Bank news
13:37
Axis Bank announces Young Bankers program 2017-18
Axis Bank announces Young Bankers program 2017-18
Last date to register for the program is March 19, 2016
Showing posts with label Axis Bank. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Axis Bank. Show all posts
Thursday, 9 March 2017
Saturday, 4 March 2017
non-cash Payments
06:27
Irregular Transactions by storing biometrics, criminal complaint against Axis Bank
Irregular Transactions by storing biometrics, criminal complaint against Axis Bank
Even Aadhaar sceptics would do well to keep in mind that, while a criminal complaint has been filed against Axis Bank, Suvidhaa Infoserve and eMudhra for allegedly storing biometrics and using them in an unauthorised manner, it was UIDAI that discovered the irregular transactions and reported them to the Delhi Police’s cyber cell and, pending a probe, all transaction requests from these organisations have been put on hold. If the UIDAI system is able to detect fraud, as the banks did when they found millions of debit/credit cards had been compromised due to a faulty ‘switch’ in a payments gateway some months ago in India, presumably that would mean it was working well.
Under normal circumstances, as a safety feature, every time a transaction is made like withdrawing funds from a bank and UIDAI replies to an authentication request, an SMS/email alert is sent to the subscriber.
So, why didn’t UIDAI send out alerts this time around when, going by a report in The Times of India, one individual performed 397 transactions, many of which were based on biometrics that were ‘stored’ locally and bunched during one week in January? Is this an example of Aadhaar being open to misuse since banks, etc, can store your biometrics and use them to illegally authorise transactions later? There have also been reports of one website publishing Aadhaar data of 500,000 minors—this, of course, is a list of names and matching Aadhaar numbers, but does not have actual biometrics—and of white-hat hackers generating iris scans from high-resolution photographs and even the possibility of data being compromised since Aadhaar registrations/verifications are typically done by several private firms.
First, as UIDAI officials point out, since the individual doing the transactions was using his own Aadhaar number, the alerts went to him—to that extent, the system’s first fail-safe worked. Had the stored biometrics belonged to someone else, say a reader of this newspaper, she would have got the SMS/email alerts and would have escalated matters. Two, since the authentication request, and the reply, are encrypted at a 2048-bit level—normal encryption levels are 128 or 256—UIDAI officials argue this makes the system very safe from hacking. But what of cases where the biometrics are stolen, or generated from high-resolution photographs, and then stored locally? Since security has to be an evolving feature, designed to beat threats as they occur or before they do, UIDAI plans to introduce the concept of ‘registered devices’.
Source:Financial Express
Wednesday, 28 December 2016
INCOME TAX
16:19
Are bankers India’s new corrupt?
Are bankers India’s new corrupt?
Mumbai/New Delhi: The visits started earlier in December and covered eight branches of Axis Bank across India.
Income tax officers, alerted by the bank about suspicious transactions in around 50 accounts, arrived to inspect books, speak to executives and probe whether there had been any attempt to launder money.
The visits crowned a torrid fortnight for India’s third-largest private sector lender—it had to deal with similar visits by investigative agencies to other branches and scotch rumours that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had scrapped its banking licence or was thinking of doing so.
Axis may have been hit the hardest in the post-demonetisation clean-up, but other banks too have been (and continue to be) investigated for the alleged complicity of their officials in helping people launder money.
Since then, banks and bankers have rarely been out of the news.
At first, they were lauded for working long hours and on holidays exchanging currency and helping people deposit the invalidated notes. In his first public rally after announcing demonetisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi singled out bankers working over the first weekend for special praise.
Soon, though, they became villains in the public eye—for allegedly abetting the laundering of black money.
If the year began with talk of the role of banks and bankers in India’s big bad debt problem, it ended with talk of their role in money laundering.
At first, bank employees were lauded for working long hours to tackle demonetisation. Soon, though, they became villains in the public eye
The ecosystem
Every time a wave of white-collar graft has hit India, it has been due to something in the ecosystem which enables information arbitrage. Of course, the underlying driving force is plain greed.
The securities scam in 1992 was a story of individuals who gamed a system by monetizing the information gaps in an evolving financial securities trading system. Exploiting this would not have been possible without the help of key intermediaries—retail and investment bankers, securities traders and the ubiquitous all-purpose fixers.
Similarly, the scam involving the allocation of telecom spectrum and coal mines was made possible by the lack of a transparent and rules-based system. The minute the decisions became ad hoc, rentier income was guaranteed—and the rest is history.
In the case of demonetisation, for the first time, power devolved to the level of the local branch manager and even a teller.
blFollowing the note ban, the role of a bank employee became more central to the process. And the opportunity for corruption went from wholesale to retail
The risk seemingly was very low, given that the trail could easily be obfuscated. Limited currency supplies meant the bank branch—otherwise disenfranchised by the spread of ATMs—overnight became a critical nodal point for the exchange of old currency notes for new.
Long lines—sometimes kilometres long—built up outside almost every bank branch in the days following demonetisation, making the role of an average bank employee even more central to the process. The opportunity for corruption had just gone from wholesale (where top-level bank management traded favours for loans to dubious corporates) to retail.
And the various flip flops in the demonetisation rules—with the authorities focused on staying a step ahead of the bad guys—made the role of a banker in the exchange of currencies that much more critical.
“In such a large operation, there are always going to be some mishaps. We have to ensure that people like this get caught and they are given due punishment, but it is unfair to paint the entire banking sector with the same brush,” said the executive director of a large public sector bank, requesting anonymity as he is not allowed to talk to the media.
“In such a large operation, there are always going to be some mishaps…but it is unfair to paint the entire banking sector with the same brush”- Executive director of a large public sector bank
Bankers faced other problems too.
