SBI clarification on education loan

Mumbai, October 5: State Bank of India (SBI) authorities on Thursday clarified that the application for an education loan received at the Tiruvalla branch of the bank the other day was returned as it didn’t comply with the existing norms laid by the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) and Union Government for sanctioning loans. 

Reacting to media reports, an SBI press note maintained that as per the existing model education loan scheme in vogue since August 2011, admissions under the management quota are to be kept outside the scope of the Education Term Loans (ETLs) scheme.

Banks Plan Common Job Interviews

20 banks may give IBPS the interview mandate;

SBI will not be part of it

 Kolkata, September 26: It may become a lot easier to get a job at nationalised banks. Banks are planning to have a common interview that could open up opportunities in one go in many banks for candidates, who now have to give multiple interviews for jobs in various banks. Public sector banks, which recruit about 30,000-40,000 people a year on an average, expect to save time and cost once this common interview becomes a reality. As many as 20 banks are expected to give the mandate to Institute of Banking Personnel Selection, or IBPS, to conduct the common interview on their behalf. IBPS also conducts common written test for these banks.

Senior bank executives said the governing body of IBPS had come up with the suggestion and the member banks gave their in-principle consent to the proposal at a meeting held on September 14. Banks are now required to get the respective...

SBI tops ATM expansion in non-metros: Assocham

Mumbai, September 19: Country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) is more aggressive in expanding its ATM (automated teller machine) network in the non-metro and semi-urban centres as compared to its peers, according to a study by Assocham. "Unlike other banks, the State Bank of India (SBI) is expanding its ATM network in non-metro and semi-urban centres, faster than expansion in the metros," the study based on the recent Reserve Bank data said. As compared to the 5,783 ATMs in metro cities, SBI has 7,511 and 6,419 ATMs in non-metro urban areas and semi-urban areas, respectively, the Assocham statement said.
SBI's peer in the state-run banks space, Punjab National Bank is the only other bank which has more ATMs in non-metro cities than the metros, it said. The objective of financial inclusion can be better achieved by the usage of technological interventions, including ATMs, and public sector banks have an important role to play in the objective, Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat was quoted as saying.
Overall, the private sector banks, led by Axis Bank have gone about expanding their network through ATMs in a much more aggressive way than their public sector peers.  Be it, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank or HDFC their bias and preference for ATMs is for the metro cities, followed by tier two cities.Among the private sector banks, Axis Bank has the largest (10337) ATM network, followed by HDFC Bank with 9709 such machines and ICICI Bank - 9366 ATMs.
Excepting the SBI, the other banks have to go a long way before achieving the financial inclusion in the semi-urban and rural areas.
“The Finance Ministry is rightly very keen of achieving the financial inclusion of a large number of people in rural areas.  This can best be achieved by leveraging of technology and use mobile telephony and ATMs. Somehow, the public sector banks will have to take a lead in these areas. Even their brick and mortar branch network is wider in the rural and semi-urban areas than the private sector banks,” ASSOCHAM Secretary General D S Rawat said.
He said while a good beginning has been made, pooling of technology resources like the ATMs should be encouraged so that optimum use can be made to the advantage of the people. The ASSOCHAM quoted honourable Finance Minister Mr P Chidamabaram who recently noted how even the trade has not been fully brought into the banking network.
“As was pointed out by the Finance Minister, today traders are not able to deposit their cash of sales proceeds at night in any bank. In the process, they have to keep it either in the shop premises or at home taking the risks of theft and other insecurity issues. We must have technology-driven day and night banking so that a wider section of the informal economy is brought into the banking network,” Mr Rawat said. While the RBI has been expressing concerns over regulatory issues over the mobile banking, sooner or later different technology platforms have to converge and the regulators need to equip themselves to deal with new challenges and opportunities.
The ASSOCHAM said a large number of Indians still remain outside the banking network.  It is because of lack of the organized banking that the gullible people in semi urban and rural areas fall prey to unscrupulous money-lenders. “The institutions of micro-finance did make a good beginning. However, because of certain corporate governance issues, the entire experiment has become rather overshadowed by controversies. The use of technology to reach out to the bottom of the pyramid promises a lot of scope,” the ASSOCHAM Secretary General said.

State Bank of India is now most valued bank

Mumbai, September 21:  SBI today reclaimed its position as the country’s most valued bank with a total market valuation of over Rs 1.48 lakh crore, surpassing private sector player HDFC Bank. Shares of State Bank of India surged 4.3 per cent to close the day at Rs 2,212.6, taking its market value to Rs 1,48,475 crore, making it the overall seventh most valued company.

On the other hand, shares of HDFC Bank gained 3.02 per cent to Rs 625.25. In the process, the market capitalisation (m-cap) of the private bank rose to Rs 1,47,444 crore. HDFC Bank had on July 27 toppled SBI to become the country’s most valued lender in terms of market cap.

Meanwhile, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) continued to remain at the number one position with a m-cap of Rs 2,74,987 crore, while TCS was at second place with Rs 2,55,084 crore value. It was followed by ONGC (Rs 2,50,975 crore), Coal India (Rs 2,34,905 crore) and ITC (Rs 2,05,254 crore). Among the top-10 on the...

SBI may get Rs 4,000 crore capital support

New Delhi, September 16: The Finance Ministry is actively looking into a proposal to infuse Rs 4,000 crore in State Bank of India (SBI) to boost its capital base, and a decision in this regard would be taken in the next few months. “The bank has submitted its capital requirement plan and the Finance Ministry is considering the proposal of SBI for the capital infusion of about Rs 4,000 crore for the current fiscal,” official sources said.

Last fiscal; the government had infused Rs 7,900 crore in SBI to increase the Tier-I capital of the bank. Following the capital infusion in March 2012, the government holding in the bank rose to 61.58 per cent from 59.4 per cent. SBI had raised over Rs 16,000 crore through a rights issue in 2008. In the last SBI rights issue, government’s contribution was in the form of bonds instead of cash.

The government has already said it will infuse about Rs 15,500 crore in public sector banks during the current fiscal...

Banks take e-route to auction bad assets

Kolkata, September 15: Planning to buy a house and want to search for properties on the internet? Real estate portals are the not the only options that are available to you.

With mounting pressure on the asset quality banks are taking the electronic route to list and auction their bad assets including premium residential flats and industrial lands. Public sector banks like State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of India, IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and many others have started positing the recovery notices for their bad assets on npasource.com.  The dedicated website for resolution of non-performing assets (NPA) of banks and financial institutions even allow buyers to modify their search in terms of geography, asset type and value.

“We have been meeting all senior bank officials associated with NPA recoveries and creating awareness among them about the benefits that would accrue to them if they were to utilise npasource.com as another alternative to resolve...

Employees first, customers second

It’s not important to be called the boss in the work place. What is needed today, especially with a younger workforce, is a sound participative culture

Two years back at the Frankfurt airport, I struck up a conversation with a German gentleman who looked a bit ruffled at the flight delay announcement. He told me how critical it was for him to reach his company headquarters in Berlin to precipitate an “employee impasse.” As I probed further, I realised much to my shock that the “impasse” had to do with a group of young campus hires, who had decided to protest against their manager’s lack of respect for “their space”.

This was getting interesting, so I asked him to tell me about what they meant by “space.” I remember he took a full minute and two to describe the situation, which looked to me an issue of micro-management.

We live in strange times, I thought to myself. When these same youngsters demand “space” at home, we bend over...