NEFTs get faster because banks will process them every 30 minutes now

RBI has reduced the settlement time for

clearance of NEFT from 1 hour to 30 minutes

Mumbai, April 10: On 6 April, the Reserve Bank of India in its monetary policy announcement said that it has decided to reduce the settlement time for clearance of National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT), from 1 hour to 30 minutes. Here is what it means for you:

NEFT is one of the electronic payment systems in the country. It allows you to send money from one bank to another. You can send the money only during a certain hours. The fund transfer happens in batches. So far, NEFT payment settlement happened in hourly batches. Now this has been changed to every half an hour. Hence, in a weekday (Monday to Friday) the batch between 8 am to 7 pm will have 23 batches. So far there were only 12 batches.

On Saturdays, NEFT settlements happen between 8 am and 1 pm. Now, instead of six batches, it will be settled in 11. There is no NEFT on Sundays.

The cost of sending money using NEFT depends on the bank that you are transacting with. However, the RBI has issued guidelines on the costs too. For receiving money over NEFT, you don’t have to pay any charges. For sending, you will be charged a fee.

For an amount up to Rs10,000, the banks can’t charge you more than Rs2.50, excluding service tax. If you send between Rs10,001 and Rs1 lakh, you will be charged Rs 5 plus service tax, and for transactions between Rs1 lakh and Rs2 lakh, charges would be Rs15 plus service tax. For transactions above Rs2 lakh, the charge would be Rs25 plus service tax.

Banks are also supposed to pay 25 paise per transaction to the clearing house as well as destination bank, as service charge. However, it cannot be passed on to the customers.

To send money using NEFT, you need to have an account with a bank that allows you to do fund transfer using NEFT. You need to have your beneficiary’s bank account details such as account number, name of the receiver, and IFSC code. Once you add the beneficiary, you will have to wait for half an hour for the beneficiary to get registered. Once registered, you can start sending the money.

According to RBI, In case of non-credit or delay in credit to the beneficiary account, you can contact the NEFT customer facilitation centre of your bank; details of which is available on bank websites.

Banks get time till June 30 to obtain PAN from account holders

New Delhi, April 7 (PTI): The Tax Department has given banks three more months till June 30 to obtain permanent account number (PAN) or Form—60 from all account holders as it looks to tighten the noose around evaders.

Though the deadline for getting the PAN or Form 60 (if PAN is not available) by banks ended on February 28, the tax department on April 5 notified the extension of the time till June 30.

In the notification, the Income Tax Department said that in Income—Tax Rules 114B, in the fourth proviso, “for the figures, letters and words ‘28th day of February’ the figures, letters and words ‘30th day of June’ shall be substituted.”

Rule 114B lists various transactions for which quoting PAN is mandatory. The tax department had in January asked banks, post offices and cooperative banks to document PAN or declaration of Form 60 received from account holders and maintain all records for transactions under Rule 114B of I—T Act.

It had said that persons who have not quoted PAN, or did not furnish Form 60 at the time of opening account, will have to provide the same by February 28. Form 60 is a declaration form filed by an individual without PAN.

Following the demonetisation move effective November 9, the tax department had asked banks and post offices to report to it all deposits above Rs 2.5 lakh in savings accounts and more than Rs 12.50 lakh in current accounts made between November 10 and December 30, 2016.

Also, cash deposits exceeding Rs 50,000 in a single day had to be reported. With an estimated Rs 15 lakh crore in junked currency notes coming back into the banking system post demonetisation, the tax department has started analysing the bank deposit trends.

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Govt asks public sector banks to finalise next wage revision before 1 November

In a communication to CEOs and MDs of the state-owned banks, the finance ministry advised them to initiate the steps for smooth conclusion of next wage revision

New Delhi, April 9 (PTI): The finance ministry has asked the heads of public sector banks (PSBs) to finalise the modalities for timely implementation of the next pay revision from November.

There are 21 public sector banks, post merger of six lenders with State Bank of India (SBI), in the country. They together employ about 8 lakh people.

