Rtgs and neft are open

Today i.e March 29,2013 RTGs and NEFT are open. This decision has been taken by Government of India and Reserve Bank of India.
     
           The customer timings have been extended from 18.00hrs to 20.00 hrs and the interbank timings have been extended from 19.30 hrs to 22.00hrs.

          The primary reason for keeping open RTGS and NEFT are to ensure that Cheques issued to Government departments are honored and do not get returned with the reason 'Insufficient funds'.

          As Bank branches will be closed, customers would be able to execute RTGS and NEFT Transactions through alternate channels. 

Rbi agency bank branches

RBI Agency Bank branches to be open on March 29, 2013, March 30, 2013 and March 31, 2013.

            RBI anticipates a last moment rush by Indian Banking customers to remit Government Tax receipts. Hence, RBI has advised that Agency Bank Branches to keep the counters of their designated branches conducting Government business open (full day with extended hours) on March 29, 30 and 31, 2013 to facilitate receipt of Government taxes from members of public even at late hours.

            There will be special clearing sessions wherein exclusive cheques favoring Tax Authorities will be handled.

Simultaneously, offices of both income tax as well as of indirect taxes will remain open on March 30 and 31 to facilitate tax collection.

It might be mentioned here that March 29, 2013 is Good Friday, with bank branches in many parts of India being closed. Marc 31, 2013 is Sunday. However, now agency bank branches have to keep their counters opens.

It would be interesting to know, as to how many tax payments were made via online banking and physical bank branches on March 29, 30 and 31.

Would it better to offer loyalty points if government tax is paid in advance, to avoid direct and indirect costs by keeping open bank branches on the last working days?

Agency bank branches are Banks which have been appointed under Section 45 of RBI Act to carry out Government transactions.

At present all the public sector banks and three private sector banks viz. ICICI Bank Ltd., HDFC Bank Ltd. and Axis Bank Ltd. act as RBI's agents. Only authorised branches of Agency banks can conduct Govt. business.

Mehsana Urban Co operative Bank joins IMPS

            Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) welcomed Mehsana Urban Co-operative Bank into its fold on March 21, 2013

The bank was established on 23rd October, 1983, registered under Co Operative Society Act, 1961. The Bank started with one branch at Mehsana and today it has 25 branches plus one extension counter.  The Bank was given status of Scheduled Bank by Reserve Bank of India in the year 2000.

At present The Bank is providing better customer service through its 25 & one extension counters at Ganpat University, Kherva and Branches at various centers in the state of Gujarat.

IMPS will increase the reach of the bank customers, and sitting in their homes, they can receive and send funds to their loved ones all over India.

            The Service Area Plan of Mehsana district can be viewed here.

            Mehsaji Chavda, a Rajput and a heir of Chawda dynasty, established Mehsana. Gaekwads conquered Vadodara and established Patan as the administrative head quarter of North Gujarat. Later it was moved to Kadi and subsequently to Mehsana in 1902. They merged it with India after independence in 1947. It was included in Bombay state. Later became part of Gujarat in 1960 after divison of Bombay state into Gujarat and Maharashtra. At present,  Mehsana is a separate district in north Gujarat.

One of the main attractions of  Mehsana, is its local Mehsani breed of buffalos.

Oil & Natural Gas (ONGC) came into Mehsana in 1967, and  the Mehsana fields are one of the highest onshore-producing asset of the ONGC.  Kendriya Vidyalaya ONGC Mehsana was established in the year 1980 under the project sector of ONGC.

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.

JK Bank adds one more feather to its portfolio

         JK Bank, the youngest member of IMPS (Immediate Payment Service) is already live on another IMPS sub-product.

         On 07/03/2013, JK Bank has gone live on IMPS using Account No and IFS Code. It should be noted, that JK Bank had gone live on IMPS only as recently as 21/02/2013. And in a span of less than 2 weeks, it has gone live with IMPS-IFS Code. Commendable, indeed.

        I am sure, that this will be well appreciated by JK Bank customers and will execute large number of transactions on the IMPS channel.

Jammu & Kashmir Bank joins IMPS

            Jammu and Kashmir Bank has joined the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) network on 21/02/2013.

