Most of the banks have already reacted to the hike in the policy rates of the banks by increasing their lending rates; now finally leading public sector lender Union Bank of India has also announced a hike in its lending rates.
The bank has increased its Base rate by 50 basis points and now it stands at 10.75% but the bank has increased the BPLR only by 25 basis points and now it reads 14.50%.
As all the banks are on an expansion spree, Andhra Bank has also made sure that it is not left behind. The lender is planning to open 100 new braches outside Andhra Pradesh. The bank has already sent the proposal to Reserve Bank of India for approval.
The Chairman and Managing Director of the bank, Mr. R. Ramachandran said “In order to become a pan-India bank Andhra Bank has been steadily increasing its branches in the western, northern and eastern parts of the country during the last three years.”
Barclays, U.K. based bank is going to merge the teams for servicing corporate clients in India of commercial banking division and its investment banking unit- Barclays Capital, and because of the merger Barclays has to cut jobs in India.
The Hong-Kong based spokeswoman for Barclays, Ms. Clare Williams said "Last week a small number were informed that as a result of the decision to combine the two teams that, regrettably, their jobs fell away."
The bank has already made 25 job cuts and another 25 are expected to follow in a few months.
The shifting of the Parliament session has affected the schedule of the strike of the bank employees that was to be observed on July 7 but now it has been shifted to 5th August.
The General Secretary of All India Bank Employee Association, Mr. C.H. Venkatachalam said “When there is a bank strike during Parliament session it will be debated as many issues relate to the Government.”
AIBEA is a very huge Union that consists of 5 lakh bank employees from 25 Public sector banks, 11 private sector banks and 8 foreign banks.
Mr. Venkatachalam also said “If our strike does not yield results, we will intensify our agitation by having repeated and continuous strikes.”
The bank employees are demanding no privatization of public sector banks, non merger of banks and ban on outsourcing.
Public sector Bank employees have announced to go for a strike on July 7th. Around 10 lakh bank employees are expected participate in the strike. The banks employees are against privatization of public sector banks and their mergers, they are also demanding for a ban on outsourcing.
National President of Bank Employees Federation of Indian (BEFI), Mr. A. K. Ramesh said "The Centre is following a policy that will destroy public sector banks in the country."
As the volume of transactions from ATMs has increased the complaints have also increased. There are a few very common problems that the ATM users encounter like sometimes they do not receive any money from the machine but he amount gets debited from their account.
Sometimes a user receives lower amount then what he wanted but the actual amount gets debited, such a situation can baffle a person as ATMs are supposedly very reliable and most of the person does not know to get that fixed, where should thy go and what should they do to get their money back.
Such a customer just needs to go to his bank and ask them to rectify the error, in fact the Reserve Bank of India has reduced the time for a bank to resolve the matter from 12 to 7 working days and if the bank is not able to compensate the amount then the consumer is entitled t get Rs 100 per day.
The new rule is applicable from July 1; the new rule will keep banks under pressure to solve the matter as soon as possible to avoid the penalty that they have to pay the customer for every delayed day. The one thing that borrower needs to keep in mind is that he needs to lodge a complaint about this with the bank within 30 days of the date of transaction.
Public sector lender, Corporation bank has announced expansion plans in the country and has set a target of adding another 200 branches to its network for this fiscal year. Along with the expansion, the bank will also hire about 1,200 employees.
The Chairman and Managing Director of Corporation Bank, Mr. Ramnath Pradeep said "The process [of opening branches] is on. It [the expansion] will be across India, particularly in the northern states."
Apart from the domestic expansion the bank also has plans of opening 4-5 branches in African continent.
