Revise rate
20:30
Usage of Automated Teller Machines/Cash Recycler Machines-Review of Interchange Fees and Customer Charges
Usage of Automated Teller Machines/Cash Recycler Machines-Review of Interchange Fees and Customer Charges
Showing posts with label ATM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ATM. Show all posts
Tuesday, 22 June 2021
Friday, 17 January 2020
Wednesday, 21 August 2019
Monday, 17 September 2018
Wednesday, 15 August 2018
Thursday, 5 April 2018
payment banks
11:54
Jio Announced Launching Jio Payment Bank on March 14th 2018
Jio Announced Launching Jio Payment Bank on March 14th 2018
Jio Payments Bank App – Jio Launching JIO Payments Bank. So users can Create or Open Savings Accounts with eKyc Verification Online and Can Transfer Money from Jio Money app to Jio Payments bank accounts. Users also Get Jio Bank Debit/ ATM Card to get cash from ATM’s. Scroll Down to get More detailed data about Jio Bank. Stay tuned for Launch Date, Interest rates.
Jio Payments Bank App – Open/ Create Savings Account, eKyc Verification, Money Transfer
Hi Friends, Have you heard the Latest News From Jio?. Ok Fine. Jio Announced that Launching Jio Payments Bank From March 14th 2018. JIO Money Wallet will shut down and those Money will be transferred to Payments bank Account. why because Under RBI Guidelines, For Every Money wallet should verify users KYC Documents. For those Purpose jio Closes their JIO Money Wallet Services and Opening JIO Payments Bank Accounts like Paytm Bank Account, Airtel Payments bank, Aditya birla’s NSDL Payments bank & Fino Accounts.
Jio Payments Bank Limited has commenced operations as a payments bank with effect from April 3, 2018. The Reserve Bank has issued a licence to the bank under Section 22 (1) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 to carry on the business of payments bank in India.
Reliance Industries Limited, Mumbai was one of the 11 applicants which were issued in-principle approval for setting up a payments bank, as announced in the press release on August 19, 2015.
Jio Payments Bank Limited has commenced operations as a payments bank with effect from April 3, 2018. The Reserve Bank has issued a licence to the bank under Section 22 (1) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 to carry on the business of payments bank in India.
Reliance Industries Limited, Mumbai was one of the 11 applicants which were issued in-principle approval for setting up a payments bank, as announced in the press release on August 19, 2015.
Friday, 20 October 2017
new Technologies
08:16
NEFCU launches Google Home banking app with Conversation.one
NEFCU launches Google Home banking app with Conversation.one
Nassau Educators Federal Credit Union (NEFCU), a 200,000-member institution in Long Island, US, has launched its Google Home Action and Google Assistant app.
The solution is based on the Conversation.one platform. It enables NEFCU’s customers “to check their share and loan balances, review recent transactions, locate branches and ATMs, connect to their contact centre, or get the most up-to-date loan rates by simply talking to their Google Home devices or their Google Assistant,” the tech provider says.
“By leveraging the Conversation.one platform, we become one of the first financial institutions in the US to launch online banking Alexa skills and Google Home Actions, making us an industry leader in this technology,” states Jojo Seva, CIO at NEFCU.
Last year, another US credit union, Baxter CU, signed for Symitar’s Financial Innovations Voice Experience (FIVE) – a solution that explores the possibilities that voice-based personal assistants such as Amazon’s Echo and Microsoft’s Cortana can bring to banking.
Conversation.one was founded in 2017 and is based in California. Its flagship product is “a build-once-deploy-everywhere platform for developing conversational apps”. It is a “no-coding, no-programming, intuitive, visual and user-friendly” platform that uses machine learning.
Source:Bankingtech
Sunday, 13 August 2017
State Bank of India
09:41
Update Aadhaar Card Details to Your SBI Savings Account -NDTV
Update Aadhaar Card Details to Your SBI Savings Account -NDTV
Aadhaar Card Linking With SBI Bank Account: 4 Ways To Do It
The government of India has made it mandatory to link Aadhaar card to your bank account.
The government of India has made it mandatory to link Aadhaar card to your bank account. According to the new rules, all existing bank account holders have to link their bank account to their Aadhaar within December 31, 2017. State Bank of India or SBI, India's biggest lender, offers many options to its savings bank account holders to seed their account with Aadhaar number. SBI users have the option to upload their Aadhaar details online or through SMS in a particular format or by visiting the branch. SBI is also allowing customers to link their Aadhaar number to their bank account at an ATM.
Here are different ways through which you can update your Aadhaar number to your bank account:
Aadhaar linking through SBI internet banking portal
If you are an internet banking user, then you can log into www.onlinesbi.com and access the link "Link your Aadhaar number" under "My Accounts", appearing on the left panel of the screen
On clicking the above link, you will be directed to a screen where you have to select the account number, input the Aadhaar number and click on Submit
The last 2 digits of registered mobile number (non-editable) will be displayed to the customer
Status of mapping will be intimated to the customer's registered mobile number.
Aadhaar Linking through SBI ATM channel
You can access any of SBI's ATMs and seed your Aadhaar with your Bank account.
