PNB Launches Global Gold and Global Classic Credit Card

Expanding its product portfolio, the country’s second largest public sector lender, Punjab National Bank, has launched a global credit card.

“To start with we are launching two varieties of credit cards– Global Gold and Global Classic, which will meet the needs of its customers and will cater to the requirement of different income groups, “PNB Chairman K C Chakrabarty said yesterday during the commercial launch of the cards.

He said, the bank had done soft launch in November but with the commercial launch it would be available across 1,200 branches of the bank across the country. The card would be initially offered to existing customers of the bank, he said.

With VISA as a payment gateway, the card will be accepted in over 29 million merchant establishments and a million ATMs across the worldwide. The fully loaded photo credit card comes with a host of features like free credit period of up to 50 days, no annual fee and attractive reward points.

SBI Q2 profit grows by 40 per cent

Beating projections, India’s leading financial conglomerate State Bank of India has posted 40 per cent growth in net profit for the second quarter of this fiscal on high interest income.

Crediting the good numbers to income from high interest rates and fee-based income, SBI Chairman O P Bhatt said bank has been giving good returns consistently in the last 5-6 quarters and growth has beaten projections by analysts.

SBI has posted a net profit of Rs 2,259.72 crore for the quarter, a growth of 40 per cent against 36 per cent in the same quarter a year ago. The bank’s profit in the September quarter last year stood at Rs 1,611.42 crore.

The total income rose to Rs 17,909.64 crore in the second quarter from Rs 13,658.22 crore a year ago, an increase of 31 per cent.

The bank registered a deposit growth of 67.93 per cent at Rs 57,861 crore. Its current and savings account (CASA) ratio was up by 26 basis points to 39.71 per cent. Advances of the bank grew by 162.35 per cent to Rs 51,020 crore.

Return on assets was flat at 0.99 per cent, while return on equity was at 14.64 per cent at the end of September 2008.

Besides, home loans grew by 23.47 per cent, auto loans by 30.48 per cent and education loan by 43.81 per cent.

Submit KYC details to avoid account freeze: SBI

Country’s largest lender State Bank of India on Thursday asked its customers to immediately comply with the Know-Your-Customer guidelines, failing which their accounts would be freezed.

“All account holders of the bank who have not yet complied with the KYC guidelines are hereby requested to make their accounts KYC compliant by contacting their home branches and completing the required documentation latest by October 31,” SBI said in a notice.

As per provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 and the direction given by RBI, all customers are required to comply with KYC guidelines.

Banks were advised to follow certain customer identification procedures for opening of accounts and monitoring of transactions of suspicious nature by the RBI in context of the recommendations made by the Financial Action Task Force on Anti-Money Laundering standards and on Combating Financing of Terrorism.

Failing to comply with the guidelines would result in freezing of account operations, it said.

“Several account holders have still not submitted local address and identity proofs, thereby violating the KYC guidelines issued by the apex bank on account opening,” a senior SBI official said.

Despite repeated reminders sent by the bank through registered and regular posts to such customers, there has not been any response yet and it seems they are not interested in operating the accounts, he said.

It is a final notice after which the accounts would be freezed, the official added.

The largest bank having a branch network of about 10,400 has over 13 crore customers.

Home loan discounts during festive season might vanish

Unlike previous years, the leading private, public sector banks and housing finance companies might not be in a position to offer attractive discounts on home loans during this festive season. Home loan have traditionally been a big ticket item and most of the builders and property developers conduct as much as 60 % of their total business during the festive season. Starting from October this season can very well extend up to March.

There are many reasons for which banks might shy away from extending any festive discounts on home loan.

Given the tight monetary conditions and liquidity situation, there is very little chance of banks offering anything special this season.

The cost of borrowing for banks has shot up dramatically and is currently around 12-13 percent. This only can be a substantial reason for not giving any discounts.

The skyrocketing rates in property has driven the speculators as well as genuine buyers from the market and banks believe that unless there is a real cut in property prices, buyers won’t show up.

On the contrary there is already a speculation floating around that some banks were already discussing a 50-75 basis point hike in the next fortnight. “Interest rates could go up further because banks are finding it rather difficult to hold on to the present rates,” said a banker.