In a communication to CEOs and MDs of the state-owned banks, the ministry advised them to initiate the steps for smooth conclusion of next wage revision of the employee within the time-frame. “However, it is seen that several banks are yet to proceed in the matter,” it said, requesting the PSBs to “look into the matter and conclude the next wage revision prior to the effective date of 1 November 2017”.

The wage revision of public sector bank employees takes place every five year. The last revision was effected in November 2012. In the last wage negotiation between PSU banks employee unions and bank management, Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) had settled at 15% hike. Recently, Banks Board Bureau chief Vinod Rai had made a case that the compensation package across the board of public sector banks needs to be improved.

“Maybe, we are not able to do much with the fixed part of compensation package but (with) variable part we are hopeful that in the next financial year (2017-18), we will be able to introduce a far more attractive package which do have bonuses, ESOPs and other performance linked incentives as part of the package,” he had said. Rai has also suggested that managing directors of the public sector banks should be appointed for minimum 6 years.

Bank Officers’ Unions want pay at par with the Central Government Officers

Demands include 5-day banking, PF to be calculated

on total salary and allowances, not only on basic pay

Mumbai, March 21: At a time when the government is contemplating cutting employee benefits to 10 laggard public sector banks, bank officers have demanded that they should be given revised basic pay at par with central government officers on the same principles of 7th Pay Commission.

The negotiations have not started yet, as not all banks have given the mandate to Indian Banks Association (IBA) to negotiate on their behalf.

Meanwhile, United Forum of Bank Unions, the umbrella organisation of bank unions, is yet to appoint coordinator for negotiations. But unions on a standalone basis have started to demand high emoluments. At the end of December 2016, the gross bad debt of the banking system crossed Rs. 6 lakh crore and the total stressed assets is estimated to be more than Rs. 9.5 lakh crore.

The government on March 16 shot a letter to 10 banks stating that capital infusion in these banks would depend upon quarterly milestones and only after these banks sign a memorandum of understanding with unions to sacrifice employee benefits should there be a need.

The 7th Pay Commission had recommended overall 23.55% hike in basic plus allowances. The government had accepted 14.27% hike in basics, while the allowanced would have to be decided later. According to reports, allowances could be decided in this month itself.

The current wage pact comes to an end in October. The last wage negotiation, pending since 2012, was settled in May 2015 at 15% hike. This time the government wanted to finish the process early and so it prodding banks to start the negotiation process, starting January of 2016, but banks dilly-dallied. Finally, in December 2016, the government shot its fourth letter to banks to start the process with the unions. Still, not all banks have given the mandate to the IBA. The State Bank of India (SBI), for example, will give the mandate to unions only after the merger process is over in April.

According to sources, 16 banks – all from the public sector - have given a mandate to the IBA to negotiate on behalf of banks. Five banks, including the SBI, Dena Bank and Bank of Baroda are yet to send mandate. The SBI will perhaps send in April after integration with associate banks, sources said.

The IBA will form panel and can start the negotiation with unions only after its gets all the mandate, an official at the IBA said.

The letter has gone to the IBA from by a joint committee of All India Bank Officers’ Confederation, All India Bank Officers’ Association, Indian National Bank Officers’ Congress and National Organisation of Bank Officers.

In their demand letter, these organisations have also demanded very steep hikes in dearness allowances (DA) and wage increases, for example, merger of special allowances with dearness allowance as on 31 October 2017, with existing basic pay. And have asked for a revised DA formula “with provision for automatic merger and improvement in compensation against price rise.”

Besides, an allowance “equal to amount of last drawn increment should be granted every year after reaching a maximum in the scale,” and “date of sanction of annual increments should be on January 1 and July 1 every year,” are also in the demand letter.

There are also such demands as two months’ salary to compensate expenses on transfer and payment of lump sum amount of transfer to meet the education expenses of children.

Out of 34 demands, there are provisions for improvement in leave travel concession and making the mode of entitlement as “air travel to all the officers, and executive class for senior executives.”

Also, the unions are back in their demand of five-day banking and Provident Fund calculation at the rate of 12% of the total salary and allowances. Plus gratuity at the rate of one month salary and allowances, without any ceiling. According to the income tax rules, provident fund is calculated only on the basic salary. Gratuity is calculated on 15 dayss. Besides, the unions want abolishment of new pension scheme and roll back to the old pension system.

