Cosmos Cooperative Bank on IMPS

            On 14/03/2013, Cosmos Co-operative Bank has joined the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) Network. On the same day, the bank has gone live with MMID and Account Number/IFS Code IMPS sub-products.

            This will enable Cosmos Bank customers to enjoy double benefits of IMPS, as two new payment modes have been activated on a single day.

Cosmos Bank operates through 110 branches and 9 Extension Counters in India spread across 6 States and in 28 Major Cities.

The bank was founded in 1906 in Pune by India's famous Freedom fighter, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak. He allocated the bank's managing responsibility to his friend, Namdar (Solicitor) Gokhale, an economist and freedom fighter. During that period, the British- East India Company had their own banks in India. Following the ideals of "Swarajya" and "Swadeshi", Lokmanya Tilak thought of starting this bank so that Indians could save money. Tilak himself recommended the name "COSMOS BANK". The word "COSMOS" means "UNIVERSE" and also a "FLOWER".

It also received an Authorised Dealer License from the Reserve Bank of India to become the third co-operative bank in India to acquire such a license in thirty years. The bank is headquartered in Pune.

           

Incometax refund to be completely through emode

            Indian Finance ministry is preparing a detailed plan to migrate the income tax refunds complete to the eMode.

            If the Indian Finance ministry has its way, each IT PAN (Permanent Account Number), will be linked to a bank account. Such a linkage will be helpful for eRefund of the Income Tax.

            However as on date, the above idea has not received RBI clearance. , RBI is not comfortable with the idea of making PAN linkage mandatory for electronic transfer of all income tax refunds.

 100 per cent ECS (electronic clearance service) is possible only when IT Department has both the PAN and the Bank Account Number.

            The tax department was not asking RBI to make PAN mandatory for all bank accounts, said an official, "We are concerned with only those 35 million bank account holders who have a PAN card. So it should not be a problem."

 Refunds of Rs.70,000 crore have been given so far this year. Last year, refunds stood at Rs.95,000 crore. In 2009-10 and 2010-11, refunds of about Rs.57,000 crore and Rs.73,000 crore, respectively, were issued.

 In the present mode, IT refunds are provided through the refund banker scheme, launched in 2007, to non-corporate taxpayers assessed all over India. The State Bank of India (SBI) is the refund banker to the I-T department.

            Refunds are generated in two modes - ECS and paper. If the taxpayer has selected mode of refund as ECS at the time of submission of income return, his / her bank account number and MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) code of bank branch and communication address are mandatory.

            For taxpayers who have not opted for ECS, refund will be disbursed by cheque or demand draft. For generation of refund through paper cheque, correct address is mandatory. In the ECS mode, refunds are credited to the taxpayer's bank account within 24 hours of receiving intimation from the tax department, while for paper refunds the cheque is dispatched within three days.

            In Budget 2013-14, Finance Minister P Chidambaram extended the refund banker system to refunds of more than Rs.50,000.

Samsung Galaxy S 4 A Review from Mobile Banking angle

            By now, readers must have read plenty of reviews on Samsung Galaxy S 4.

This post will concentrate on the specific features which are excellent from the Mobile Banking Angle.

BYOD (Bring-your-own-device) is becoming the norm across the corporate world. India is no exception. The BYOD trend might be a bit slow in the Public Sector, but it rapidly spreading in the Private Sector.

The BYOD is fast evolving into an important tool to boost office productivity. Though, in the present Avatar, BYODs’ are a CIOs’ nightmare.

Corporate IT Administrators are paranoid about IT Security, and like to have control over the work profile of the IT devices is the corporate IT network.

            Sensing an opportunity here and with experiences with reported security flaws in its Samsung S3, Samsung has focused on BYOD security.

            This has led Samsung to introduce Knox Security in Samsung S4.

            In simple terms, the benefits of Knox Security are:

01) Enable the phone to be divided into two parts one official and another one personal.

02)Enable Corporate IT administrators to control the work profile, like restricting certain Apps, or allowing certain Apps.

03)Enable the user to restrict Corporate IT administrator access to the user’s personal phone space.

04)It offers an encrypted file system, virtual private network and mobile device management support.

05)The software supports file system level encryption, offering protection of business data and applications from data leakage and virus and malware attacks.

06)The system is also compatible with other infrastructure solutions such as mobile device management (MDM) and virtual private networks (VPN).

The Knox Security Product was unveiled by Samsung very recently i.e 25/02/2013, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. Within a month the commercial launch also has been made.

The Knox product is part of the Samsung’s SAFE (Samsung For Enterprise) solution.

The Knox Security feature is an exceptionally useful piece of software to allow safe mobile banking transactions.  The phone users should be able to divide the phone space into 3 i.e Workplace, Personal and Financial transactions.  And, if the Knox security product, can keep them secure separately, Samsung has a big winner on its hands.

Pay your Credit Card dues with Cash or Cheque and incur a penalty

            As a Safe ePayments Motivator I am very uncomfortable with the Circular issued by Finance Ministry dt.25/10/2012, advising Public Sector Banks to issue notices to its credit card holders that payment of their credit card dues via Cash/Cheque will attract service charges.

            

            Receipt of Credit cards by electronic modes is still not stablised in our country; this is not only for public sector banks but also private sector banks.  

            

          The TAT is not instant and it varies from 2days to 4days. Of course, you get a value-added date credit in your credit card statement. No, you do not get additional reward points, when you make an electronic payment to your credit card.

           

             In fact, Banks should introduce additional reward points for payment of Credit Cards dues through the eMode.

           

             When Banks are levying service charges on payment through cash/cheques, part of the savings occurring to banks via electronic receipts should also be passed on to the customers.

            It would have been great, if the Finance Ministry also advised Banks to be a little customer-friendly. Customers will respond if they are convinced that guidelines are transparent and in their favour. Otherwise, a silent resentment will start to build up, which is not conducive in the long run.

Feedback welcome.

Union Bank of India live on IMPS using Account Number and IFS Code

          Union Bank of India customers can now receive funds through IMPS (Immediate Payment Service) just by letting the remitter know their Account Number and IFS Code.

          This eliminates the need for MMID. Of course, MMID has its own advantages.  The main advantage of MMID is that the remitter need not know the account number of the beneficiary.

          Union Bank of India, to encourage its customers to utilize the Debit Cards or credit cards to the maximum has launched a Debit Card Rewards program.

          This new campaign by Union Bank in the final month of the financial year is sure to increase the transaction numbers of its debit cards.

          The program has been named as Union Rewardz. Yes, very similar to SBI Rewardz program.

          The highlights are:-

Automatic pre-enrolled as a member, as long you have a valid Debit or Credit Card of Union Bank of India.

01) Reward points  accrue on all transactions made through your Debit & Credit Cards at POS and E-Commerce outlets.

02)                These reward points can be redeemed against thousands of merchandise items, movie, bus & air tickets, gift vouchers & more.

03)                With every purchase perRs. 100, the card holder can earn Union Points.

04)                A minimum of Rs100/- has to spend every time to earn 1point.

05)                Once you get 100 Union Points, than you can start the redemption process.

So Union Bank Credit/Debit Card holders register now  at www.UnionRewardz.com or by calling 18001088000.