A senior official at a medium-sized private sector bank revealed that a large value customer with a substantive deposit threatened to go to another bank when pressured to reveal the source of the money being deposited.
“A branch manager’s effectiveness is also measured on how many large deposits he is able to generate and maintain. This gives the bank more opportunities to cross-sell other services. So, maintaining relationships is very important,” the second banker added, requesting anonymity.
Even as bankers continue to defend branch staff, agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate (ED), income tax (IT) department and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have conducted searches and visits at branches across India, resulting in several arrests.
Saturday, 29 October 2016
SME
18:21
SME and retail sectors next bubble says Shikha Sharma
SME and retail sectors next bubble says Shikha Sharma
“The retail and medium-sized enterprises sectors have been showing credit demand but the banking industry is worried that they could be the next bubble”, said Axis Bank’s Managing Director & CEO, Shikha Shikha Sharma. Shikha Sharma also pointed out that credit growth to the corporate sector has been relatively weak and that working capital demand from the sector has also decreased considerably. Explaining the point, Shikha Sharma said that corporate India has not seen any new projects coming up in the past eighteen months. Hence, working capital demand had also declined.
Shikha Sharma further explained that the reason for the slow growth was that there was a base effect issue as large project funding had taken place three years back. On the brighter side, Shikha Sharma said that there was a lot of headroom for growth in the retail sector and that Axis Bank continued to be optimistic in that regard. Shikha Sharma also added that the corporate credit sector would bounce back, along with investments.
Axis Bank is the third largest private – sector bank in India offering a comprehensive suite of financial products. Headquartered in Mumbai, the bank has 2,959 branches, 12,743 ATMs and nine international offices! The bank employs over 50,000 people and has a market capitalization of ₹1.0583 trillion (US$16 billion) as on September 31st, 2016. It offers the entire spectrum of financial services to customer segments, spanning large and mid-corporates, SME, and retail businesses. Axis Bank has its registered office in Ahmedabad.
The corporate IT sector is the main engine driving the Indian economy’s growth. The lack of new projects for the past eighteen months is a worrying factor. Without new projects, working capital demand from the corporate sector (like IT) will decline thereby affecting the banking sector as well. Loss of jobs is also a possibility in both the sectors, as a result. The government of India should aid the private and public sector banks in giving capital to the corporate sector even after a large project funding has taken place thereby preventing a base effect issue. It should also negotiate with foreign countries and keep new projects coming to the IT industry to enable it to grow, generate jobs and employ more and more people. It should also encourage existing giants and startups in the IT industry to develop new technology and innovative projects so that, India need not completely rely on outsourced foreign projects. If the government of India takes the above mentioned steps, the Indian economy will bounce back from the brink.
Source:Indianceo
Saturday, 15 October 2016
kotak Mahindra Bank
07:50
Axis, Kotak Mahindra banks test blockchain transactions
Axis, Kotak Mahindra banks test blockchain transactions
With ICICI Bank having successfully executed its first two transactions using blockchain technology, other Indian private sector banks are also gradually warming up to the concept.
Two private sector lenders, Axis Bank Ltd and Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd, are conducting pilot transactions. They are experimenting in various business segments, to establish whether there is a business model for blockchain in India.
“We are theoretically convinced that blockchain is the way ahead. But we have to establish a practical use of the technology. As of now, the focus is on whether the technology is scalable in the near future,” said Deepak Sharma, chief digital officer, Kotak Mahindra Bank.
According to Sharma, Kotak Mahindra Bank is currently conducting pilot transactions in cross-border remittances and trade settlements, using blockchain. The bank is also working with some international banks and a technology provider for these pilots, Sharma added.
“Typically, cross-border remittances take two days to settle. Using blockchain, we can reduce this time to a few minutes, which will save us a lot of time,” he said.
Axis Bank believes that it would successfully conduct full-fledged transactions, before it comes out with a product in the market. The bank is examining scenarios in businesses involving foreign exchange and in some other corporate banking operations, according to Amit Sethi, chief information officer.
“While we believe there might be some use of blockchain technology in the retail businesses, we think that it will first come out in the corporate banking operations. Cost and the speed of transactions will be key differentiators, but the efficiency and ease of conducting transactions will also matter,” Sethi said.
“We will come out with solutions for our customers soon, but we don’t want to commit to any time frame,” Sethi added.
HDFC Bank, India’s largest private sector bank by asset value, is still assessing the opportunity, a spokesperson said, without getting into details.
Blockchain is a decentralized ledger, which allows all stakeholders to receive instant information regarding the state of transactions across various stages. This typically comes in handy when tracking complex financial transactions where there are multiple points of entry and exit for the funds involved.
Currently, this information has to be sought manually from each person involved and there are high chances of duplication of data. Blockchain eliminates the need for such inquiries. Globally, multiple banks are trying to use this technology to see whether they have any use for it in their respective businesses.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) does not have any regulations about blockchain.
The pilot transaction at ICICI Bank was executed to showcase confirmation of import of shredded steel melting scrap by a Mumbai-based export-import firm from a Dubai-based supplier, the bank had said in a statement on Wednesday.
The second initiative involved a transaction on the blockchain application that enabled an ICICI Bank branch in Mumbai to remit funds to an Emirates NBD branch in Dubai in real time.
Source:BankingUpdates
Sunday, 5 June 2016
LIC
19:57
LIC Credit Cards
LIC Credit Cards
LIC credit cards is a partnership between LIC Cards Services and Axis Bank Ltd. The card company is a 100% subsidiary of LIC which was launched to start Credit Cards in India. LIC Credit cards offer different types of credit cards based on the need and eligibility of the customer. One can avail add-on the credit cards on the primary credit card without any extra fees or charges. There is no annual fee, add on card fee, or card replacement charges when the card is stolen or lost.