After swiping the ATM card and entering your PIN, select the menu "Service - Registrations"
In this menu, select Aadhaar Registration
You can now select the account type after which you will be asked to enter your Aadhaar number. You will be prompted to re-enter the same.
Aadhaar Linking through SMS
If your mobile number is registered with the bank, then you can send SMS to 567676 in the following format UID (space) Aadhaar number (space) Account number
If the mobile number is not registered or in case the Aadhaar is already linked to account, an SMS reply will be sent to you
If your mobile number is registered with the bank, you will receive an SMS confirmation of the seeding request
The Aadhaar number will be verified by SBI with UIDAI. In case it fails verification, SMS will be sent to customer to contact any SBI branch along with Aadhaar number or e-aadhaar.
Aadhaar Linking through SBI branch channel
A customer can visits any SBI branch with a copy of his/her Aadhaar number or e-aadhaar
After necessary verification, the linking will be done by the branch. An SMS will be sent to customer's registered mobile number regarding the status of seeding.
Source:NDTV
Tuesday, 18 July 2017
Wednesday, 12 July 2017
State Bank of India
09:08
State Bank Of India has set its sights on being one of the world’s top 10 global digital banks.
State Bank Of India has set its sights on being one of the world’s top 10 global digital banks.
How SBI CTO Shiv Kumar Bhasin is driving digital transformation
SBI has set its sights on being one of the world’s top 10 global digital banks.
How do you get a 200- year- old stodgy bank to reinvent itself to keep pace with the digital era?
That's a question you ought to ask Shiv Kumar Bhasin.
As the CTO of SBI, Bhasin is infusing digital techno
logies into the infrastructure and operations of the bank. Ask Bhasin about the enormity of the task at hand and he will tell you at its no walk in the park.
It surely isn't.
The first thing that springs to mind when you think of the State Bank of India, is its sheer scale and size. SBI has over 550 million customers and more than 750 million accounts. It has 25,000 branches, 57,000+ ATMs and 500,000 PoS machines. It accounts for 30 percent of the Indian debit card market and around 45 percent of the transaction volumes of debit cards go through its payment gateways. SBI has 40 million Internet banking and 30 million mobile banking customers. From the balance sheet perspective, it is at the 45th position among global bank.
That probably explains why SBI is the big daddy of India's banking industry. Besides, it has set its sights on being one of the world's top 10 global digital banks. And when a banking behemoth with such a formidable presence and stronghold, goes into a digital overdrive, the process is nothing short of an organizational rebirth.
Bhasin knows this only too well. "A transformation of this magnitude is possible only through reimagination. The exercise of reimagining our business processes and operations cannot be an annual or quarterly target. It has to be an ongoing journey. In the digital era, the cycle of transformation is getting compressed because we customer experience is changing so fast. We have to transform our business processes in terms of customer service, workforce environment, and agile methodologies," he states.
To a certain degree, every bank is now a technology company with a banking license. It has to view its business models through the lens of digital technologies. And rightly so. An infusion of digital technologies is a sure cure to shaking off lumbering legacy systems of the staid but solid SBI.
"IT has come to play such an important role in our digital transformation that business and IT are now closely intertwined," he concedes.
Digitally empowered workforce
With customer experience being the touchstone of success is the digital era, SBI wants its employees to move closerr to customers. So, the people on the front lines need to be vested with the knowledge and awareness of the digital strategy of the bank.
"The workforce has to be digitally enabled and digitally aware. We will impart the digital services to our customers through the various touchpoints and the workforce has to be clued in on these services," he confesses.
Bhasin is orchestrating a robust enterprise mobility management program to facilitate this.
The bank seen a considerable adoption of SBI Workspace, a comprehensive solution which provides secure access to internal applications and resources such as staff facing mobile and tablet applications, intranet applications, email, documents collaboration and other staff collaboration tools etc. 12,300 mobile devices have been enrolled in SBI Workspace since its launch on March 8 2017.
The mobility solution has helped SBI realize a plethora of benefits. it has improved user satisfaction, increased employee productivity, promoted a self-service culture for internal IT services and facilitated faster onboarding of employees and third parties.
In a unique attempt to boost workforce productivity, SBI has launched one of its biggest digital employee empowerment measures enabling its staff to work from home. SBI's enterprise mobility management program sets the tone for its recently launched 'Work from Home' policy.
"We use mobile computing technologies and exercise continuous control over all the enabled devices centrally to manage and secure the data and applications on the mobile devices. We will use carefully designed MIS and dashboard to enable improvements in work from home approach," he says.
In recast mode
SBI has also created a digital platform called SBI Digi Bank. The platform has three pillars- a financial superstore, an online marketplace and a digital bank for an end to end digitization for all products and services.
"This is a step towards creating branchless banking where all transactions will be done with the help of apps, internet banking, and mobile banking. It will be an omnichannel, one-device digital bank which will be available to both new and existing customers. The digital-only bank will be paperless, device-agnostic, will use the Aadhar infrastructure for not only onboard customers but also provide them services online." he says
The bank is trying to reach its digital customer through its 257 sbiInTouch digital branches. SBI InTouch is the bank's state-of-the-art Digital Branch which facilitates instant opening of accounts, printing, and issue of the personalized debit card, and expert advice on investment through video conference. The bank is working towards removing the use of paper from its branches for end-to-end digitization.
