Posts

Showing posts from March, 2017

RTGS/NEFT to remain open on all days from March 25, 2017 to April 1, 2017

              RTGS and NEFT are the two major Payment Systems in India. Reserve Bank of India, vide Notification No RBI/2016-17/257 DPSS.CO.CHD.No./2695/03.01.03/2016-17 dt. March 25, 2017, has informed to public at large that RTGS and NEFT would operate, as on a normal working day, during the period March 25 to April 1, 2017.               It may be noted that RTGS and NEFT will function as usual on Saturday, Sunday and all holidays.               Holidays between March 25, 2017 and April 1, 2017 March 25, 2017 – 4 th Saturday March 26, 2017 – Sunday March 29, 2017 – Ugadi April 1, 2017 – Annual closing of Reserve Bank of India Accounts Besides, March 30 & 31, 2017 there will be extended working hours for the centralised payment systems viz., RTGS & NEFT. The extended timings have already been a advised to the respective member banks via a broadcast message.  Please contact your banks Customers Care Centre for additional details. 

Mera iMobile set to attract rural Indians into Safe Digital Banking – 11 Unique Features

Image
              One of the most innovative features of ICICI Banks Mera iMobile roll-out is the 700 + Wi-Fi posters which will adorn ICICI rural branches. These Wi-Fi posters will enable Mera iMobile users to access the internet features of Mera iMobile from ICICI Bank Branches.               ICICI Bank iMobile and ICICI Bank Mera iMobile are independent Apps and both the apps can reside on the user’s Mobile phone. 11 Unique features of Mera iMobile: Unique feature 01) Available in 11 Indian languages i.e  Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Odia, Bengali, Assamese Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam. Unique feature 02) Most of the iMobile features are available in all the regional languages Unique feature 03) 17 SMS based services can be used without internet, for eg; Banking and non-banking services like balance enquiry, last 3 transactions, credit card balance, send money, recharges & cheque book services. User need not login to the APP too. Unique

5 Takeaways from McDonald’s purported data leakage

Image
              Fast food aficionados all over India tend to splurge on McDonalds menu either through in-store mode or home-delivery mode.               The preferred mode for home-delivery is the McDelivery APP.               McDonalds operates in India through two separate entities i.e one for North &  East India and another for West &  South India.                The welcome screen on http://www.mcdonaldsindia.com/ requests the user to choose his/ her area. Clicking on either link will take the user to independent web-screens.               The North & East footprint is with ‘Connaught Plaza Restaurants Private Limited’, led by Mr. Vikram Bakshi, JV Partner and Managing Director, North & East India The South & West India footprint is with ‘Hardcastle Restaurants Private Limited,’ led by Ms. Smita Jatia, Managing Director, South & West India               Hence, there are separate McDelivery Apps for North &  East India and Wes

5 takeaways from Bank of Maharashtra INR6.4 crs UPI fraud

Image
              As reported in newspapers Bank of Maharashtra has filed an FIR against 50 people for illegally pulling money using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and causing a loss of Rs 6.14 crore to the financial institution.               Bank of Maharashtra filed the FIR on March 8 th . The accused (in many cases their own accounts held with Bank of Maharashtra) used the UPI app to "collect" money from the accounts of the bank's customers, which did not even have requisite balance. They exploited a bug or a loophole in the bank's UPI app developed by Mumbai-based IT Solution Provider. Few of the accused immediately transferred money received into another bank accounts through Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) channel. It seems this was a well thought strategy, as few accused seemed to have procured mobile SIM cards for these transactions as most of the numbers are now switched off. The 50 accused persons (possibly un-related to each

ESAF Small Finance Bank Limited commences operations – Free Skype Calls

Image
ESAF Small Finance Bank Limited has commenced operations as a small finance bank with effect from March 10, 2017. ESAF Microfinance and Investments Private Limited, Chennai was one of the ten applicants which were issued in-principle approval for setting up a small finance bank, as announced in the Reserve Bank of India press release on September 16, 2015. ESAF journey to a Small Finance Bank started in November 2014, when Reserve Bank of India issued guidelines for ‘Licensing of Small Finance Banks in India’. The current tag line of ESAF Small Finance Bank is ‘The first small finance bank from Kerala’. It is in process of recruiting Senior Management for the final commercial launch.              The latest openings of ESAF Small Finance Bank can be viewed @ http://esafmicrofin.com/index.php/careers.html ESAF applied for the final licence in July 2016 and Reserve Bank of India issued the final licence in November 2016. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vija

State Bank of India is looking for ‘Chief Ethics Officer’ - 7 Applicants shortlisted

Image
          State Bank of India is one of few financial institutions in the world which has a full-time CEO. In this case, CEO does not stand for ‘Chief Executive Officer’, but ‘Chief Ethics Officer’.           Towards the end of January 2017,  State Bank of India, General Manager(CRPD, Mumbai) released as advertisement seeking applications for ‘Chief Ethics Officer’, on contract basis in State Bank of India.           The Chief Ethics Officer will lead the Ethics and Business Conduct Department of State Bank of India. The Chief Ethics Officer will be placed at the rank of Chief General Manager. He/She  will report to the Managing Director (Compliance and Risk) of  State Bank of India. the Bank. The applicants should  possess proven leadership qualities, with wide experience in the field of Corporate Governance. Preference will be given to candidates with Banking and / or Financial Service sector background. However, candidates associated in propagation of

RBI imposes penalty of Rs5 lacs, on The Rajsamand Urban Co-operative Bank Limited, Rajsamand

Image
          Reserve Bank of India vide Press Release dt. March 1, 2017 informed to public at large, that it has imposed a monetary penalty of ₹ 5.00 lakh (₹ Five lakh only) on the The Rajsamand Urban Co-operative Bank Limited, Rajsamand. The monetary penalty was for violation of RBI instructions / guidelines relating to (i)              Linking of share capital to borrowings (ii)             Breach of prescribed individual borrower exposure limit (iii)            Granting  unsecured loans beyond prescribed limit and allowed frequent OD in a CC account beyond prescribed limit (iv)            Acquisition of non-banking asset. Rajsamand  is famous for its marble production and has the distinction of having the largest single marble production unit in India. Other famous places of tourist interest inn  Rajsamand  are Kumbhalgarh - the birth place of Maharana Pratap, Haldighati the famous battlefield, Shrinathji the chief deity of Vaishnav religion, Dwarikadhee

TReDS settlements to be routed through NPCI NACH Module

Image
          The success of NACH Module has led to introduction of one more product within the NACH Module.           National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) has vide Circular dt 21 st December, 2016 informed its member banks that the TReDS settlements will be routed through its NACH Module.           There are two phases in the rollout process.           Phase I – The existing NACH system will be used for processing the TReDS transactions.           Phase II – A TReDS utility will be plugged into the NACH Module.           Phase I has been rolled out from January 02, 2017.           The timelines for Phase II will be introduced in due course.           File Format:           Existing 306 file format will be used, however “TRE” will be part of the file format to differentiate between ACH files and TReDS files.                     Mandates:       The existing mandates will continued to be used, however a new mandate category i.e T002 is being