LIC Gold Credit Cards Individuals with income of Rs 1.8 Lakh p.a. and above are eligible to apply for this gold card. Get exciting PlusPoints Rewards program designed to reward spends as follows: 2 Reward Points for Rs 100 spent on LIC premium payments and international spends. 1 Reward Point for every Rs 100 spent on all other categories.
LIC Titanium Credit Card Individuals with income above Rs 3 lakh and above per annum can apply. The added advantage of this card there is a 2.5% fuel surcharge waiver at all fuel pumps across India (for transactions between Rs. 400 and Rs. 4000). Maximum benefits up to Rs. 400 per month. Get exciting PlusPoints Rewards program designed to reward spends as follows: 2 Reward Points for Rs. 100 spent on foreign currency and LIC premium payments 1 Reward Point for every Rs. 100 spent on all other categories Usage offers on Reliance Trend, Reliance Digital, Clipper Lounge, etc. Double Reward Points on international spends and LIC premium payment Show Thumbnail
LIC Platinum Credit Card Individuals whose net income is Rs. 5 Lakh p.a. and above can avail this card. There is also 2.5% fuel surcharge waiver at all fuel pumps across India. One should also submit salary Slip of Rs 42,000 gross salary. 2 Reward Points for Rs. 100 spent on international spends and LIC premium payments 1 Reward Point for every Rs. 100 spent on all other categories Offers on select exclusive brands such as Matrix Cellular, Hertz Car Rental, Kaya Skin Clinic, VLCC etc. and Visa offers on BookmyShow.com, PizzaHut, HotelClub.com, etc. Show Thumbnail
LIC Signature Credit Card One can enjoy best-in-class privileges in travel and living, dining and lifestyle only on LIC Signature Credit Card. Individual whose net income is Rs 15 Lakh p.a. and above can apply for the Signature credit card. 1 PlusPoint for every Rs. 100 spent. Double Reward Points on international spends and LIC premium payment. Offers on premium brands such as Kimaya, Apple, Moschino, Edox, Tie Rack, Baume & Mercier, Air Charters and Yacht Services etc. and Visa offers on BookmyShow.com, Airport Lounge Access, Golf Offers, etc.
Conclusion If your credit card from LIC Cards ever gets lost or stolen, you are protected against fraudulent purchase transactions up to the Insured amount from the moment you report the loss to LIC Cards Customer Service. Late payment fee is linked to the total amount due on card account i.e. Rs. 300 if total payment due is up to Rs 2000 and Rs. 400 for the due is between Rs 2001 - Rs 5000 & Rs. 600 if total payment due is Rs 5001 or more.
credit card
09:51
Axis Bank says 60% of its new credit cards sold in non-metros
Axis Bank says 60% of its new credit cards sold in non-metros
The third largest private sector lender Axis Bank has said smaller centres are outpacing the top eight cities in its credit cards business, fuelled largely by the e-commerce boom.
"Earlier, credit cards penetration was limited to what we classified as top eight cities. But now, over half of our growth is coming from smaller cities and towns," the bank's Head, Cards and Merchant Acquiring, Sangram Singh told PTI.
He further said such smaller centres have contributed to 60 per cent of the incremental growth in cards and 50 per cent of growth in spends during 2015-16, compared to the previous fiscal.
A large part of the spends is coming from the e-commerce segment, Singh said, adding this is not surprising as the booming online sellers have been deepening their reach beyond the metros.
He, however, was quick to add that the bank is also witnessing a spurt in spends at retail stores, with more supermarkets being set up.
The bank has been distributing credit cards from nearly all its branches and does not have a separate proposition for the smaller centres, he said, adding a bulk of its credit cards come with annual fees.
Data released by RBI last week said Axis Bank had 24.13 lakh cards at the end of March and witnessed over Rs 2,096 crore of transactions at ATMs and points-of-sale (PoS) terminals in the month.
The total numbers of credit cards in the country rose over 16 per cent to 24.5 million as of March-end, as per RBI data.
Singh said the bank has closed fiscal 2015-16 with a growth of 40 per cent in cards and 47 per cent in spends, as against 16 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively, for the industry.
He said the bank hopes to maintain this growth to grow its market share and added that at the end of March, it was fourth largest by number of cards and fifth by spends.
While a bulk of the cards are sold internally to the bank's own customers, it also sells to outside customers in the premium category, he added.
The bank is finalising a tie-up with the Tata Group-backed carrier Air Vistara for launching a new proposition, he said.
He said the bank has deployed 50,000 near-field communication ( NFC ) capable PoS machines in the last six months, which is half of the total such devices in the market at present.
Source:BankingUpdates
Monday, 4 April 2016
State Bank of India
07:35
ICICI, SBI and other banks take the battle to mobile wallet players
ICICI, SBI and other banks take the battle to mobile wallet players
Banks are taking the battle to mobile wallet companies, armed with their readymade payment systems, wide merchant network and an on tap customer base, attempting to reclaim a turf which just a couple of years ago was their fiefdom.
In the past year, large lenders like ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank, which together control around 40 per cent of local banking assets, have launched new payment instruments as they seek to prevent customers from moving money to newly emerging non-bank companies.
SBI's Buddy, ICICI's Pockets, HDFC Bank's PayZapp and Axis' Lime are the new kids on the block, challenging the likes of Paytm, MobiKwik and Citrus Pay.
"It is an evolving space and the shift is towards digital transactions. None of us know the pace of the shift. Everyone is trying to experiment with the space," said Axis Bank Chief Executive Shikha Sharma.
While wallets have had to spend millions to get their branding done, banks are leveraging their existing brand value to lure customers away from wallet players. Tie-ups with new tech innovators are also keeping bank costs low.
