Banks

Germany approves bank reform to protect taxpayers

Berlin: Germany has approved new measures to rein in high-risk financial business of banks and to decouple them from retail banking as part of a comprehensive reform to prevent a repeat of the financial crisis five years ago and to minimise the costs for taxpayers if banks were to be bailed out in the future.

The Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, on Friday voted with the majority of the ruling conservative-liberal coalition a legislation, which will require banks with assets exceeding 100 billion euros (130 billion USD), or 20 per cent of their balance sheet, to separate their risky trading activities from the traditional client banking and to put them in independent subsidiaries until 2016.

The new rues, which are scheduled to come into force in early 2015, will bar direct lending and provision of guarantees to hedge funds and private equity funds by retail banks through the use of clients' capital deposits.

Banks will have to finance highly speculative businesses with their own resources and to transfer high frequency trading as well as lending to hedge funds and other holding companies to the proposed subsidiaries, the legislation said....more    

Kolkata: Couple arrested for duping banks

New Delhi: A Delhi-based couple was arrested from Kolkata for duping several banks by forging documents, police said Saturday. Kamal Kishore Shukla, 60, and his wife Shashi Shukla, 53 were arrested on May 15 from Kolkata. The duo had obtained housing loans from different banks against a single property in Vaishali area of Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad, adjoining Delhi, with the help of fake documents and had even sold the same...  

Money laundering: Information being shared with India, says Mauritius

Port Louis: Facing allegations of being a route for round-tripping of funds and money laundering by Indian entities, Mauritius says it is fully committed to remain a credible financial centre and there has been 170 cases of exchange of information with Indian authorities in the past three years. Allaying the perception of Mauritius being a tax-haven, the government's investment promotion agency Board of Investment (BOI) also said that Mauritius on...  

Don't staple note packets, issue clean notes: RBI to banks

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directed banks to do away with stapling of note packets and issue only clean currency notes to the public. "...banks should do away with stapling of any note packet and instead secure note packets with paper bands and should sort notes into re-issuables and non-issuables, and issue only clean notes to public," it said in a notification. It also asked banks to...  

RBI puts restrictions on gold imports by banks

Mumbai: With gold imports putting pressure on the current account deficit, the Reserve Bank on Monday imposed restrictions on import of the yellow metal by banks. "To moderate the demand for gold for domestic use, it has been decided to restrict the import of gold on consignment basis by banks, only to meet the genuine needs of exporters of gold jewellery," the RBI said in a statement. As per a...  

RBI probes Cobrapost report, reveals major violations by banks

New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India is probing the Cobrapost sting operation on alleged money laundering by top banks. The RBI report has revealed major irregularities in top banks. The report shows string of violations on several counts. Sources say the RBI report reveals dummy PANs, unknown NRO IDs, unauthorised gold sale, rampant non-compliance of KYC norms and irregular staff trips. Sources say the RBI probe into ICICI Bank...  

No criminality in Cobrapost findings: SBI

Chandigarh: Bank officials' advices of splitting deposits to evade taxes, as exposed in a sting operation by an online news portal, are "undesirable loose talks" but there is no apparent criminality, SBI Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri said on Thursday. "Prima facie, things that have come to our notice it looks (that) there is no criminality in the sense that somebody has suggested splitting up your deposits, say Rs 50 lakh into...  

Action against banks involved in money laundering soon: RBI

Srinagar: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday said it has completed investigations against banks following the Cobrapost expose and will take action if they are found guilty of violating prudential banking norms. "We have done investigations, we have prepared an internal report. There are processes to be followed to take investigations to its logical closure...The first is action against individual institutions who are involved in practises which are...  

RBI to use all options, including CRR, to manage liquidity

Mumbai: Reserve Bank Governor D Subbarao on Monday said the Reserve Bank will consider all options available, including reducing the cash reserve ratio (CRR), to manage liquidity in the system. "The assumption that OMOs will be the preferred tool is wrong. Don't go with that assumption. We will use all options available to us depending on the liquidity situation... it could be OMOs, it could be CRR (cut) or it...  

Is the entire banking and finance system prone to money laundering?