            Jammu & Kashmir Bank or shortly known as JK Bank, is a Bank with main focus on Kashmir.

            JK Bank has a history of over 75 years. The Jammu & Kashmir Bank was founded on October 1, 1938 under letters patent issued by the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, Hari Singh.

J&K Bank functions as a universal bank in Jammu & Kashmir and as a specialized bank in the rest of the country. It is also the only private sector bank designated as RBI’s agent for banking business, and carries out the banking business of the Central Government, besides collecting central taxes for CBDT.

            With JK Bank being part of the IMPS network, its customers would be able to transfer money and also receive money, in a fraction of a minute.

            Welcome JK Bank to India’s  newest  ePayment Product.

           

The new identity for J&K Bank is a visual representation of the Bank’s philosophy and business strategy. The three coloured squares represent the regions of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. The counter-form created by the interaction of the squares is a falcon with outstretched wings – a symbol of power and empowerment. The synergy between the three regions propels the bank towards new horizons.Green signifies growth and renewal, blue conveys stability and unity, and red represents energy and power. All these attributes are integrated and assimilated in the white counter-form.

eASBA Apply through your Banks internet banking module

           

eASBA - the facility of applying for Stock Market Issues through Bank’s internet banking module, is fast picking up.

eASBA is for Online Subscription of IPO/FPO by blocking one’s CASA account.

It’s a Safe, Secure and Convenient way

            The main advantage of eASBA over the physical ASBA is that the Bank customers can enjoy the benefits of ASBA without visiting any bank branch, to submit the physical application.

            The main advantage of eASBA for SCS Banks is that a part of Broker compensation can flow back to the bank, as payback charges.

ASBA eforms can be downloaded from the NSE site. However, in case of eASBA, the application form is already part of the internet banking module, and the bank customers have to click on the ‘I agree to the terms and conditions’, to proceed further.

The e-ASBA facility is user-friendly, simple, instant, secure and available 24x7. Normally, it is a self-service facility eligible for all net banking customers having transaction rights.

Majority of the banks allow applying online up to 4.00 PM on the issue closure day.

                        The main disadvantage of eASBA is that Rights Issues cannot be applied, as physical application issued by the company containing CAF number must be submitted to Bank.

            I am sure in the near future, a way will be found out, to apply for Rights Issues through eASBA.

Budget 2013-14 – Benefits for Safe ePayments

            The following points are of great interest to Safe ePayments Motivators.

            In the medium run, these new initiatives announced by Mr.P.Chidambaram, Finance Minister, will encourage Indian industry and bank customers to adopt more and more ePayments modes in their daily routine.

01) 11 lakh beneficiaries have received benefit under Direct Benefit Transfer scheme. Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Scheme to be rolled out throughout the country during the term of UPA Government: - The more beneficiaries experience the joy of Safe ePayments, the more they will spread the word of Safe ePayments.

02)Rs 532 crore to make post offices part of core banking: - At present, Post Office Saving Bank is not part of electronic payment channels viz ATMs,NEFT,RTGS,IMPS etc. The core banking solution is the first step to integrate Post Office Saving Bank into mainstream eBanking Channel.

03)Tax credit of Rs. 2,000 for income upto Rs. 5 lakh: - This will encourage people to file their tax-returns irrespective of whether their tax liability. This is a step to ensure more and more countrymen obtain PAN.

04)First home loan from a bank or housing finance corporation upto Rs. 25 lakh entitled to additional deduction of interest upto Rs. 1 lakh: The disbursements to real-industry should be via eMode only.

05)Insurance companies can now open branches in Tier 2 cities and below without prior approval. All towns of India with a population of 10000 or more will have an LIC branch and one other public sector insurance company:- All Insurance companies have adopted ePayments in their daily routine. The above initiative will deepen the reach of ePayments.

06)All public-sector banks have assured the Finance Minister that they will all have ATMs in their branch areas by 2014.

07)India's first women's bank as a PSU proposed, Rs. 1,000 crore working capital announced

08)The country has moved a step towards uniform know-your-customer (KYC) norms for different investments. The Union Budget has proposed the use of bank KYC for buying insurance as well. This will make the process for purchase of insurance simpler