"Investments in this business for us is in terms of deployment of resources as platform has been provided by our technology partner," said Manju Agarwal, deputy managing director, corporate strategy and new businesses, at SBI. Ease in small-value payments attracted the bank to this space, Agarwal added.
Parag Rao, head of cards and merchant acquiring at HDFC Bank, said he has been leveraging the bank's merchant and customer base to offer attractive discounts for PayZapp users.
"We want to facilitate all forms of transactions that the customer uses. In the physical world, the user can use the credit card and the debit card while in the mobile world he can use wallets," Rao said.'
HDFC Bank dominates card spending with a 3 lakh strong network of point of sale terminals. It is this offline success that it wants to replicate online.
However, wallet companies say banks cannot ensure enough attention to this business to make a difference. They point out to the fact that spending through debit and credit cards is still nascent despite an exponential increase in cards issued.
Reserve Bank of India data show that the number of outstanding debt and credit cards has increased more than three times in six years to 669.61 million in January 2016. However, people still prefer to pay in cash after withdrawing it from ATMs.
"Banks are excellent settlement engines, but when it comes to user experience, we have been able to train 123 million people over the last five years to make digital transactions without glitches. People trust us with their money," said Nitin Mishra, head of products at Paytm, India's largest wallet company.
Source:BankingUpdates
Source:BankingUpdates
Friday, 1 April 2016
State Bank of India
08:20
Commercial banks announce new lending rate structure
Commercial banks announce new lending rate structure
As a step to improve transmission of monetary policy, commercial banks announced marginal cost of funds-based lending rates (MCLR), a new regime which kicks in from April this year.
The overnight MCLR rate of seven large banks, including State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank, varied between 8.95 per cent (SBI) to 9.15 per cent (Punjab National Bank).
Bank of India did not provide MCLR rates. Its officials said the public sector lender will like to study rates quoted by competitors and finalise its rates today. Banks are not open for public transactions on the first day of the new financial year (FY17), starting today.
New home loans from SBI, the country’s largest lender, will be cheaper by 10 basis points (bps) under the revised loan pricing regime that begins from Friday.
Under MCLR regime, SBI’s benchmark rate would range between 8.95 per cent (overnight) to 9.35 per cent (for three years).
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had prescribed the new system for all banks, to improve transmission of monetary policy. Instead of one benchmark rate, banks would indicate at least five. Starting with one for overnight tenors, banks would quote rates for one month, three months, six months and one-year buckets. RBI has left it to banks for giving more rates for longer periods.
Anshula Kant, deputy managing director at SBI, said the MCLR rate for a one-year tenor will be 9.2 per cent. At present, their home loan rate is 9.55 per cent (base rate of 9.3 per cent plus 25 bps premium). Under the revised regime, it could be with MCLR for one year of 9.2 per cent plus 25 bps premium or 9.45 per cent for home loans sanctioned from Friday.
Existing home borrowers would get the option to move to the new rate. They will be charged a switch fee, to be announced soon. There would be a saving of ~600 in equated monthly instalment on a one-year loan, Kant said. This tenor (one year) will be most crucial for banks, as a little more than 30 per cent of deposits have a maturity of this much. The change in deposit rates for this bucket would drive revision in the MCLR rates.
Deposit rates are expected to slide further in FY17, depending on liquidity conditions. Asked about revision in these rates, Kant said they’d review these after RBI announces its policy review on April 5.
At present SBI’s term deposits range between 5.25 per cent at the short end to 7.5 per cent for 456 days to less than three years.
India Ratings and Research said the shortest tenor MCLR for bigger banks would be 90-100 bps lower than the base rate, making it comparable to commercial paper (CP) rates with similar tenor. On the longer end (one-year rate), considering the 70-75 bps of tenor premium in the market, the difference from the base rate could be 25-30 bps.
Implementation of MCLR has the potential to channelise the recent surge of volumes in the CP market towards bank credit. CP dues as a percentage of short-term bank credit went up to 14 per cent in FY16 (from 11 per cent last year) and three to five per cent of this, which is ~74,500 crore to ~1,20,000 crore, is likely to flow back into the banking system as rates get competitive.
Banks with a higher share of stable current and savings accounts will see less impact. Those with a relatively higher mix of domestic borrowing (in the form of longer tenor senior or subordinated debt) will be better positioned (in the current decreasing interest rate scenario). MCLR calculations would entail borrowing costs to be computed on an average basis.
Analysts said existing large corporate borrowers might be able to negotiate with banks to shift their loans to MCLR, putting downward pressure on margins. Aggressive refinancing of better rated companies by banks with lower MCLRs is likely and this could further dent the competitiveness of many mid-sized public sector banks.
The MCLR computation also factors in all operating costs, which will mean inefficient banks get penalised more. Additionally, MCLR provides flexibility for banks to re-price their floating rate book, compared to the base rate regime.
Bank yields and margins will be volatile in the new regime and a prudent asset-liability match will become more important in managing competitiveness through interest rate cycles, the rating agency added.
RBI recently said fixed rate loans up to three years would also be linked to MCLR. This could put further pressure on the net interest margin of banks, as it removes the possibility of using the fixed rate structure for working capital loans, which has been driving incremental corporate credit growth, it said.
Source:BankingUpdates
Source:BankingUpdates
Friday, 11 March 2016
payment banks
07:26
Axis Bank mulls flexi roles, timings
Axis Bank mulls flexi roles, timings
Axis Bank is going the start-up way and giving employees flexible roles and a flexible work environment.
Rajesh K Dahiya, group executive of the country's third largest private sector lender, said from the next financial year, the bank was planning to revise the definition of employment in a bank.
"Does employment mean that you come in at 10 am and leave at 7 pm or is there a different way? Why should one do the same job every time. So is it possible that morning to afternoon an employee can work in the human resources department and then, after that, can work in the marketing team?" he added.