“Unions always demand the moon and scale down to a laughable level,” said a senior officer who is part of a union. “Bank books have deteriorated since 2012 (when the last wage pact got implemented) and banks can’t do deficit budget like the government. What will happen is that government will refer the wage structure to the Pay Commission and unions will have absolutely no role in the process,” said the senior executive, who did not wish to be named.

If the commission gets to decide on bank pay, the chances of any hike will go for good, fear some union members.

Charter of Demands - Highlights: 

1. Revised basic pay at par with central govt officers
2. Revised DA formula automatically adjusting price rise
3. Allowance equal to last drawn increment to be granted every year after reaching maximum in scale
4. Two months’ salary to cover incidental expenses on transfer
5. Payment of lump sum amount on transfer to meet education expense of children
6. Leave fare compensation with entitlement of air travel for all officers and executive class for seniors
7. Provision for crèche facility/flexi timings/work from home for women employees
8. Five-day banking
9. Family should include father in law and mother in law, brothers and sisters (divorced or deserted)
10. PF to be calculated on total salary and allowances, not only on basic pay

Wage Revision- Broad Summery of the Charter of Demands by Officers' Unions

Wage Revision- Broad Summery of the Charter of Demands by Officers' Unions
details

Arundhati Bhattacharya: Why should there be different set of rules for public sector banks?

Mumbai, March 20:  Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman, State Bank of India (SBI), will create history on April 1 when all five associate banks will merge with itself — in the largest such exercise in the banking sector — to blossom out as a single entity. She created history in 2013 when she rose from the ranks and took over as the first woman chairman of the 211-year old bank.

In an exclusive interview, she tells Manju AB that her life’s journeys are never with a complete roadmap but with a conviction that challenges can be tackled and goal post is never too far.

Is it necessary for SBI to demand a high monthly minimum average balance (MAB) of Rs 5,000 in savings accounts?

Arundhati Bhattacharya: There is an interest of 4% paid on savings bank account. Suppose someone is earning a salary of Rs 15,000, then for three days his account can fall below Rs 5,000. If you have Rs 60,000 in your account, you can fall below Rs 5,000 for many days, so it is the average of all the days in a month. In the urban areas, it is Rs 3,000, and in semi-urban areas, it is Rs 2,000. In rural areas, it is Rs 1,000. The Jan Dhan is zero balance.

According to RBI data, the Jan Dhan accounts have deposits of Rs 74,600 crore giving banks a free float?

Arundhati Bhattacharya: Yes, these accounts have money, but there are no restrictions on withdrawing the money. We pay 4% interest on these deposits. Every account is accompanied by a RuPay card which cost the bank about Rs 68 and the ATM infrastructure has to be built where every transaction costs Rs 18 to be paid to the card companies. We allow five free ATM transactions to our customers if they are using other bank ATMs.

Was the cost of running the demonetisation too expensive? Some private banks had shut their ATMs after the government waived off all transaction charges?

Arundhati Bhattacharya: The cost of demonetisation is pretty large. During the time of the demonetisation, it was the PSU banks which served the people. In many places, only the SBI ATMs were open. We refilled the ATMs regularly. Though the government waived off transaction charges on ATMs, we had to pay the card companies. The sheer logistics of transporting so much cash was quite large. Why should there be extraordinary expectations from the public sector when we are in the forefront of nation building?

HDFC Bank recently claimed that they offer five-star services...

Arundhati Bhattacharya: I don't accept that the private sector services are five-star and our services are not. I do not accept that at all. No one complains when the private banks charge high rates. Penalty for not maintaining minimum balance in a private sector bank is anywhere between Rs 450 to Rs 790 per month while for us it is Rs 20 to Rs 100. Why should there be a different set of rules for the public sector banks? Our internet banking site is by far superior to the others. It is the fifth most visited financial site globally. You don't achieve this by running shoddy services.