"We are also focusing on making our network connectivity robust. Unlike many of the private banks that are urban-centric, we have a presence in deep and remote geographies. This mandates that before we go all out with digital initiatives, our platforms must be in high availability mode. So it's important to transform the entire platform bringing in intelligent networking technology that straddles across platforms like cloud and WiFi. We need scalable networking technology where concurrency can go up to even 20,000 transactions per second. We have recently improved our network bandwidth from 64 Kbps to 2 Mbps link. We plan to increase the network strength from 8 to 10 Mbps which will bring it on par with several other global banks," he says.
In a major breakthrough, the bank is playing a lead role in bringing lenders and tech companies together for using blockchain technology to share information among banks which will eventually help prevent frauds and tackle bad loans.
"The Bank chain initiative is in partnership with IBM, Microsoft, Skylark, KPMG and 10 commercial banks. We have also tied up with a startup firm Prime chain Technologies for this exercise.We are experimenting with credit finance, consortium information sharing and to help prevent frauds and tackle bad loans. We are also working with IIT Kharagpur and Mumbai to carry out research on the potential of the blockchain," he informs.
To enhance workforce productivity the bank is also looking at deploying software robotics in its back office to automate processes and redeploy branch staff to its salesforce.
"These initiatives are notable in the run- up to the digital transformation of SBI," Bhasin signs off.
Source:Economic Times
Wednesday, 14 June 2017
wallet business
07:38
State Bank Of India:Revised Charges For the Various type of Transactions
State Bank Of India:Revised Charges For the Various type of Transactions
SBI Free ATM Withdrawal Limits, Debit Card And Cheque Book Charges
India's biggest bank SBI has clarified that customers of its mobile wallet State Bank Buddy will be charged Rs. 25 for every ATM withdrawal.
State Bank of India or SBI has revised its charges on various services like ATM withdrawal, cash transactions, issuance of cheque books, exchange of soiled notes and online transfer of funds through Immediate Payment Service or IMPS with effect from June 1. India's biggest bank has clarified that customers of its mobile wallet State Bank Buddy will be charged Rs. 25 for every ATM withdrawal. SBI's app - State Bank Buddy - enables its customers to withdraw cash from ATMs using the bank's mobile wallet. However, savings bank accounts will continue to get eight free ATM transactions (five at SBI ATMs and three at ATMs of other banks) in metros and 10 free transactions in non-metros (five at SBI ATMs and three at ATMs of other banks), the public sector lender added.
The limit of four ATM withdrawals per month only applies to the Basic Savings Banks Deposit Accounts, SBI added. State Bank of India's basic savings account is a limited-services bank account aimed at poorer sections of society to encourage them to start saving without any burden of charges or fees, according to the bank's website. This type of bank account comes with an ATM-cum-debit free of cost and no annual maintenance charges. A basic savings bank deposit account holder is not eligible to open or keep any other savings bank account.
SBI has also revised charges for other services for its customers, from June 1. Here are the key changes:
Cash withdrawal: Customers with a Basic Savings Bank Deposit will get four free withdrawals (including ATM) in a month, after which withdrawals will be charged - at Rs. 50 plus service tax at an SBI branch and at Rs. 20 plus service tax at other bank ATMs.
Charges on ATM cards: SBI said that issuance of new debit cards will be charged from June 1 and only the RuPay Classic Card will be issued for free.
Online transfer: Online fund transfer through IMPS will now be charged Rs. 5 plus service tax for amounts of up to Rs. 1 lakh; Rs. 15 plus service tax for above Rs. 1 lakh and up to Rs. 2 lakh, and Rs. 25 plus service tax for amounts above Rs. 2 lakh and up to Rs. 5 lakh.
Cheque book: From June 1, a customer with a Basic Savings Bank Deposit will have to pay Rs. 30 plus service tax for a 10-leaf cheque book, Rs. 75 with service tax for a 25-leaf cheque book and Rs. 150 plus service tax for a 50-leaf cheque book.
Exchange of soiled notes: SBI said exchanging up to 20 soiled notes or for value up to Rs. 5,000 will not attract any charges. However, more than 20 pieces of soiled notes will attract a charge of Rs. 2 per piece or Rs. 5 per Rs. 1,000 plus service tax whichever is higher on the entire tender, the bank said. For example, for 25 pieces of Rs. 500, which is equal to Rs. 12,500, the charges will be Rs. 2 per piece (Rs. 50 plus service tax) or Rs. 5 per Rs. 1,000 (Rs. 62.50 plus service tax). The amount charged will be Rs. 62.50 plus service tax.
Cash transaction through banking correspondents: SBI said cash deposits of up to Rs. 10,000 (in multiples of 100) through banking correspondents will be charged at 0.25 per cent of the value with a minimum of Rs. 2 and maximum of Rs. 8 plus service tax. Cash withdrawal of up to Rs. 2,000 (in multiples of 100) through the same channel will be charged at Rs. 2.50 per cent of the transaction value (minimum of Rs. 6) plus service tax.
Source:NDTV
Saturday, 27 May 2017
Paytm
06:53
Payment Banks:Free Services &Charges
Payment Banks:Free Services &Charges
MUMBAI, MAY 24:
With three players launching their payments bank services, consumers now have more choice for their banking needs.