The lender is looking at a shift as it has been inspired by start-ups. "It is similar to a start-up culture and there is no harm in saying that we are leaning from them. These new businesses are telling so called established players a lot and we are trying to put our ears to the ground and pick up every good practice that comes our way from across the industry," he said.
To attract talent, several start-ups have given their employees an option to work from home, or for flexible hours. Now, more banks are also looking at providing flexibility at workplace. Human resources managers have said this can work as an important retention tools. ICICI Bank had, for instance, recently launched an initiative to allow women employees to work from home for up to a year.
Some HR consultants have said it would be difficult to have a start-up-type setup in an established bank. "It can be a good exposure for employees and can also help in grooming future leaders by making them aware of the different functions in the bank and, therefore, help in attracting talent. However, managing it on a large scale can be challenging," said Ajay Shah, assistant vice-president, TeamLease Services.
Recently, Axis Bank had decided to move away from the bell-curve system and had decided to focus on an integrated performance management and capability development system. Typically, the bell curve segregates all employees into distinct baskets — top, average and bottom performers — with the vast majority being treated as average performers.
These measures to ditch the old working environment comes at a time when several large lenders, including Axis Bank, are facing higher attrition with the coming of 21 new small and payments banks.
Saturday, 5 March 2016
urea
20:16
Chambal Fertilisers will raise Rs 1,057 crore loan from SBI and Axis Bank
Chambal Fertilisers will raise Rs 1,057 crore loan from SBI and Axis Bank
New Delhi, Mar 5 (PTI) Chambal Fertilisers will raise Rs 1,057 crore loan from SBI and Axis Bank to establish new urea unit at its existing plant in Kota, Rajasthan.
Besides, the company will also avail a Rs 300 crore bank guarantee from State Bank of India. It will be in favor of the Government of India as per the New Urea Investment Policy - 2012 requirements.
In a regulatory filing, Chambal Fertilisers & Chemicals Ltd today said it has executed a loan agreement with SBI for term loan of Rs 500 crore and with Axis Bank for term loan of Rs 557.85 crore.
The bank guarantee is issued in favor of the Government of India as per the New Urea Investment Policy - 2012 requirements.
Last month, the company had said it has entered into an agreement with four banks including SBI, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and Exim Bank for availing foreign currency loan of USD 550 million.
Sources said that with these two fund raising activities, the company has completed financial closure for establishing new urea plant.
Wednesday, 13 January 2016
SBI
04:53
SBI, Axis Bank wallet apps hacked to siphon off crores
SBI, Axis Bank wallet apps hacked to siphon off crores
BENGALURU: City's cyber-crime police attached to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) have arrested seven persons including a deputy manager with Axis bank's Peddapalli branch (Kareemnagar, Telangana) for allegedly hacking the wallet apps of Axis bank
Niranjan Reddy, deputy manager of Axis bank, 30, G Veerabrahmam, 23, CK Ramana, 27, Nageshwara Reddy, all from Kareemnagar and CS Kiran, 33, CS Padmaja, 35, and N Ramesh, 30, from Srinivasapura, Kolar.
Last year, many Axis bank account holders, mainly from Mysore and Tumakuru in Karnataka, had filed police complaints reporting loss of cash from their accounts.
The case was transferred to the Cyber crime wing of the CID last year. The team finally zeroed in on the accused after tracking their mobile, internet and other devices.
According to police, Nageshwara Reddy along with Veerabrahmam, had obtained duplicate SIM cards of complainant's registered mobile number with the bank, from Vodafone, BSNL, Aircel and other stores across the state, by submitting fake documents and also changed the plan from prepaid to postpaid. Later, the accused transferred the amount to different mobile numbers using mobile banking and the LIME wallet options of Axis bank and later withdrew the amount from Axis bank ATMs.
Ramesh, Kiran and Padmaraj helped Nageshwara Reddy and his accomplices in obtaining more than 100 fake SIM cards, which were used in committing the crime, the police said.
The mobile services providers issued duplicate sim cards without proper verification of the original user. Reliance has allegedly provided more than 100 SIM cards to the accused, the police said. Following the complaints, Axis Bank has stopped operating its LIME application.
CID IGP Hemanth Nimbalkar said that a special cyber police team has been formed to investigate into the matter. "CID-Dy SP MD Sharath and his team tracked the internet path used by the miscreants to hack the bank accounts. Using the duplicate SIM cards, the accused got new OTP (One Time Password) of nine customers from Karnataka and siphoned around Rs 25 lakhs from their accounts. We suspect that the gang has conned more victims and are continuing the investigation," he added.
Source:The Economic Times
Tuesday, 5 January 2016
IDBI bank
07:36
Credible investor to get board seat in IDBI bank makeover
Credible investor to get board seat in IDBI bank makeover
The government is ready to give a strategic role and a board seat to a credible investor in IDBI Bank under a proposed transformation programme that was kick-started last week.
The government has approved the bank's proposal to raise Rs 3,771 crore through a qualified institutional placement (QIP), which at current market capitalisation, translates into a more than 20% stake to new investors. ET had earlier reported that International Finance Corporation, the World Bank's private investment arm, was keen to pick up a stake in the bank, which the government is keen to change like Axis Bank. "This (QIP) begins the transformation of IDBI Bank," minister of state for finance Jayant Sinha said, flagging the 'Indradhanush' programme to revamp public sector banks.
After a recent infusion of over Rs 2,200 crore as capital, the government owns over 80% stake in IDBI Bank, which is struggling with rising non-performing loans.
