innovationinbanking

Today, one more bank has increased it’s saving account interest rates. Indusind Bank, has announced a revision in it’s Savings Account interest rates. The rates are somewhat similar to Kotak Mahindra Bank rates i.e Revised Rates Savings Account balance up to Rs. 1 Lakh: 5.5% p.a. Savings Account balance above Rs. 1 Lakh: 6% p.a. Just wondering, what could be the response if YES Bank, had revised its Saving Account rate above 6.00%? Indusind Bank commenced its banking operations in 1994, and  as on 30/09/2011,  IndusInd Bank has 350 branches, and 666 ATMs spread across 247 geographic locations of the country as on September 30, 2011. It has also a presence  in  London and Dubai, with representative offices.

Kotak Mahindra Bank, part of the Kotak Group, has decided to increase the Interest on Saving Bank account’s. It has increased by 2% for amounts over Rs.1lac and 1.50%, for amounts less than Rs1 lac i.e the effective rates will be 6% and 5.50%. The new rates are effective from   November 1, 2011. The announcement has been made five days after the RBI allowed all banks to determine the Interest rates on SB balances on their own. The Kotak Mahindra Group was established in 1985, and in Feb 2003, RBI granted the banking license to it’s flagship company i.e Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd., At present it has a physical presence via 323 branches spread all over India.

Axis Bank - Jahan Card Chalaao, Paise Bachaao - But only up to INR250/-!! Axis Bank has launched a massive outdoor campaign to promote the usage of it’s Debit Cards The tag line is ‘Jahan Card Chalaao, Paise Bachaao’ . The highlights are: The campaign will be run in Blocks, and a Block is a week and is defined as starting on a Saturday and ending on the subsequent Friday. Debit Card holders have to register for the campaign. The registration can be done via  for the campaign through Axis Bank ATMs, Internet Banking or over Phone (1-800-233-5577, 1-800-209-5577 or 1-800-103-5577 and dial 6 to register). Well, registration cannot be done at the Axis Bank Branches. The registration will help Axis Bank to compile a data-base for targeted campaign. The offer is valid till December 30, 2011. The first 10,000 Axis Bank Debit Cardholders who spend a minimum of INR 5,000 (with minimum 3 transactions) in any given week (as defined above) and have registered for the offer wo...

State Bank of Mysore, too has jumped on to the mobile compliant resolution platform. It has recently launched a introduced a customer friendly initiative called ‘SMS Unhappy', which will allow customers to express dissatisfaction regarding services of the bank by sending a cellular message 'unhappy'. The ‘unhappy' message should be sent to 9900020002. The process in brief is as under: - 01) Customer sends the ‘unhappy’, message to 9900020002 02) An automated acknowledgement is received by the customer. 03) A call is received from the Bank’s ‘Happy Room’, to note down the grievance. 04) The grievance is flashed to the concerned Bank Manager/Unit Head under copy to the bank's controllers at the regional offices, administrative office and the head office. 05) The grievance is attended too, and resolved. 06) A final SMS is sent to the customer, informing that the grievance is resolved. State Bank of Mysore is 98years old, with 700 + branches sp...

With Diwali around the corner, more and more banks are jumping onto the Gift Card segment. Last week, it was the turn of American Express, to enter the Gift Card segment. As is the norm, no update are still available on the company's website.  The only source of information is the news articles and may be the American Express outlets. A link to a news article is @  http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/banking/article2487506.ece The card is launched in two variants -the Classic and the Diwali Gift card and no fees would be charged for such cards. Obviously the card will be accepted by merchants who currently welcome American Express Cards, including online merchants here. The gift card can be used any number of times, till the funds are depleted. This means, no additional balance can be loaded on it.  The American Express Gift Card is only in fixed denominations of Rs 500,...

Andhra Bank has entered the Prepaid Gift Card and the International Travel Card business by launch of the two products on 01/10/2011 The link to a news article on this, can be accessed at : - http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/banking/article2503398.ece The link for the Gift Card Application can be accessed at the following: - http://www.andhrabank.in/Download/Forms/gift%20card_application.pdf However the product details are not yet updated on the Bank's website. So, the present sources of information for the Prepaid Gift Card and International Travel Card are the Andhra Bank's branches or news articles on the site. However, there is online portal for Git Card customers to self-manage their Gift Card. Hm, the self-care portal, is not activated for Google Chrome, however it is working fine in Internet Explorer. The Prepaid card has been launched with MasterCard as the Card partner and  allows the...

Today, Bellary the famous mining town in Karnataka, was once again in the news. Today, it was not due to the mining activity, but as being a cause for disruption of State Bank of India, CBS on 01/10/2011. Due to a satellite link failure at Bellary, the banking operations in SBI's Pan-India branches got hit. A complete break-down of the CBS is a rare event, that too for more than couple of hours.  However, SBI officials have raised to the occasion and a full working day was declared on 02/10/2011, to minimise the anger caused to it's customers. This is an exemplary customer-friendly initiative from SBI, which will be appreciated by all it's customers. As this is first of it's kind, there was no precedence too for SBI. I am sure, the 01/10/2011, is good for Indian Banking system, and by now, top officials of RBI and other leading banks, must be contemplating steps to avoid repetition of the same. However, there is ...