SBI has highest number of branches based at rented locations-Economic Times
( My Comment :- Bank can sacrifice Rs.1.61 lac crore in write off of bad loans in five years but cannot afford payment of even half of it for respectable wage hike of Bank Staff who work day and night for the safety and security of bank and for all comfort for people of India.)
NEW DELHI: The country's largest bank State Bank of India (SBI) has the highest number of branches running from rented facilities among public sector banks.
A total 85,356 branches of all public sector banks were running from rented buildings.
As of December 19, 2014, as many as 15,570 branches of SBI were running from rented accommodations, followed by Punjab National Bank with 6,596 such branches.
Canara Bank was running 5523 branches from rented places, and Bank of Baroda, 4,865 branches. The number of such branches for Bank of India and Union Bank was at 4,516 and 4,109 respectively.
However, as many as 4,699 branches of PSU banks running from rented facilities were pending lease renewal, according to an official data .
"Government has issed an advisory to all public sector banks that banks must ensure to renew all leases as per the contractual arrangement," as per the data report. Also, government has asked PSU banks to list out the pending cases for renewal in their boards once in six months.
Bad loan write offs double to Rs 42,477 crore in 3 years
NEW DELHI: The amount of bad loans written off or restructured by the PSU banks
has more than doubled in the last three years ending March 2014 to Rs 42,447 crore.
The rise in bad loans is being attributed to slowdown in the economy which slipped
to below 5 per cent in the two consecutive financial years -- 2012-13 and 2013-14.
The loans written off/compromised by PSU banks soared from Rs 20,752 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 32,992 crore in 2012-13 and further to Rs 42,447 in 2013-14.as per RBI report.
Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan has been highlighting the problem of rising bad loans in the banking sector.
He had earlier said that the "total write offs of loans made by the commercial banks in the last 5 years is over Rs 1.61 lakh crore, which is 1.27 per cent of GDP... To put this amount in perspective -- (it) would have allowed 1.5 million of poorest children to get a full university degree from the top private universities in the country, all expenses paid".
In order to deal with the problem of bad loans, RBI has recently issued a comprehensive framework for revitalising distressed assets in the economy.
The framework outlines the corrective action plan that will incentivise early identification of problem cases, timely restructuring of accounts which are considered to be viable and taking prompt steps by banks for recovery or sale of unviable accounts.
Public sector banks accounted for over 90 per cent of total non-performing assets (NPAs)
that the banking sector registered in 2013-14.
Of Rs 2.40 lakh crore gross NPAs reported by Indian banking system in 2013-14, Rs 2.16 lakh crore was accounted for by the public sector banks.
Private sector banks had gross NPAs of Rs 22,738 crore as of March 31, 2014. Link Economic Times
( My Comment :- Bank can sacrifice Rs.1.61 lac crore in write off of bad loans in five years but cannot afford payment of even half of it for respectable wage hike of Bank Staff who work day and night for the safety and security of bank and for all comfort for people of India.)
Bank Unions to intensify strike for wage settlement
UFBU will hold a strike for five days in January and an indefinite strike from March 16
The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) has decided to intensify its agitation of seeking an early and reasonable wage settlement with a five day strike in January 2015 and an indefinite strike from 16 March 2015 onwards.
The All India Bank Empoloyees' Association (AIBEA) today said that at a meeting in Mumbai on 17 December, UFBU expressed its dissatisfaction on the casual attitude of the Indian Bank's Association (IBA) towards the grievances of employees and officers over the undue delay in settling the demands for wage revision. It has also expressed its displeasure over the government's lack of response.
The UFBU will be holding a one-day all India strike on 7 January 2015, followed by a four-day strike across the country from 21 to 24 January 2015. An indefinite strike would be initiated from 16 March onwards, to achieve the demand, it added. Besides the strikes, mass demonstrations and processions will be held in all centres on 30 December 2014 and 6 January 2015, and bank workers will wear black ribbon badges on 5 January 2015.
"The meeting took serious note of IBA's communiqué of asking all banks to re-visit the mandate given earlier to IBA to negotiate and settle the wage demands of the unions. [UFBU] unanimously decided to lodge its protest immediately by calling for a day's strike on 7 January 2015, as the action of IBA is nothing but a ploy to delay the negotiation process of wage revision," added the AIBEA statement.
The UFBU meeting also deplored the indifferent and recalcitrant attitude of the IBA of persisting on its offer of 11% increase in pay slip components despite the flexibility shown by UFBU to reduce its demand and further negotiate the same for the sake of an early and amicable settlement, it added.
CBI ARRESTS AN ABSCONDING ACCUSED IN AN ON-GOING INVESTIGATION OF A CASE RELATING TO AN ALLEGED LOSS OF RS.4.82 CRORES(APPROX) TO UNION BANK OF INDIA
Press Release
New Delhi, 19.12.2014
The Central Bureau of Investigation has today arrested a private person in a case related to an alleged loss of Rs.4.82 crores (approx) to the Union Bank of India.
A case was registered on 27.09.2013 U/s 120-B r/w 420, 467, 468 & 471 of IPC and Section 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of PC Act, 1988 against three private persons & others. The said person was absconding since registration of this case and avoiding investigation constantly by changing his location as well as mobile numbers. An arrest warrant was issued by the Special Judge for CBI Cases, Ahmedabad.
After continued & diligent efforts, the movement of the accused led to his apprehension from Unjha, District Mehsana(Gujarat).
The arrested accused will be produced tomorrow in the Designated Court.
Investigation of the case is in progress
35 candidates for ED posts in PSU banks
New Delhi, 19 December: A government-appointed selection panel would interview 35 general managers to fill vacancies of 14 executive directors in various public sector banks.