Going by the rate of interest being offered for deposits, Airtel seems to be the most aggressive. The telecom operator’s payments bank provides the highest interest raṭe on deposits at 7.2 per cent, followed by India Post at 5.5 per cent and Paytm at 4 per cent. Most of traditional banks offer about 4-5 per cent interest on deposits.
However, there are other differentiators and benefits that make each player’s offerings unique. Paytm, the latest to enter the payments bank space, is the first to offer zero balance-zero digital transaction charge accounts. It is also offering cashbacks to woo customers to open an account. On cash withdrawal, Paytm offers five free transactions in non-metro cities and three in the metros. It will chaṛge about ₹20 each on every subsequent transaction.
Compared to this, Airtel charges about 0.65 per cent of the amount withdrawn everytime. India Post currently does not charge for withdrawals made at its own ATMs. Meanwhile, for other services like online banking and other services such as IMPS, UPI and NEFT, Paytm offers free online fund transfer services. India Post charges ₹2.5-5 per NEFT transaction and ₹5 for IMPS, which is at par with traditional banks.
For mobile banking, NEFT is free but IMPS is charged at ₹4 per transaction. Airtel charges 0.5 per cent of the amount if funds are transferred to another bank account through internet banking or mobile banking. Airtel-to-Airtel fund transfers are free.
Ashok Pal Singh, CEO of India Post Payment Bank, Department of Posts, told BusinessLine that customers will be drawn not by offers or cashbacks but the further simplification of existing services.
“Every player (payment bank) will have a differentiating factor. It is a sunrise sector and will take maṅy players to broaden the sector in the next 10 years,” he said. India Post, which operates four banks in Jharkhand and four in Chhattisgarh, said it plans to reach every district by September and would have two crore accounts in the first operating year (2017-18).
As per the RBI’s guidelines, a payment bank is a new concept of banks that can only take deposits but cannot issue loans or credit cards. The deposit is restricted to about ₹1 lakh per customer, in both current and savings accounts. Payments banks can issue ATM cards, debit cards and offer net-banking and mobile-banking.
Source:Business LIne
Wednesday, 17 May 2017
State Bank of India
07:10
RansomWare Attack:No Disruption in ATM Services
RansomWare Attack:No Disruption in ATM Services
KOLKATA, MAY 16:
The country’s largest banker State Bank of India has not been affected by the ransomware attack and it sees no disruption in ATM services.
According to Partha Pratim Sengupta, Chief General Manager, Kolkata circle, SBI, around 1,000 ATMs in the circle need to be recalibrated with the necessary software upgrades, while over 2000-odd ones are already updated.
Currently, he said, all ATMs are working and the SBI systems in his circle, have not been affected at all.
The Kolkata circle includes the States of West Bengal and Sikkim and the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
ATM upgrade
“We are in talks on how to upgrade the ATMs so that there is minimum inconvenience to the customers. Either the upgrade can be done at the back-end or we have to go to each machine (ATM) and upgrade. In case of the second option, the ATMs will have to be closed during the recalibration period. But it will be for a few minutes,” he told reporters.
Home loans
Sengupta was speaking to the media to announce the bank’s decision to promote affordable housing by reducing loan rates to both house-buyers and builders.
According to him, housing loan rates have come down by 25 basis points to 8.35 per cent for women; and for others it was 8.40 per cent.
A similar 25 basis point cut has also been announced for builders including those who were looking to develop such projects.
In the Kolkata circle, the SBI is partnering 300 such builders; including 14 who are into affordable housing.
Interestingly, the growth in home loan disbursements in the Kolkata circle has been one of the highest for SBI.
“We are keen to tap the youth who are being employed by the IT sector as well as government employees like the primary school teachers,” Sengupta said.
Source:Business Line
Monday, 15 May 2017
State Bank of India
16:31
REVISION IN SERVICE CHARGES ADDITION/MODIFICATIONS:WEF 01/06/2017
REVISION IN SERVICE CHARGES ADDITION/MODIFICATIONS:WEF 01/06/2017
STATE BANK OF INDIA
Source:Banking Updates
Sunday, 14 May 2017
State Bank of India
08:55
SBI to charge Rs 25 charge for every ATM withdrawal? No, that's not true
SBI to charge Rs 25 charge for every ATM withdrawal? No, that's not true
An SBI official has clarified that the bank will not charge Rs 25 per transaction on cash withdrawals contrary to a circular the bank had earlier issued. The official has said that the notification was specifically for SBI mobile wallet (called Buddy) users.
The bank plans to issue a fresh circular soon making the clarification. "SBI will send a fresh notification by evening today to clarify the same. There will not be additional service charges, and existing rates will continue on withdrawals from ATM," the official told Business Today on condition of anonymity.
ATM charges, are set by the RBI, and uniform for all banks. Rules mandate at least three fee transactions per month from ATMs of other banks and five from ATMs of own bank in metro cities. Banks charge Rs 20 per financial transaction and Rs.9.55, including tax, for every non-financial one beyond this limit.
Earlier today, in a vague circular, the SBI announced a charge of Rs 25 per transaction on cash withdrawals. The circular titled 'revision in service charges additions/ modifications: wef 01/06/2017' said Rs 25 per transaction would apply on cash out through ATM.