What will be the role of SBI’s subsidiary, Infra Management Solutions (SBIIMS)? What is SBI’s real estate valued at? Are you open to selling a part of this?

Arundhati Bhattacharya: The real estate is valued at Rs 35,000 crore excluding the assets of the associate banks and about Rs 15,000 crore is added to our tier 1 capital. We are also open to selling our real estate in areas where it is in excess and unutilised. This company will be manned by engineers and construction specialists who will negotiate on our behalf and also look after the upkeep of these premises.

Are you worried for your loans to the telecom sector? Reliance Jio, for instance, is running the longest promotional scheme to capture customers. Have you spoken to the government?

Arundhati Bhattacharya: Not just for us, it should be a matter of concern for the government as well as they are also loosing revenue because of these schemes. We have not exactly spoken to the government in so many words. But we have flagged it off at various quarters that banks have a substantial exposure to the sector. When you have such schemes, there is an impact on competition. Quarterly results of major telcos are pretty impaired. So, it depends on how long these schemes will run. If it is for a short period of time, these people can surely weather the storm.

Any anxieties about the mega merger?

Arundhati Bhattacharya: We are all set for the merger. We already had a template as two banks were merged. So, we worked on the template left behind by our predecessors. Our books of accounts are merged. Relocation of banks and ATMs will happen as we expand our foot print into new areas. We may take some branches a few kilometers away from where they are now. Branches which are set up in clusters in the older part of the cities may be repositioned in the newer parts of the cities. I feel the younger people in the associate banks will be happier to be part of a bigger bank like SBI. The older lot may find it difficult to relocate, and so, we have a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS). But, we are not forcing anyone.

The total NPA pile is likely to cross Rs 9 lakh crore at the end of March 31, and SBI has more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore...

Arundhati Bhattacharya: Post the merger, SBI may end up with Rs 1.6 lakh crore gross NPAs, according to the consolidated figures, we have up to December 31, 2016. We will meet the RBI deadline of March 31, 2017, to clean up our balance sheet. Resolutions will also happen.

But isn’t the issue about over-leverage? Bhushan Steel and Essar Steel would have about Rs 1 lakh crore of loans taken together, almost equivalent to the total stressed debt in the sector?

Arundhati Bhattacharya: Yes, which is why we are saying that there should be a valuation of these assets. We should take some pain. We should take some write-downs and also some conversion of debt to equity. Reduce the debt burden. There is no point running these accounts to the ground.

In the restructuring schemes like Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A) and Special Drawing Right (SDR), the share prices soar initially, when the schemes are getting approved by banks and then plummet when banks take over part of the shares?

Arundhati Bhattacharya: If you look at the SDR scheme closely, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has already given an exception. The conversion of debt to equity is allowed at par value and it will not trigger an open offer if we go beyond a certain limit. We have requested these provisions to be provided for in corporate debt restructuring (CDR) and S4A. The 10% conversion of debt into equity in a CDR is too less.

You want the CDR terms to be diluted?

Arundhati Bhattacharya: Yes. Not necessarily be diluted but changed if you allow the Sebi formula for conversion to be allowed into SDR to CDR. It is not dilution. If bankers have the right kind of mechanisms, we will be able to turn around these units. What is the basis of seven-year turnaround in CDR? It should be more like the time given under 5/25 scheme

State Bank of India website goes generic New web address is www.bank.sbi

Chennai, February 20 (IANS): The State Bank of India (SBI) on Monday announced rebranding of its website as bank.sbi. According SBI, the new domain name bank.sbi is the highest domain protocol known as generic top level domain (gTLD), an official statement.

"The SBI group has several businesses. For those wanting to do banking or want to know about the bank it is easier to type out www.bank.sbi." M.K. Rekhi, General Manager -Social Media.

The SBI group having presence in insurance, mutual fund and card may also go for such Generic top-level domain (gTLD). With this, SBI has become the first banking organisation in India to use a gTLD for its online presence and providing an exclusive experience of assurance and security to its customers.

"SBI being the largest bank has always been the pioneer in adapting new technology. SBI has always believed in providing high-tech yet secure internet experience to its customers. Bank's own gTLD is another step in this direction," SBI's Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya said in a statement.