As many as 23 public and private sector banks and insurance companies were on Monday accused of "running a nation-wide money laundering racket" by online portal Cobrapost, prompting the Finance Ministry and regulator IRDA to initiate independent investigations into the matter. ...

Money laundering by banks: Govt to begin probe

New Delhi: As many as 23 public and private sector banks and insurance companies were on Monday accused of "running a nation-wide money laundering racket" by online portal Cobrapost, prompting the Finance Ministry and regulator IRDA to initiate independent investigations into the matter. In its second expose, Cobrapost accused country's leading banks and insurance companies of "running a nation-wide money laundering racket, blatantly violating laws of the land". Those named...  

Money laundering by banks: Those at the helm must stem the rot

Part Two of the Cobrapost investigation on money laundering methods used by banks focuses on 23 major public sector banks and financial institutions. This includes the State Bank of India as also the Life Insurance Corporation. ...

RBI should release its audit report on the banks: Aniruddha Bahal

Special Investigations website Cobrapost has revealed that 23 banks and insurance companies have been engaged in money laundering. Among the 23 banks involved are mostly PSU banks including some big names like the State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, IDBI, Oriental Bank and Dena Bank. Aniruddha Bahal, editor-in-chief, Cobrapost.com, joined IBNLive readers for an interaction on the matter. Q. Hats off to you and...  

23 banks, insurance firms engaged in money laundering: Cobrapost

New Delhi: Special Investigations website Cobrapost has revealed that 23 banks and insurance companies have been engaged in money laundering. Among the 23 banks involved are mostly PSU banks including some big names like the State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, IDBI, Oriental Bank and Dena Bank. Cobrapost editor Aniruddha Bahal claims that both banks and the insurance companies flouted the Foreign Exchange Management...  

HDFC Bank Q4 net profit up 30 pc, meets forecast

Mumbai: HDFC Bank Ltd, India's No.3 lender by loan value, met forecasts with a 30 per cent rise in quarterly profit on Tuesday led by higher loan growth, fee income and stable asset quality. Mumbai-based HDFC Bank, which has posted profit growth of more than 30 per cent every year for the last decade, said its net profit rose to Rs 18.9 billion in the quarter ended in March from...  

Licences of loss-making cooperative banks to be cancelled

Varanasi: The Reserve Bank of India will shortly cancel licences of 26 loss-making cooperative banks, including 16 in Uttar Pradesh, Deputy Governor KC Chakrabarty said. A capital of Rs 2,000 crore is required for running 16 cooperatives banks in the state and RBI may not cancel the licenses of these banks if the state government supports them, Chakrabarty told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Varanasi. Banking is...  

India's transformation is not orderly but accidental: Shankkar Aiyar

In 'Accidental India: A History of the Nation's Passage through Crisis and Change', noted journalist-analyst, Shankkar Aiyar, examines India's ascent through the paradigm of seven game changers: the economic liberalization of 1991, the Green Revolution of the sixties, the nationalization of banks in 1969, Operation Flood in the seventies, the mid-day meal scheme of 1982, the software revolution of the nineties, and the passing of the Right to Information Act...  

Finance Ministry asks PSU banks to limit loan write-offs

New Delhi: The Finance Ministry has asked public sector banks to limit the amount of loan write-offs and sought details of recoveries made by them in the six years ending 2011-12 with an aim to improve the finances of PSU lenders. It has also asked the banks to ensure that the amount written off by banks as bad loans does not exceed the cash recovery made during the year. "In...  

Cyprus details heavy losses for major bank customers

Nicosia: Major depositors in Cyprus's biggest bank will lose around 60 per cent of savings over 100,000 euros, its central bank confirmed on Saturday, sharpening the terms of a bailout that has shaken European banks but saved the island from bankruptcy. Initial signs that big depositors in Bank of Cyprus would take a hit of 30 to 40 per cent - the first time the euro zone has made bank...  

Cyprus girds for run on banks after sealing bailout

Nicosia: The president of Cyprus assured his people a bailout deal he struck with the European Union was in their best interests and would end anxiety, but he also announced "very temporary" capital controls to stem a run on the island's banks. Returning on Monday from fraught overnight negotiations in Brussels, the conservative leader said the 10-billion euro rescue plan agreed there in the early hours of the morning was...