The same circular went on to add that beyond four withdrawals, the bank would charge Rs 50 plus service tax at branch, Rs. 20 plus service tax at other bank ATMs and Rs 10 plus service tax at SBI Bank ATMs on Basic Savings Bank Deposit Accounts (BSBDA).
Also, if a BSBDA customer wanted to issue a cheque book, w.e.f June 1, he/she would have to pay Rs 30 plus service tax for a 10 leaf cheque book, Rs 75 with service tax for 25 leaf cheque book and Rs 150 plus service tax for a 50 leaf cheque book.
The order further stated that customers also have to pay charges over exchanging of old and sullied notes above Rs 5,000.
Cash deposit through banking correspondent of up to Rs 10,000 (in multiples of 100) would be charged at 0.25 per cent of the value with a minimum of Rs 2 and maximum of Rs 8 plus service tax.
Further, cash withdrawal through banking correspondent of up to Rs 2,000 (multiples of 100) would be charged at 2.50 per cent of the transaction value (minimum of Rs 6) plus service tax.
Also, if a customer wanted to issue a cheque book, w.e.f June 1, he/she would have to pay Rs 30 plus service tax for a 10 leaf cheque book, Rs 75 with service tax for 25 leaf cheque book and Rs 150 plus service tax for a 50 leaf cheque book.
Source:Business Today
Wednesday, 10 May 2017
FDI
07:50
Central Government may soon allow 100% FDI in cash, ATM management companies
Central Government may soon allow 100% FDI in cash, ATM management companies
New Delhi: The Government of India is likely to allow 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in cash and ATM management companies, since they are not required to comply with the Private Securities Agencies Regulations Act (PSARA). This will be an advantage for cash management companies as well as for companies making currency authenticators and sorting devices and currency counting machines. In 2015, the government allowed 100 per cent FDI in white label ATM operations under the automatic route. Foreign investments help in improving balance of payments and strengthening of rupee against the dollar among other global currencies. FDI in India grew by 22 per cent to reach US$ 35.85 billion during April-December, 2016-17.
Source:IBEF
Wednesday, 19 April 2017
Union Bank of India
08:26
How Union Bank was hacked and got its money back
How Union Bank was hacked and got its money back
Union Bank of India recently fell prey to hacking—robbing the lender of $171 million—but the hackers made a silly mistake
Mumbai: It was just another Friday for the hundreds of office goers who were jostling with each other to get to their own work places in and around the corporate office of the Union Bank of India at Nariman Point in Mumbai. Even those queuing up in the early hours at the cash counters across the 4,233 branches and 7,946 ATMs of the bank spread across India, were calmly going about their tasks— depositing money or withdrawing cash.
However, those early hours of 21 July 2016, were going to be anything but ordinary for the chairman and managing director of Union Bank, Arun Tiwari, who also sits in the corporate office—the Union Bank Bhavan. Happily going about his routine tasks of reading newspapers, sipping a cup of tea and updating himself of the goings-on in the bank, Tiwari was just settling in when his phone rang.
He still remembers the time. “It was around 10.30am when I was informed that an unidentified hacker was attempting to swindle us of $171 million (about Rs1,100 crore at today’s rates) from our Nostro account.” A Nostro account is an account that a bank holds in a foreign currency in another bank.
All hell should have broken loose. But Tiwari, who insists that he is a “non-technical” person kept his cool. “The thing uppermost in my mind was that I had to quickly get onto the money trail and recover the money.”
That was easier said than done. By the time the Union Bank official in the treasury department, who was reconciling the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) payments for the day realized that an amount of $171 million had already been debited from the dollar account of the bank without his authorization, the money had travelled far and wide.
The money had found its way to accounts in two banks in Cambodia—the Canadia Bank Plc and RHB IndoChina Bank Ltd, besides the Siam Commercial Bank in Thailand, Bank Sinopac in Taiwan, and a bank in Australia. These funds were routed by Citibank New York and JP Morgan Chase New York, which hold UBI’s foreign exchange accounts.
Even as Tiwari informed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the ministry of external affairs and Gulshan Rai, director general of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), to apprise them of the matter and take advice, he simultaneously sent a terse message instructing all the staff at Union Bank Bhavan that “a whole floor on that building was to be cordoned off, and that all staff members working to solve this problem would only leave after the matter was resolved”.
“Inspection investigation was done by CERT-In, RBI, our own team,” Tiwari recalls, adding that he also appointed consulting firm EY “the same night”. EY said “as far operations are concerned, you are ahead of time. Whatever was required to be done, as a non-technical person, has already been done.”
How did it exactly happen?
First, the bank had to know what exactly had gone wrong and how the hackers got access to Union Bank’s servers. Did an insider assist in the task or was it a breach by an external device?
It appears, it was neither. Rather, it was an email from a very authentic source— (RBI)—with an attachment. “This email was sent to a few email IDs, and some of them were from customer care, e-banking and some were addressed to individuals too. It might have happened even before 20 July,” Tiwari recalls.