The bank posted a net profit ofRs 120 crore in the second quarter of this financial year, little changed from Rs 118 crore a year earlier. The level of gross NPAs widened to 6.92% from 5.72%. The government hopes to attract strategic investors capable of making IDBI Bank a top-class lender on the lines of Axis Bank, which was once majority-owned by the government's financial institutions. Axis Bank is today the third-largest private bank with 45% foreign holding. The government has indicated it is keen to give IDBI Bank a private sector character with less than 50% stake for itself. IDBI Bank's share price increased over 70% to Rs 89.90 at the close on the BSE on Friday from a 52-week low of Rs 52.45 in August in anticipation of the proposed makeover.
"Depending on who the investors are and what stake they are willing to subscribe for, we are willing to discuss for them playing a more strategic role, which would potentially include a board seat as well," Sinha said, indicating the process could start soon. According to rules by the Securities & Exchange Board of India, in a QIP of over Rs 250 crore, at least five investors have to subscribe through a book-building process.
"Depending on market conditions, we could start the book-building relatively soon. In any case, we hope to do it soon," Sinha added.
The minister said it's important to get the right kind of strategic investors and build a long-lasting relationship with them. The IDBI Bank recast is part of a wider plan to professionalise state-run banks and capitalise them well. 'INDRADHANUSH' PLAN
In August last year, the government announced a sevenpoint plan to revamp public sector banks struggling under mounting bad loans. Sinha said the plan proposes to address five major issues - governance, non-performing assets, capitalisation, management and overall government stake.
The gross NPAs of state-run banks rose to Rs 3.14 lakh crore at the end of September fromRs 2.51 lakh crore a year ago. "It is the most sweeping set of changes since bank nationalisation in 1969," Sinha said, outlining the goals of the makeover.
Operational autonomy enables them to put pressure on promoters through the strategic debt restructuring and corporate debt restructuring mechanisms and the joint lender's forum mechanism that the Reserve Bank of India has created, he said.
"So, public sector banks are thoroughly being transformed as a result of this," minister said. Sinha said apart from addressing NPAs, the capitalisation of banks is the other major element that the government is actively pursuing.
"We need to obviously make sure that our banks are thoroughly capitalised and are very robust with respect to any provisioning that they have to do and are comfortably ahead of the Basel-III norms," Sinha said adding that makeover of IDBI Bank is a part of that process.
Wednesday, 23 December 2015
Future Retail
18:17
Future Retail signs bond deal with Axis Bank
Future Retail signs bond deal with Axis Bank
Future Retail, India's largest modern retailer, has signed a unique bond deal with Axis Bank, from which it raised Rs 300 crore recently. The company will reward the bank for holding the bond till maturity by paying a higher premium on the principal amount.
The company will pay a coupon of 10.10 per cent on the bonds on a quarterly basis. However, the bondholder will receive a premium on the face value of the bonds at the time of maturity, resulting in a higher payout of 10.75 per cent, said officials familiar with the deal.
Future Retail, which is refinancing debt to take advantage of falling interest rates in the country, raised the bonds in two tranches — Rs 120 crore and Rs 180 crore — with tenures of five and six years, respectively. The bonds have put and call options at the end of three years.
Future Retail declined to comment on the deal. In a response to a mail from ET, an Axis Bank spokesperson said, "As a matter of policy, we do not comment on individual client transactions/investments."
Senior bank officials who did not want to be identified said companies would prefer to enter into such transactions if they expect cash flows to improve after a few years, enabling them to pay more.
Since the bonds were raised to repay high-cost loans, they will not result in any additional debt on the books, said officials from the company who requested anonymity.
Future Retail, the operator of stores such as Big Bazaar, e-Zone and HomeTown, had outstanding debt of about Rs 4,000 crore on revenue of Rs 10,341 crore and net profit of Rs 74 crore in 2014-15.
Earlier this year, the company raised Rs 1,600 crore through a rights issue and used the proceeds to retire high-cost debt. The company has also been swapping its loans with non-convertible debentures, which are raised at rates lower than those paid on loans. Future's interest burden fell to Rs 135 crore in the quarter ended September fromRs 172 crore a year earlier and Rs 151 crore in the quarter ended June.
In May 2015, the Future Group acquired Bharti Retail in an all-stock deal, valuing the latter at Rs 500 crore.
Source:BankingUpdates
Saturday, 5 December 2015
One Time Password
12:02
Axis Bank launches country's first 'display variant' debit card
Axis Bank launches country's first 'display variant' debit card
Country's third largest private sector lender Axis Bank today said it has launched a 'display variant' debit card which does away with the hassles of generating one time password (OTP) over SMS while transacting.
The card, which is being made available for high-value NRE customers, has an embedded EMV chip, a display screen and a touch-sensitive button which helps generating the OTP on the card itself.
"This OTP, in conjunction with the user ID and password, allows the customer to transact on internet banking without having to wait for OTP delivery via SMS or email," a bank statement said, adding that it is the first lender in the country to offer the facility.
The card comes with free ATM access across the world, offers on lounge access, loyalty points on transactions and an air accident insurance of Rs 25 lakh and a personal accident insurance of Rs 5 lakh.
Details on the charges or the minimum balance requirements were not immediately available.
Source:BankingUpdates
Friday, 4 December 2015
North East Market
19:00
Axis Bank, is aggressively eyeing the Northeastern market
Axis Bank, is aggressively eyeing the Northeastern market
Bank's retail banking head says Northeast market had been a profitable market
Private sector lender, Axis Bank, is aggressively eyeing the Northeastern market. The bank, which opened nine branches in the region this year, plans to open around 15 more branches next year.
Talking to journalists here in Guwahati, Rajiv Anand, executive and head for retail banking of Axis Bank, said the Northeast market had been a profitable market for the bank and it looks forward to further consolidate its base in the region.
“We entered the Northeast market by opening our first branch in Guwahati in 2002 and since then we have been witnessing significant rise in business across products,” said Anand.