Bank's own gTLD aims at simplifying the digital experience of customers and brings in enhanced security against phishing and lookalike websites. Due to its non-replicability, a gTLD site like ".sbi" conveys an assurance to the customer that the site is authorised, genuine and is not an inappropriate or phishing site.

The existing site of sbi.co.in will continue till customers get used to the new avtar of SBI's secure website.

SBI Group finalises plans for voluntary retirement scheme

Mumbai, February 19:  With State Bank of India (SBI) in the last lap of merging five associate banks with itself, SBI Group has finalised plans to launch a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) which could lead to a lower headcount in the number of employees from the total employee base of 73,000 in the associate banks.

The Union Cabinet had last week cleared the merger of five associate banks — State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Patiala (SBP) and State Bank of Travancore (SBT) — with SBI. While SBI is yet to provide details of the branch rationalisation plan, an official of SBT has claimed that the merger plan could lead to closure of SBT’s 30 per cent of branches. While the five associate banks have 6,717 branches, SBT has 1,117 branches. “We have information that 204 branches have been identified in Kerala and 59 in Tamil Nadu,” an official said.

In a statement last week, SBI said, “The merger will result in creation of a stronger entity. This will minimise vulnerability to any geographic concentration risks faced by associate banks. This merger is an important step towards strengthening the banking sector.” A formal notification in this regard is awaited from the government wherein the effective date of merger will be indicated, SBI said.

The five associate banks have a total deposit base of over Rs 5 lakh crore and 8,964 ATMs across India.

The boards of associate banks have already approved the VRS plan, but they are yet to notify the number of employees eligible for the VRS, said an SBI official. “In view of the impending acquisition, your bank may consider implementing a VRS for employees as an employment-friendly initiative. The scheme would provide a good opportunity to employees who may genuinely want to retire voluntarily on account of the uncertainties related to possible relocation of job profile post acquisition,” SBI said in a letter to the MD of State Bank of Travancore.

The VRS scheme is open to those staffers who have put in 20 years or have completed 55 years as on September 30, 2016. It has offered ex-gratia amounting to 50 per cent of salary for residual period of service subject to a maximum of 30 months salary.

However, bank unions have said “closure of associate banks by mergers is unwarranted as these banks are in existence for very long in various states” and they have “sound financial fundamentals, commendable financial ratios, well-established branches and serving the people at large in rural, semi-urban and urban centres”. “Associate banks are premier banks in the respective states with sizeable market share and credit deployment to productive sectors. They are immensely financing agriculture, micro-small-medium-large industry, trade, service sectors at the regions and states,” said K S Krishna, general secretary, State Sector Bank Employees’ Association.

He said associate banks have been forced to give excessive provisions for the reason that those loan accounts with the associate banks — even though are standard assets — may be considered as NPA if the same group’s account with SBI is NPA. “When the associate banks made a net profit of Rs 1,700 crore in the half year of FY16, now the banks have been forced to show a loss of Rs 5,100 crore in FY17 half year. The operating profit has risen from Rs 5,000 crore in FY16 to Rs 5,600 crore in FY 17. With the announcement of merger, work in the associate banks has come to a standstill,” Krishna said.

In this time of need, SBI is your friend, indeed

Bank unions call for strike on February 28

‘Banks incurred huge costs incurred on

demonetisation, Jan Dhan & Aadhaar’

Coimbatore, February 7:  The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) has given a call to its members to strike work on February 28.

The strike call, according to Thomas Franco, UFBU Convener and Senior Vice-President of the All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), is to voice their displeasure over the government’s indifference to their issues, which they contend “have accumulated and remain unaddressed.”

Alleging the government of remaining deaf to their plea even while they had stood by the government on different issues — be it handling the pain of demonetisation, implementing government schemes or opening Jan-Dhan accounts — the UFBU, represented by nine trade unions, said that “the government’s indifference had forced the employees and officers of various banks to take this extreme step.”

“We are on a war path after demonetisation,” he said, sharing a copy of the union’s 12-point charter of demands.