Kartik Shinde, partner, advisory services, EY, recalls receiving a call at 10pm that night. “Which PSU (public sector undertaking) bank in India has that ability to take that call? I know of two-three others, who started evaluating vendors, took prices from them. UBI said start the work and we will give whatever the fees. You need to have someone authoritative in the bank like the chairman who will take the call saying that I will take the necessary approvals from CVC (Central Vigilance Commission) and all others but get this analysis done sooner because the more time you spent analysing it, you are giving more lead time for attackers to cover up their tracks, to get out of the system,” he said.
It wasn’t that Union Bank was the specific target. Shinde insists that “I wouldn’t say it was a random pick. If I have to break into this network, I will send the payload or malware to all employees. It doesn’t matter who clicks on the link. The hacker simply wants to access the system from where he will do the transaction.”
This is also what happened in Union Bank’s case. The “phishing”—an attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and other financial details by pretending to be a trustworthy entity—mails were sent to 15 email IDs. “Three people reported that the email was suspicious to the IT security. The other Union Bank employees were “technically-savvy” persons. They noticed that although the email address said @rbi.org.in, it had an attachment that a zip file. Within the zip file, there was a dot (xer) file and not a dot pdf file, which is why they reported it as suspicious,” Shinde said.
Unfortunately, one of the “not-so-tech-savvy” Union Bank officials fell prey to the phishing email and clicked on the link which released the malware that went viral on the bank’s servers. The hackers would have got their way and swindled the cash but for a silly mistake they made, according to Shinde.
When a bank does a SWIFT transaction during the day, they typically get a reconciliation report the next day and all the corresponding banks send them the “end-of-the-day balance” report the following morning.
When Union Bank got it from the originating bank, they saw a difference of $170 million and that alerted them because of one mistake—the hackers deleted the six entries they had made.
“That’s why we say it’s quite similar to the Bangladesh online heist (theft of $81 million from the central bank of Bangladesh in February 2016). If they had not deleted the entries, it would have taken some more time for the bank to realise that there are fraudulent transactions,” Shinde explained.
Every bank runs a reconciliation process at the end of the day. The malware that infected the central bank of Bangladesh, too, had a component which manipulated the SWIFT’s prt file. The prt file is a print file which usually prints the report of transactions for that day.
For instance, if the report shows 106 transactions when they have actually done only 100 transactions, the discrepancy will come to light. This is one reason why the hackers deleted the six transactions in the Union Bank episode.
However, this is also the reason that the hack was discovered.
So what did Union Bank do?
Shinde recalls some RBI officials being there when the forensics began.
“The CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) had not come yet. The cybercrime cell officials were there. Traditional police mentality was it must be some insider,” Shinde said.
Even a First Information Report (FIR) was filed almost a month after the incident, according to Tiwari.
“It took us sometime to zero down on the fact that the attack was similar to what happened in the Bangladesh case,” Shinde explained.
EY officials went about doing an analysis of the server and “some network forensics”. They, thus, narrowed down on the systems involved. “Imaging takes 48 hours, indexing takes 24 hours. For instance, when you put a system to do imaging of the disk, it takes two days for a 2 terrabyte (TB) hard disk. There is a lot of time lag that happens. We had a tough time facing the regulators and security officers. It was a high-pressure environment. RBI used to call us every day, asking us what happened. We had to tell them that analysis takes time,” Shinde said.
The problem, according to Shinde, is that EY had access only to a “limited set of logs”.
Organizations, according to Shinde, typically keep logs in the system for a period of 2-4 months and not for 1-2 years. The reason is also that the data is humongous.
“If someone had the ability to analyse a two-year log, you’d have different answers coming out. It’s very difficult. So attribution of zeroing down on a particular geography is very difficult.”
In UBI’s case, the UBI employee was sitting in the Mumbai office. But he could have been anywhere. Given that networks of most organizations are flat, SWIFT networks are not segregated—one computer can reach the other computer very easily, according to Shinde. The objective of the attacker is to infect anyone and then start searching for critical systems within the network. In technical terms, it’s called lateral movement, Shinde explained.
After analyzing the problem with the “limited resources” on hand, Union Bank delinked its “380-odd SWIFT pan-India connections” in a bid to centralize operations. “Then we created space in this building (Union Bank Bhavan), and had around 40 hotline operators manning the phones. I had told them that nobody will leave till such time that this is put in place and tested,” Tiwari explained.
The ploy worked. As regulation necessitates, Union Bank informed the exchanges on 22 July that “…there was an attempted cyber incidence in USD Nostro Account of the bank. The money trail was promptly traced and movement of funds was blocked. Resultantly, there is no loss caused to the bank”.
“What pains me —in cricket, we call this a late run. The headlines (referring to reports that appeared a year after the heist) are screaming as if this happened yesterday,” Tiwari rued.
He added, “We had, and have, concurrent manual checks too. In all these kinds of heists, money is lost or partly retrieved. Credence must be given that we did not lose a single cent. We recovered about 70% of the money within 24 hours. The last tranche of $30 million took me 50-60 hours because of a legal process.”
But isn’t prevention better than cure?
Union Bank, according to the 22 July press statement to the exchanges, added that a cybersecurity forensic audit was being done to “identify, plug any gaps and strengthen the system. “There is no impact on the Bank’s operations,” the note concluded.
The question that begs an answer—one which even Tiwari could not answer satisfactorily—is who was to blame for the lapse: Union Bank or SWIFT?