The bank has a network of 70 branches across 46 districts, two asset service centres, 199 ATMs and 19 cash deposit machines spread across the seven states. However, the presence of the bank in rural areas has been quite limited with just two branches. Anand said the bank expects to increase its priority sector lending in the region in coming days.
Axis Bank’s market share across seven Northeastern states on overall deposits as on March 2015 was 4.38% as compared to Axis Bank pan-India market share of 3.28%.
Anand said of late the bank has been witnessing a “strong” shift towards digital banking. He said 16 million customer base had conducted Rs. 22,000 crore worth of transactions in the first six months of this fiscal through its mobile platform across the country, as compared to Rs. 4,200 crore during the corresponding period last fiscal.
With Reserve Bank granting “in principle” licenses to new banks to enter the market, Anand said as the economy was growing there exists sufficient space for new entrants to operate in the market. He said Axis Bank was well positioned to retain its customer base even if the completion gets tougher in future.
Source :Business Standard
Monday, 23 November 2015
Bank news
08:49
Axis Bank enters Bangladesh, opens rep office in Dhaka
Axis Bank enters Bangladesh, opens rep office in Dhaka
Extending its overseas footprint, Axis Bank today opened a representative office in Dhaka, capital city of Bangladesh.
Indo-Bangladesh trade is growing and opening office in Dhaka would help in leveraging the opportunity, Axis Bank group executive, (corporate relationship group & international business) P Mukherjee said.
"The bank aims to leverage the growing economic integration between the two countries by actively facilitating trade transactions, both inbound as well as out-bound. The bank will also contribute towards employment generation, both directly and indirectly in the country," he said.
Dhaka operations, primarily focused to promote the trade finance business, will further strengthen the bank's presence in Asia, he said.
Axis Bank has already established its presence through branches in Singapore, Hong Kong, DIFC-Dubai, Colombo and Shanghai, with representative offices at Dubai and Abu Dhabi and a wholly-owned subsidiary in the UK.
Total overseas assets of the Axis Bank stood at USD 7.51 billion, as on September 30, 2015.
Mukherjee further said that the representative office will also enable the bank to move up the value chain and enhance its risk return through secondary market risk participations with banks in Bangladesh.
At a later date, he said, the bank may consider to convert this office into a branch, subject to regulatory approvals and business volume.
Source:BankingUpdates
Tuesday, 17 November 2015
Bank news
17:50
Axis Bank CEO Shikha Sharma's interesting case study on money transfer
Axis Bank CEO Shikha Sharma's interesting case study on money transfer
During Microsoft's recent Future Unleashed conference, while speaking about the banking sector using digital tools to stay updated and relevant to their customers, Shikha Sharma put forward an interesting case study in her speech.
The Axis Bank MD and CEO revealed how her maid from West Bengal used to send money through a money order. But this meant that she would have to pay brokerage fee.
Yet now, with the advent of technology, she now transfers money online. Well, there are some advantages to working for one of the top banking heads in the country.
Tuesday, 3 November 2015
Digital India Programme
22:17
Mobile banking will become our primary digital channel soon: Axis Bank
Mobile banking will become our primary digital channel soon: Axis Bank
India's third largest private sector bank Axis Bank is increasingly focusing on mobility, and expects mobile banking to become its primary digital channel soon.
"Most of the countries have gone through two phases of digital revolution -- one was the Internet and second is the mobile. Because of lack of infrastructure, India sort of missed the Internet revolution, but in terms of mobility, huge adoption across the country can be seen. So we, as a country, actually from the Internet generation directly moved to the mobile generation. With the mobile population increasing at such a fast pace, we see huge demand from our customers to use banking on the mobile,” Amit Sethi, President and CIO, Axis Bank, tells Firstpost.
"The company is witnessing 250-300 percent growth in mobile banking. A major chunk of our transactions is moving to the digital channels, especially on the mobile front. Today, 88-90 percent of transactions at Axis Bank are actually happening electronically; and only 11 percent are happening in the branches. It is a huge switch,” he notes.
So, with digital transactions increasing and decreasing footfalls in the branches, can we expect branches to be obsolete? Sethi clarifies that it doesn't mean the end of branches but their inherent function is changing. "Branches are becoming a major channel for advising customers, helping them manage their finances better, and more. Today, branches have become more of customer-centric rather than a transaction focused place. We do not see branch banking going anywhere, in fact we are opening more branches every year,” Sethi elaborates.
Talking about the investments in new technologies, he asserts, "We are big believers in ROI-based investment. We want to be technology leaders in the banking sector.
So, all investments are made with that particular focus. We see SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) very relevant for banks. We are building solutions to remain socially relevant for our customers and analytics is a key portion of everything that we do today both in terms of what we give as an offering to the customer as well as to sharpen our back-end. We are using analytics to sharpen our fraud system, risk management system, our decision making ability, our product offerings, and our operational capabilities.”
Additionally, the company is focused on security. There are multiple levels of security that we give on handsets as well as through the application. As a backup, we use numerous tools which we call adaptive authentication tools to check in on fraud. We keep on enhancing our security offerings while we offer our customers the digital property, Sethi says.
Talking about the competition, he signs off saying, "Axis Bank is way ahead of the competition in the digital space.”
Friday, 16 October 2015
wallet business
08:15
Axis Bank continues to focus on increasing physical distribution footprint
Axis Bank continues to focus on increasing physical distribution footprint
Axis Bank, with one of the largest branch network among private sector banks, continues to focus on traditional channels increasing its physical distribution footprint.
Rajiv Anand, Group Executive and Head-Retail Banking, Axis Bank, in an email interview with The Hindu, explained how the bank plans to expand its network thorough digital as well as traditional channels. Excerpts:
Axis Bank seems to be moving fast on its digital strategy with a multi-fold increase in the use of electronic banking channels. How are you bringing digital transformation in the retail banking side of your business? If so, have you been able to achieve these digital initiatives and what has been the outcome?
