A move which is likely to benefit millions of employees, the government has increased the interest rate to 8.8 per cent on contributions to general provident fund (GPF) and other similar funds for 2012-13. The benefits of increased interest rate will be available to subscribers of Contributory Provident Fund (India), All India Services Provident Fund, [...]

Customers of Vijaya Bank will now be able to receive international money transfers through Western Union. The bank has entered into an agreement with Western Union to enable its eight million customers to receive international money transfers. Vijaya Bank is offering Western Union Money Transfer services at varied 1,300 branches across the nation. Mr. H. [...]

National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), UAE, has added a new feature to its mobile-based payment service, ‘Arrow Service’ facilitating Indian expatriates to transfer remittances to their families within few seconds. Both NBAD and non-NBAD customers would be require paying 12 dirhams for their remittances to bank accounts in India through an agreement with India’s [...]

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has permitted banks to open ‘ultra-small branches’ in rural parts of India from where business correspondents (BCs) will be allowed to conduct operations, which in turn will encourage customers towards using financial services. As stated in a notification issued by the RBI, “It has been decided that BCs will [...]

ICICI Bank is providing an ‘instant account number’ to its customers who are opening saving deposit account through the bank’s website. The bank will create the account instantly and a number will be allotted to the depositor but activation will be done only after completing its know-your-customer (KYC) process. The customer would be required to [...]

The Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) has curtailed interest rates on new education loans. The new rate cuts would lower the burden on students by 0.4 per cent to 1.15 per cent, on the basis of principal amount. For education loans up to Rs 4 lakh, the interest rate would be 13 per cent as [...]

The Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) has scrapped service charges on all National Electronics Fund Transfer (NEFT) payments up to the amount of Rs 1 lakh, originating through its branches. The said move is likely to encourage retail customers to adopt electronic mode for their own payments. Presently, under NEFT scheme, banks are permitted to [...]

Bharti Airtel, through its wholly owned subsidiary Airtel mCommerce Services Ltd, has entered into an agreement with Axis Bank for extending banking and payment services on mobile platform. Now customers will be able to open no-frills savings account of Axis Bank on the Airtel Money platform, called ‘airtel money Super Account powered by Axis Bank’. [...]

Federal Bank has launched two premium debit cards exclusively for its HNI customers. While the two new ‘Premium Master Debit Card’ and ‘Maestro Card’ are debit cards, the bank has launched a travel card under the name of ‘Cash passport’ in three different currencies, namely, pound, dollar and euro. As stated by Mr. Abraham Chacko, [...]

The State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur has opened a ‘Kohinoor Royale Banking Centre’ in Jaipur to attract business from high net worth individuals. As stated by Mr. Shiv Kumar, Managing Director, State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, “It is a specialized branch where we will open accounts only by invitation.’’ Moreover, the branch would [...]