Kiran Shetty, CEO of SWIFT India, insisted that “SWIFT’s system has not been compromised. We have not got a cyber report from Union Bank or any forensic report from them. The investigation is closely held by them. In most cases, when cyber attacks happen, people are not forthcoming with information. We have not been exposed to full details.”
“Globally, there are controls and principles we are defining. We are revisiting the vendors that we have in terms of our connection. We have never been compromised. We are only doing pieces to further strengthen the evolution of our system. We are doing roadshows across five cities in India along with the Indian Banks Association talking about cyber security controls, cyber hygiene, etc,” Shetty said.
Shetty, though, acknowledged that “cyber threat is real and is growing”. According to him, the pace of digitization that we have seen in the last decade and at a more accelerated pace, requires the same level of investment on the cyber side as well. The regulator (RBI), he added, has introduced regulations around a CISO (chief information and security officer) directly reporting to the board. There is also a customer security programme where “we are now mandating 27 controls, of which 16 are mandates and 11 are advisory. If you don’t have 16, we will start reporting to the regulator.”
Implementation of all these regulations will have to be done by the end of the year.
Even Tiwari expressed his inability to share a copy of the forensics report. “I cannot share further details because even I don’t have a copy,” he said.
Tiwari, however, pointed out that the measures his bank has undertaken after the incident last July included the “most stringent filtering, awareness of employees, whitelisting (proactive security technique that only allows a limited set of approved programs to run while blocking the others), BIOS passwords (to prevent external devices from accessing computers and servers) and engagement with regional office levels constantly”.
He added, though, that even as the bank was fortifying its IT platform “trying to see how to make your processes efficient”, he would not rule out future cyber attacks.
“We have put the best IT guys on the jobs and even a CISO but the fact is that however many locks you put on the door, a burglary can still take place. The point is to remain alert and put measures in place, which we have done already,” Tiwari insisted.
Shinde concurred that cyber crimes are well thought and well researched most of the times. Even when EY does cyber attack simulations, the first part is the reconnaissance phase.
“It’s like in any war on an attack, you first do a thorough reconnaissance on the target to see how weak they are, what controls are there, who to target first, what are the avenues for entry, how many avenues are there,” Shinde explained.
Shinde added that one can easily pick up and sniff out email addresses from employees putting news on groups, public forums.
“It’s possible that Union Bank, too, could have been targeted via a reconnaissance exercise. This is just one bank which has come out in the open. We don’t know how many banks are there who have gone through the same incident and not reported it to the regulator,” Shinde said, concluding, “Even if you fix everything, you cannot rule out the chance that it will not happen again. In UBI’s case, they responded faster. Today, the response time is critical.”
Incidents of hacking in recent times
—Federal prosecutors are investigating North Korea’s possible role in a SWIFT hack that resulted in the theft of $81 million from the central bank of Bangladesh in February 2016, according to a 15 April report in the New York Times. Security researchers found that traces of code used in the Bangladesh theft had been used in a cyber attack against Sony in 2014, which the Obama administration and security experts blamed North Korean hackers for carrying out, the report added. Soon after RBI asked Indian banks to immediately put in place a cyber security policy.
—Card data of 3.2 million customers was stolen between 25 May and 10 July in 2016 from a network of Yes Bank Ltd ATMs managed by Hitachi Payment Services Pvt. Ltd.
—Axis Bank reported cyber security breach in October 2016; malware found in its server; no monetary loss reported.
—Bank of Maharashtra lost Rs25 crore when a bug in the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system allowed people to send money without having the necessary funds in their accounts earlier this year.
—On 8 April SBI ATM in Odisha spews out cash without any card being swiped. Physical malware attack suspected in these ATMs.
Source:Live Mint
Thursday, 13 April 2017
Cash withdrawal
09:17
Mumbai: Fearing crunch in future, banks limit cash in ATMS
Mumbai: Fearing crunch in future, banks limit cash in ATMS
Mumbai: It is almost two weeks since ATMs of several banks across the city have been running dry. There are many theories that have surfaced lately on this issue, the most prominent one is the supply cannot meet the cash demand.
However there is another chain of sequences here. While there are few banks that are unable to meet the demand, there are some banks who have decided to limit the cash filled in their machines, fearing cash crunch in the future.
Various banks like Axis, HDFC, Citi and Kotak did not have cash in their ATMs since April 1, 2017. Priyanka Nair, a working youth, said, “I tried to withdraw cash from the ATMs of these banks at Mulund (east), Mulund (west) and even Thane area but the ATMs were out of cash. The whole cash crunch scenario has been going on since April 1 but still the bank authorities have not done anything about it.”
A bank official from Canara Bank said, “There is a cash crunch even though there is a regular supply of cash. Transaction over the counter via cheques are smooth. However, the cash crunch is felt at ATM machines.”
Officials from private and public sector banks stated that few banks are facing the cash crunch and that has resulted to pressure on other banks as their customers are going to other banks to withdraw. “After our bank realised this is the case, we decided to put a limit to the cash that is filled in the ATMs. Our customers can withdraw cash over the counter smoothly,” stated an official of Punjab National Bank. This was same in the case of Axis bank and Federal Bank officials.