Demanding compensation for the losses due to Jan Dhan and demonetisation, Franco said banks incurred huge costs on account of opening 25 crore Jan-Dhan accounts, linking Aadhaar and providing RuPay cards.

“Demonetisation further added to the expenditure in various ways such as towards transit of withdrawn currency, security, disruption in regular banking activities and so on.”

Much of the issues were oft-repeated ones such as the demand to halt privatisation of public sector banks; amendment to the Gratuity Act so as to make gratuity uniform for all (Central government employees and those in the banking sector); appointment of employee director and officer director in public sector banks; recruitment; recoveries from wilful defaulters; and a stop to outsourcing of core banking business.

The UFBU Convener also insisted on the need for initiating immediate discussion on wage revision.

11th bipartite settlement – Charter of Demand for wage revision 2017 : unofficial

Although there is no formal news about the initiation of negotiations for next wage revision, 

the following charter of demand for 11th bipartite settlement is being circulated on whatsapp 

and emails and has been shared some whatsapp groups of employee unions. 

Details 11tth bipartite settlement

Bank Staffs Salary reduced by decrease of DA @ 0.90% from February 2017

Dearness Allowance now reduced by 0.90%

(Decrease of 9 slabs) from February 2017

Revised DA rate is @ 46.90%, from Feb-17 to April-17

The DA for November 2016 to January 2017 was 47.80%

Dearness Allowance for pensioners from

February-2017 to July-2017 is increased

WEF Report: Employers in India likely to trim head count by 25% on automation

Davos, January 16: More than a quarter of employers in India are expected to reduce their headcount on account of automation, which is expected to impact majority of companies worldwide, says a report. In a report released today, leading HR consultancy ManpowerGroup said new technologies would require increasingly specialist skills for people and organisations. “Over a quarter of employers in India expect to reduce headcount,” the report said, adding that Bulgaria, Slovakia and Slovenia are close behind.

The findings of the report titled ‘The Skills Revolution’ are based on a survey of 18,000 employers across all sectors in 43 countries, published today at the World Economic Forum (WEF). “More than 90 per cent of employers expect their organisation to be impacted by digitisation in the next two years,” it said. On the other hand, employers in Italy, Guatemala and Peru are the most optimistic about the impact of automation on jobs. “We cannot slow the rate of technological advance, but employers can invest in their employees’ skills so people and organisations can remain relevant,” the report added. It noted that technology would replace both cognitive and manual routine tasks so people can take on non-routine tasks and more fulfilling roles.

“Creativity, emotional intelligence and cognitive flexibility are skills that will tap human potential and allow people to augment robots, rather than be replaced by them,” it said. For people, employability — the ability to gain and maintain a desired job — no longer depends on what you already know, but on what you are likely to learn. “In this Skills Revolution, learnability – the desire and ability to learn new skills to stay relevant and remain employable – will be the great equaliser,” said Jonas Prising, ManpowerGroup Chairman & CEO.

“It’s time to take immediate action to up skill and re skill employees to address the gaps between the Haves and the Have Nots – those that have the right skills and those that are at risk of being left behind,” Prising said further. Globally, the report said in the short term, the future of work is bright as most employers expect automation and the adjustment to digitisation will bring a net gain for employment. “Eighty-three per cent intend to maintain or increase their head count and up skill their people in the next two years. Only 12 per cent of employers plan to decrease head count as a result of automation,” the report said.

Shut down SBI branches till the supply of cash gets normalised: Union

Chennai, January 14 (IANS): State Bank of India (SBI) can shut down its branches till the supply of cash gets normalised and staff are not put to risk to face the ire of banking public, a top union leader said.

“We have suggested to the SBI management to down the branch shutters till the supply of cash gets normalised. It is better to close down the branches for some time than the staff face the ire of the public for no fault of theirs,” D. Thomas Franco Rajendra Dev, Senior Vice President of the All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC), told IANS.

Dev wondered how his comrades in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are saying that cash supplies there are better but such views are not heard from his comrades in other states.

“It is strange that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is not divulging as to the amount of cash supplied state­wise and bank­wise. What is the big secrecy to be safeguarded after the cash has been distributed to states and banks?”

