individual customers.
The strike could have put customers to inconvenience, since banking services would have remained disrupted almost the entire next week, and for the government, as tax payments for 2006-07 have to be made by March 31.
Food inflation in April stood at 6.08 per cent, while the overall WPI inflation fell to a three-year low of 4.89 per cent.
Bankers have requested RBI to keep interest rates stable this fiscal, in lieu of sufficient liquidity in the system.
Foreign banks operating in India want the Reserve Bank of India to prepare a vision document on policy changes they can expect after March 2009.
This was discussed at a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister's Principal Secretary, TKA Nair, on January 12 with the Indian Bank Association, industry bodies and human resource development ministry officials.
On the heels of Delhi Consumer Court imposing Rs 55 lakh fine on ICICI Bank for the excesses committed by its recovery agents, the Indian Banking Association has asked all the banks to follow the industry code of conduct with regard to collection of bad debts.
Public sector banks on Monday announced that home loans up to Rs 5 lakh (Rs 500,000) would be given at a maximum interest rate of 8.5 per cent, while those between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 20 lakh (Rs 500,000 and Rs 2 million) would be offered at 9.25 per cent.
The interest rates on deposits continue to be high despite ample liquidity due to monetary policy uncertainty and expectations that liquidity would tighten later this year. Banks are still offering peak interest rates of 9 to 9.5 per cent on deposits
'Common sense says if one can afford, servicing the loans during this period is a better bet than postponing it by three months,' says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Banks are considering setting up a domestic card payment settlement company, called India Pay, that would rival global payment systems Visa and MasterCard.
Banking services were affected on Friday as employees of public sector banks struck work demanding compassionate appointments, fresh recruitments, one more pension option and ban on outsourcing and merger of public sector banks.
It is Finance Minister P Chidambaram's meeting with leaders of public sector bank unions that averted the three-day bank strike proposed from March 28.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Tuesday the Reserve Bank of India and Indian Banks Association have no objections on raising bank credit to minorities but difference of opinions need to be reconciled before a policy position is brought out.
Interest subsidy to cost Rs 200 cr for the government.
Public sector banks have asked the Centre to intervene as talks with bank unions for allowing half of their employees a second chance to opt for pension instead of provident fund have reached a deadlock.
The Centre is planning to raise the ceiling on foreign equity holding in public sector banks to enable them to mop up the required capital for meeting higher capital requirements and to fund growth.
Banks want the government to bear the cost of providing cover under the proposed credit guarantee scheme for distressed farmers.
Dissatisfied with the wage hike offer made by Indian Banks' Association (IBA), public sector lenders' employee unions on Monday threatened to go on a two-day strike from February 10.
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