An official from Kotak Bank said, “The truck of the third party which usually fills in the money in the ATM has not come to our ATM at Goregaon since the last few weeks. We do not have Rs 100 notes at all since the start of April. But the senior bank officials are not bothered about it even though citizens have been complaining since a long time.”
Mohammed Omair, a working youth, said, “I tried withdrawing cash at five ATMs at Bandra (east) on Tuesday but was unable to get even Rs 2.000 note. A lot of people were trying but a large section of Bandra (east) area did not have cash in their ATMs.” Officials are unsure until when this issue will continue.
Source:URl
Source:URl
State Bank of India
09:12
SBI employees protest against bank’s new service charges
SBI employees protest against bank’s new service charges
Indore: Employees of State Bank of India (SBI) have launched protest against bank’s revised charges on minimum balance, other services including ATMs. On Wednesday over 1500 SBI employees in city attended duty wearing badges.
Under the banner of MP Bank Employees Association, employees and officers of State Bank Group observed ‘demand day’ on Wednesday. Protesting against anti-people policies of SBI management, officers and other staffs of the bank attended duty donning badges and they also made aware of visiting customers about new charges of the bank. Later in the evening, a meeting was held where they expressed strong protest over the imposition of new service charges by the bank.
Mohan Krishna Shukla, chairman of MP Bank Employees Association informed that SBI management has failed to recover bad debt from big corporate houses like Vijay Mallya and it is trying to recover the money from small savings of public. “We demand the SBI management to withdraw new charges imposed on customers and take firm steps to recover bad debt,” said Shukla.
Source:URL
Tuesday, 4 April 2017
Reserve Bank of India
05:51
Note ban: In rude shock for many NRIs, resident Indians, new window shut
Note ban: In rude shock for many NRIs, resident Indians, new window shut
Several Indian residents who flew out of the country on November 10, just after the note ban announcement in the evening of November 8, are in for a rude shock as they are being turned away by the Reserve Bank of India. The reason is that they were in the country for a day after demonetisation, which came into effect after midnight, November 8-9. Although banks and ATMs were shut on November 9, the central bank has rejected that as a valid argument.
With the March 31 deadline to exchange old notes for Indians who were abroad during the note ban period approaching, the RBI offices are teeming with people, with many queueing up from as early as 4 am in the morning. The entry is allowed at 10 am and the gates close by 3 pm, with more than 500 people failing to gain access daily.
“We cannot change rules even by a millimetre,” said an RBI official, when apprised of the challenges. However, the RBI did not respond to a query sent by Business Standard on email as to why even those who were in the country only on November 9 were not being entertained.
Deepak Singh, an executive with an insurance company, has all documents in place — a passport with entry and exit stamp, a copy of the Aadhaar card, a copy of statements of all Indian bank accounts for November-December 2016, a copy of the PAN card and Annex 1 form. But he was not allowed to exchange old notes for new ones because his flight for the three-month project in Canada was on November 10.
“It is unfair to include November 9 in the conditions as it was announced by the Prime Minister that all banks and ATMs will remain shut that day. No one in the RBI seems to be listening. I returned in February and this is the third time I am standing in a queue,” said Singh.
Those who stayed for a week after demonetisation say they were deterred from exchanging old notes for new ones by massive crowds outside banks during the initial phase and theirs must be considered a valid case.
Another RBI official Business Standard spoke to said, “They may have genuine reasons and problems but the message from the top (RBI management) is a strict application of rules.”
The FAQs on the RBI website state that the exchange or deposit of old notes will be permissible for “Resident Indian citizens who were abroad during November 9, 2016 to December 30, 2016”. Non-Resident Indians have time till June 30 to exchange old notes but their value must not exceed Rs 25,000.
As the queues get longer, the announcement at timely intervals by the central bank offices asks those “who were in the country even for a single day between November 9 and December 30 to leave the queue as they are not eligible for the exchange”.
NRIs are not having an easy time, either. With the exchange procedure turning into a disappointment, many who have travelled to Delhi from states far and near — Punjab, UP, Haryana, and Rajasthan — are seen squatting outside the RBI office even after the gates close at 3pm. Most are NRIs who work as labourers in West Asian countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Another section of NRIs seen outside the RBI office are from Punjab and work in Canada.
Most of them do not have the customs declaration certificate, a ''mandatory'' document. “I returned to India from Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) after two years on January 31 to get old notes exchanged. It is only after reaching the RBI office that I was told that I do not have a customs certificate. Is the immigration stamp not enough? This is harassment,” Salim Ahmed said.
Satya Pal, who works in Dubai as a peon, has the same story to tell. Notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 are being accepted only at five RBI offices: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Nagpur.
The stringent screening procedure, which could take up to two hours, is also responsible for depositors not being able to meet the eligibility criteria.
Illegal channels coming up is a necessary concomitant of the cumbersome exchange mechanism. For instance, an exchange racket is in full swing just outside the RBI building in the capital under the watchful eyes of CRPF troopers and Delhi Police, offering people an instant exchange of old currency at a discount 50-90 per cent. Business Standard met a broker who offered a quick exchange of money at an 80 per cent discount.
Although the window for exchange in banks closed on December 30 for those who were in the country, there are many who missed the opportunity. The RBI is their last chance to exchange old notes.
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