According to Dev, in many SBI branches cash is being rationed amongst the account holders. The RBI has been issuing empty statements about currency supplies being comfortable and currency being sent to rural areas whereas in reality it is not so, Dev charged.

He said people in Tamil Nadu will not be able to celebrate Pongal festival properly due to cash crunch.

- IANS

Airtel Payments Bank goes live in 29 States

New Delhi, January 12: Promoters of Airtel Payments Bank, which has gone national today, have committed themselves to an initial investment of Rs. 3,000 crore in the venture, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, said on Thursday. While Bharti Airtel has 80 per cent stake, Kotak Mahindra Bank has 20 per cent stake in Airtel Payments Bank. "We as promoters are looking to invest Rs. 3,000 crore to fund costs associated with the Payments Bank. So far, we have invested Rs. 1,000 crore to fund people, IT, training costs", Mittal told a press conference at an event to announce the national rollout of Airtel Payments Bank, the country's first Payments Bank. The nationwide launch of Airtel Payments Bank was done at the hands of the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the capital on Thursday. On April 11 last year, Airtel Payments Bank had become the first entity in India to receive a payments bank licence from the Reserve Bank of India. It had started its pilot in Rajasthan across 10,000 retail outlets on November 23 last year and later rolled out pilot services in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Speaking at the launch event here on Thursday, Sunil Mittal said that the aim would be to convert at least 100 million of Airtel's 270 million customers into Airtel Payments Bank customers. Shahshi Arora, Managing Director & CEO, Airtel Payments Bank, said that the existing Airtel wallet has been integrated into the payments bank. With this national rollout, Airtel Payments Bank has a network of 2,50,000 banking points, (Airtel retail stores) across 29 Stat3es from day one. This is more than the total number of ATMs in the country. Arora also said that steps would be taken to develop a nation-wide digital payments ecosystem with over five million merchants. Already over one million merchants have been onboarded, he added.

Coming soon: Far more attractive compensation package for public sector bank employees

Attractive pay packages: PSU bank Employees to get

higher bonus, ESOPs, says Bank Board Bureau Chief

New Delhi, January 5 (IANS): Public sector banks (PSBs) will have far more attractive pay packages with increased bonus, Employee Stock Option Plans (ESOPs) and other performances-linked variables in 2017-18, Bank Board Bureau Chairman Vinod Rai said on Thursday.

"By next fiscal we are looking at a far more attractive package for public sector banks with bonus, ESOPs, performance linked variables -- monetary or non-monetary benefits to make it more attractive for professionals to enter PSBs," Rai said here at the 97th Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) Foundation Day. "We may not be able to change the fixed income but we are looking at making the variable part of the package more attractive," he added.

The compenation package of the PSBs needs to be improved in some way, he added. Rai said that the government is also looking at appointing full-time director or executive director in the PSBs, apart from the post of chairman and managing director (CMD). The executive director or director post is being thought of so that he can be held accountable for the decisions taken at the bank, he said. "Those people will be appointed who have at least six or more years of service remaining," Rai said.

The Bank Board Bureau is also working upon the proposal of formation of the government stake in the PSBs into a holding company, which will be run by professionals and will make selections of directors and CMDs for the bank. "Over a period of time, the PSBs may go into mergers," he added. In order to manage the non-performing assets (NPAs) of the banks, Rai said that he was looking at a scenario wherein the banks are run by boards, who take the risk of decision-making.

"We are trying to collate people who will be willing to join the boards of PSBs. Effort is to ensure that the banks are indeed run by boards comprising of professionals," he said. He also spoke of formation of an oversight committee for both private and public sector banks which will help the banks resolve their bad loan cases. "The attempt is to provide an oversight committee of two people to whom cases will be sent to resolve the processes. The case then has to come back to the board because ultimately the bank has to take the decision," he said.

"This is to provide comfort to the banks," he added. Calling for certain degree of transparency in decision making, he said that every organisation should be able to withstand the test of scrutiny. "We are going to be in an audit from all strata of society. All governments and corporates should be able to withstand that audit," he added.