The interviews would be held between 25 and 26 December, reliable sources said, adding that each candidate will have to go through three sub-committees of two members each.
The sub-committees have three outside experts. These experts are former managing director of State Bank of India (SBI) Mr S Viswanathan, IIM Indore director Mr Rishikesha T Krishnan and Mr S Panse, former chairperson and managing director of Kolkata-based Allahabad Bank, the sources said.
Rose Valley scam may dwarf Saradha, feel ED officials
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is apprehending that a scam allegedly involving another chit fund firm, Rose Valley, may turn out to be a bigger scandal than Saradha.
The ED has estimated that the Rose Valley Group collected Rs. 15,000 crore from investors whereas the Saradha Group is believed to have collected Rs. 2,459 crore. “We have only attached Rs. 300 crore from the 2,631 different bank accounts of Rose Valley group. We have estimated that the group has landed property worth Rs. 1,000 crore approximately. So, the question is where have the rest of the money gone?” said an ED official.
Soon after the collapse of the Saradha Group, hundreds of investors and agents committed suicide and lakhs of investors cheated. As the volume of funds collection by Rose Valley was six times more than the Saradha Group, the numbers of affected persons would be also be higher in the case of Rose valley.
Meanwhile, the ED has frozen 2,631 bank accounts of Rose Valley and the process of attaching landed property has also began. The Rose Valley Group is yet to furnish details of their other investments to the ED.
“As the maturity period of many investors is nearing, a huge amount has to be paid to investors in the next two months. In that case, the group cannot take out the money from the attached bank accounts or sell attached properties. Now, the Rose Valley Group has to come out with details of their remaining amount,” said the ED officers.
In September, the ED officials sealed 2,631 bank accounts of Rose Valley on apprehension that Kundu could try to withdraw money from these accounts
Victim of ATM fraud? Banks liable to pay you-DNA
Inaction in a case of an ATM fraud which had caused loss to a consumer has led to two banks being asked to cough up Rs25,000 as compensation. In his order, the principal secretary of the state information technology (IT) department, who is the adjudicating officer under the Information Technology Act, 2000, also pointed out that ATM centres are supposed to be either guarded well or under good CCTV coverage.
"I have gone through the internet websites indicating protection offered by various banks abroad to their customers who use electronic channels to conduct transactions. Most of the banks in USA and other developed countries INSURE their customers against online/ ATM frauds, etc beyond a liability of 50 dollars.... On similar lines, recently in January 2014, Banking Codes and Standard Board of India (BCSBI) unit has issued "Code of Bank's Commitment" where in customers of such fraud will only be liable to the extent of Rs10,000 only and the bank has to make good the rest of the amount, but acceptance of this code by banks is not visible (sic)," said principal secretary Rajesh Aggarwal in his recent order in a case.
Sudhanshu Karna had a savings account with the Punjab National Bank (PNB) since May 2010 and held a debit card issued by the bank. In March 2013, an amount of Rs25,000 was fraudulently withdrawn through three ATM transactions from ICICI (two withdrawals of Rs10,000 each) and Bank of Baroda (BoB) ATMs in Kharghar. The complainant raised the issue with PNB immediately but said he did not get a proper response. He also registered a complaint with the DCP of the cyber cell.
However, in its arguments, PNB claimed that while Karna had raised the issue of disputed transactions using the add on card, as per his account statement, about seven transactions had been done between July 13, 2011 and March 13, 2013, using it. "...it is evident that (the) complainant was using add on card regularly and his claim that he has never been issued and used add on card... is not justifiable. Complainant has never objected for the transactions made through this card prior to March 13, 2013," it claimed. ICICI Bank said it had no data regarding fraudulent transactions as the only evidence regarding the ATM machines was CCTV footage which was available for only six months. BoB said it had taken up the matter with the concerned ATM company and other departments for doing the needful.
The police said the CCTV footage of the fraudulent transactions was unclear and hence of no use. The PNB had also not responded to the investigating officer's email.
In his order, Aggarwal said that PNB "has not given any meaningful report from its Fraud Investigation Unit, mandated by RBI guidelines. Also, the investigation officer has reported that the bank is not replying to their emails and not co-operating in the investigations."
He also indicted ICICI Bank and BoB for adopting a "very casual attitude." "Though the PNB had intimated them about the ATM fraud within two months, they took no steps to do internal investigations and see the CCTV footage. Also as per police report, later on, the footage was made available, but it is of such poor quality that it is of no use. ATM centres are supposed to be either guarded well or (kept) under good CCTV coverage. Their omissions fall within the ambit of Section 43 A of the IT Act," noted Aggarwal.
He ordered ICICI bank to pay damages of Rs20,000 and BoB to cough up Rs5,000 as compensation to the complainant within a month of the order, failing which compound interest of 12% compounded monthly will also be chargeable. However, the complainant had sought damages of Rs40,000.
Cyber scare on the rise
According to the CID's 'Crime in Maharashtra- 2013' report, a total of 907 cyber crime cases have been registered under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Information Technology (IT) Acts in which 603 have been arrested. Out of these 907 cases, motives in 133 are related to greed or money and 210 pertain to fraud and illegal gain. This is a rise from 561 cases under the two acts in 2012 which saw 407 arrests.
In 2013, under the IT Act, 681 offences have been registered, with Pune city accounting for maximum cases (97), followed by Yavatmal (61), Thane city (52), Aurangabad (47), Mumbai city (40) and Navi Mumbai (31). A total of 226 cases have been registered under the IPC in 2013 in which 177 accused have been arrested.