Axis Bank has been on the forefront of leveraging technology to bring about a large scale transformation. We have not only focused on providing a seamless customer experience through mobile and Internet, we have also redesigned most of our core processes at the back-end leading to reduction in errors, turnaround-time and cost. We have empowered our sales staff to open savings accounts and cards on a real time basis using tablets while also creating digital tools for sales force to prioritise sales efforts and for supervisors to monitor performance.
Lastly, the ability to marry customer requirements with the latest technological advancements has enabled us to pioneer two major products in the last six months — the first multi-social payment app in PingPay and the first integrated mobile money platform through LIME, which is the country’s first mobile app that offers wallet, shopping, payments and banking.
I want to highlight that LIME is an independent app, and empowers opening individual, shared mobile wallets and make seamless peer to peer as well as online, offline merchant payments. Users are already experiencing the convenience of in-app shopping that allows them to compare and buy products and services.
Our success can be attributed to a couple of very significant priorities — understand the moments of truth and create solutions rather than merely digitising processes and secondly ensuring that our solutions are designed to provide an experience to match the best solutions in the market beyond competing merely with other financial apps.
Is bank’s focus on traditional channels getting weakened? Which of the channels — traditional or digital — will give Axis Bank low cost deposits?
Axis Bank continues to focus on traditional channels and we will continue to focus on increasing our physical distribution footprint. Our aim is to provide customers with options and the power to bank as they like by taking the bank where the customer is.
Customers have the option to do financial transactions and service requests both through digital medium and at our branches. Hence, we are seeing the two channels complementing each other in creating a enhanced level of engagement and consequently deepening of relationship values.
Our experience has shown that customers prefer branches for opening new accounts and for complex and intensive product purchases while preferring digital channels for high frequency but straightforward activities. We have WiFi facilities in a large number of branches to help our customers familiarise themselves with our digital offerings. Suffice to say, LIME is enabling individuals to open a full-fledged savings account digitally, by completing the KYC process, using their mobile.
What are the challenges you face when it comes to providing customers with a quick and seamless digital experience, and especially when they are looking to have that experience instantly?
The biggest challenge in creating a digital experience is to think beyond just automating the existing physical processes. We have looked at the various processes, understood the moments of truth and created solutions based on the medium. Hence, if you were to look at our mobile app, the interactions have been designed based on how we typically navigate on other mobile apps and not just an online replication of the branch process. As a result, customers are now able to do a wide range of tasks almost instantaneously — opening accounts, creating fixed deposits and recurring deposits, altering card features, booking lockers on mobile to getting personal loan disbursements.
As customers increasingly use social media to share opinions, also on financial products and services, how have you reciprocated to incorporate their social activities into your overall corporate strategies or offerings?
Social media has been a kind of revelation in the digital space. Today youngsters spend a substantial amount of time accessing social media. Our research says that they look for instant gratification and fun in their interactions. They share views with respect to finances as well and hence it is highly imperative for us to be present there and interact with our customers. Given the boom in smartphone ownership across India, people are already interacting with their banks digitally.
The launch of PingPay has been a significant innovation as it is the first multi-social payment app enabling users to transfer money on WhatsApp, Facebook, e-mail or SMS. The interface is gesture based and therefore completely innovative. The app has been a rage amongst the 18-24 year olds as they can also send text, images and videos along with 24x7 money transfer.
So we are using the social media to better understand our customers and also make banking fun by integrating with social.
Many banks have launched mobile apps offering various features. How are you differentiating from the rest? How do you choose various technologies to meet business goals?
The question can be answered in two parts — with respect to technology and platforms, we will continue to focus on enhancing product solutions to meet customer needs and not taking a call on the success of any particular technology. For example, our mobile app has been rolled out across iOS, Android and Windows platforms and we are leveraging newer enhancements such as Touch ID and Apple watch for accessing the bank accounts. Leveraging the strength of the expertise available in-house at Axis Bank, LIME is a fresh take on the way people interact with their money.
Increasingly, retail customers are using branches on far fewer occasions and even ATM transactions are slowly shrinking. Axis has one of the largest branch net work and ATM channels. How do you plan to utilise these channels more efficiently?
Axis Bank is focusing on both the traditional and digital channels. The presence of branches is critical in the acquisition of new customers, for customers not yet comfortable transacting on digital platforms and for complex product sales. It is true that the transaction at branches is showing a falling trend and therefore our branch sizes have reduced as well. However, branches play a very important role in relationship building and the increased focus therein is yielding results.
How is Axis Bank’s personal banking service, Burgundy, which has been designed especially for the affluent HNI customer faring?
Burgundy has been designed to bring together the best of what Axis Bank has to offer onto a common platform and is aimed at affluent customers. While these are still in initial days, since the launch of the proposition, we have seen good traction with the signup of marquee names. The product offering and the service standards put in place put it on par with the best-in-industry offerings for affluent customers.
With more number of banks now coming up — new universal banks, small finance banks as also payment banks — how do you see competition evolving in the retail banking segment? How prepared is Axis Bank?
Axis Bank is one of the safest banks in the country. One of the successes of the organically built network has enabled us to emerge as the most trusted financial services brand in the country. There is still a large chunk of India’s population, which have limited or no access to banking services which provides an opportunity for every bank to continue growing. We have one of the largest existing networks, and I must reinforce that Axis Bank has more number of branches and extension counters in semi-urban and rural areas than in metropolitan and urban areas.
We are also a very strong player in the digital space, which puts us in a sweet spot to not only compete with newer players but also gain market share from existing players.
Source:BankingUpdates